new puppy - other dog totally changed

I*HM

I*HM

Well-Known Member
Joined
6 December 2010
Messages
362
Visit site
Just looking for your suggestions on this:
We have a beagle x staffie x terrier who was dumped at our gate as a puppy 3 years ago, we took him in and he fell head over heals for our aged collie, who was a real boss. The old collie was top dog from the word go and Toto, our little bealey cross was his side kick, doing what ever the other dog did. Skip on to January this year and we had to sadly put the collie down (at nearly 19). Toto was distraught, wouldn't eat, wouldn't interact with us and started hanging out with the cats, who up until this point he had chanced because the other dog had done too. So we got a puppy, a collie pup who is now 7 months old. She was promoted to alpha dog as soon as she got over her fear of Toto. She's top dog but Toto doesn't have the same hero worship for her. He's become totally lethargic, aside from me bringing them out for a daily walk, Toto would spend all day asleep while Ruby runs around the garden.
Toto has totally changed, he's put on nearly 2kg since Ruby came and has gone from a daft thing to a total beached wale.

I'm just curious to see if anyone had an thoughts on this - is it relatively normal or am I just worrying over nothing?
 
I'd be bringing the older dog to the vet to make sure their isn't some underlying issue...putting on weight,lethargic and a change in attitude in a middle aged dogs could be early warning signs of thyroid problems and some other conditions that middle aged dogs get.

Does he like the pup?Do they interact or just tolerate each other..
 
We've had the pup since January.

See that's what I'm wondering with Toto, if there is something else going on.

He does actually get on well with the pup, they play fight, play tug of war etc it's just a totally different relationship than he had with the old collie.
 
Animals do grieve and it is perfectly possible that perhaps Toto is depressed. BUT, I would definitely have a blood test done a.s.a.p. to rule out thyroid or any other problems.
 
We got a pup recently and my two other dogs hated him at first and for a few weeks then my boxer gave in but took my gsp longer and now he is playing and back to his normal self and plays as normal. This all took a month at most and if they were behaving like that for longer i would be worried its something else.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top