introducing new dog

[polly101]

hi,

couple of years ago we lost our golden retriever, leaving our lurcher girl alone.

We had him first and got the lurcher 5 years ago, they never really interacted with each other but never had any fallings out.

anyway, decided its time sally lurcher maybe had a friend, so off to local greyhound retirement trust,

She met nice greyhound boy last weekend got on fine off lead together etc, seems nice dog

Brought him home today for the day to see how sally accepts him at home, she greeted him with little tail wag, then we went for big walk. All ok pretty much ignoring each other.

Rained all afternoon, so spent afternoon indoors, greyhound boy very well behaved, Sally was ok with him , but much more clingy to me and was clear that she was not best pleased with his pressence and looked miserable all afternoon, and competing for my attention.

I think after being spoilt rotten as an only dog for 2 years that she dosnt want to share me, and maybe i am making a mistake.

Has anyone else introduced a 2nd dog to existing single dog, I wont have him if its going to make my girl miserable.

HELP

 

[Dobiegirl]

I think you are reading too much into this, more likely she is picking up on your anxiety. I think you should give him a fair trial too youve only had him 5 minutes. If this was my dog and she was clingly to me I would be sending her away and telling her not to be silly.

 

[Bosworth]

just ignore her, leave them to it My lurcher girl loathed my beddy pup for about 5 weeks, then decided he was just about ok and would tolerate him being in the house, then decided he was actually quite good fun. Then they became partners in crime. Her nose is slightly out of joint, but she will get over it and I am sure they will become firm friends

 

[krlyr]

It will take time. Kiki was (well, still is) very much a 'princess' who loves all the attention. Fortunately, Casper is well matched because he loves a fuss but is more than happy to be barged out of the way by Kiki when she gets jealous and will wait to be fussed later.
I won't lie, it took a few weeks for them to settle in together and there were several points I thought I'd made a mistake - Casper doesn't have teh best socialisation skills and just wanted to play 24/7, not getting Kiki's hints at first, so I had to physically give them time outs (babygates to separate them in the house, or sending them to beds I'd put on opposite sides of the room) and keep him on-lead in the garden a lot at first. I also walked them separately for the first 3 weeks because Casper would just constantly try jumping on Kiki when I walked them side-by-side, and when I let Kiki off-lead (Casper had to stay on a longline until used to me) he wouldn't let her back near me without trying to leap on her, so it was separate walks the majority of the time with the odd walk here and there when I could drag an extra pair of hands out with me.
But it only took a few weeks for things to settle down, Casper calmed down, Kiki 'manned' up and learnt to tell him when to back off, and they were absolutely best of buddies ever since. Kiki still barges him out of the way when there is fuss on offer, but Casper doesn't care. And she will pinch a toy just because he's playing with it, but again, his personality compliments her perfectly because he'll just let her have that toy and fetch another. They've never clashed over food, toys, beds or anything, they suit each other very well and I really don't regret putting her through those first few weeks that probably weren't quite that relaxing for her, to give her a lifetime of company with Casper.

 

[BBH]

I've got three dogs now all rescues and all arrived at different times.

They get on like a house on fire.

You will be fine.