Hello Everyone!

I have a 2 year old female German Shepherd mix and am looking to adopt another dog. The new dog is also about 2 years old, also female and is a Lab mix. The new dog is very, very sweet...I could not ask for anything more! But my current dog does not take to other animals being in her home. A while ago I brought another dog into the house (after introducing them on neutral territory) and my normally very good dog became aggressive--and very aggressive at that--for no reason!

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas (other than introducing them on neutral ground) to introduce them and possibly be able to live in harmony with two dogs in the same household.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

PS--For anyone who remembers me from a while back, I had a 14 year old German Shepherd/Black Lab mix that had DM. Her name was Hannah. Unfortunately she has gone over the rainbow bridge. She was my very first dog and will always be my little angel.

Gosh that is a tough one. The only other advice I can really give is too try and walk them together a few times before you bring them home.
Good luck.

Introductions can be very difficult. I do introductions off property too, and make them walk together for quite a while before going any further. Sometimes more than one is necessary. There are steps to take once you get home too, if you are still having issues, but first...

When you say she behaved aggressively, can you be more specific? All out attack? fur up, growling? Sometimes two dogs do not like one another. just like two people.

GSD's are very territorial. I know that mine can be. And he is picky about dogs in the house. I have to be very much the one in charge of my house. If it were up to him, we wouldn't foster. Luckily, it's not up to him, .

Seriously, though, he started displaying the same tendency at about 18 months. I thought long and hard about quitting fostering. However, I think continuing to foster was the best thing I could do, I upped his obedience training, worked him aroud other dogs as much as possible. And really drilled him, so that he would come, sit, down, and crate immediately - that way I could read his body signals, and remove him from a situation before it became a serious situation. We still have our moments, and I have made it a point to foster only older dogs, as it is mostly puppies and smaller dogs, that make him reacive.

Thanks for your replies! My current dog kept trying to attack the other dog that was in my house. In fact, I had to keep my dog on a leash in the house so that she couldn't get to the other dog. Both dogs got along at the dog park...no problems. They were even getting along in my car on the ride home. But once we got into my house, my dog declared an all-out war on this poor, innocent dog! I was trying everything I could think of, but nothing was working.

I love dogs so much and would love to rescue another dog, so I'm trying to figure out if there is any way this could possibly work.

Thanks again!

Keep in mind that bringing in new rescues always presents this challenge.

I had 3 different situations with 3 different dogs. When I rescued Leo, a 12 year old English cocker, I brought Berkeley with me to meet him on neutral turf. We hung out and walked along side each other for over an hour and the car ride home was peaceful. We placed Leo in the bedroom with the door closed and brought Berke in and let him sniff the dog through the door for several hours then brought Leo into the same room with Berke in 1/2 hour increments for a couple of weeks. They got along for the most part until Leo passed away.

When we brought home Harley, she was such a bitch right off the bat for at least 5 months. She would not let us touch her either. After awhile, she learned to trust us and loved Berke until he died 4 years ago. With Kahlua, I brought him home, had my husband bring Harley out to the street and go down the block then turn around and walk towards us, then pass us then we walked together for about an hour. They totally bonded until Harley passed away last year.

Sometimes, your original dog can be the deal breaker and you can't bring in a new dog.

It takes patience and love. Good luck!

This is great information, and another thing I have tried with tricky intros. I also make sure I swap out who is behing closed doors, and swap out toys and bedding so they get used to each other's smells faster.

I have also been known to utilize a muzzle on my reactive gsd if I KNEW the other dog was submissive. I won't allow him to wear a muzzle if I think there is a chance he will need to defend himself and not be able to though.

Have you had her checked at the vet for either ortho or metabolic issues?

My highly dog aggressive Rottweiler lives with 5 other dogs. None of them grew up together and were basically thrown together as adults.

My basic rules for introducing for the first time is to use a basket muzzle. I don't use a leash on my reactive Rottweiler as this puts her in protective mode and makes her reactive. I never introduce with a fence seperting them as this makes my Rottweiler highly reactive and she will never like the dog when meeting that way. I found it best never to let her get used to her muzzle as this allows her to concentrate on that thing on her face and allows her to get used to the other dogs smell. One neat thing about smell is Athena has never reacted to a dog that smells like a barn

For living together my rules are allow the dogs to have their own space be it a crate or an area. My dogs have their own areas which they picked out themselves. I never put the 2 most reactive dogs in a sitution where they may bump each other. Bumping into one another can start a fight. I feed them in a manner that there is no eye contact, eye contact when having a toy, food, treats, attention can cause some dogs to be reactive. I use a modified NILIF version in my home, there are rules in my home. Rules allow a dog to be confident as they know the in's and out's of the household. I stay consistant at all times, I never freak out even if a fight does break out it is calmly taken care of. The 2 dogs are seperated for a little while depending on the cause and severity of the fight. Be consistant, if the dogs learn that their owner can be unpredictable it can make them feel insecure, an insecure dog can be much more reactive.

Get to know what your dogs pet peeves are about the other dog and work either to not allow those situations to happen. Or, work on defusing these situations and make good things happen so the dogs will associate good things.