Introducing a puppy to a puppy

[Zola's mom]

I'm reading a lot about introducing a puppy to a new dog, but what about a very new puppy to an older puppy? 

Zola is 18 weeks. She is very active and happy, loves new people and dogs. She is quite submissive when she meets an adult dog at first, (lies down, shows belly) but as soon as the other dog wags its tail and engages in a play, she's jumping all over them, running, playing, etc. She LOVES playing with dogs. Still, she listens and has a good recall when I say it's over. 

My best friend, who we see almost every day (and who Zola loves almost as much as me), got a puppy a week ago. Nala is a 9 weeks, already pretty active, mini Aussie (super cute).

We are sponsored paddleboarders and our plan is to spend the summer on our boards/camping with the puppies, since they can't hike long distances yet. I've already started training Zola on the board, and we camped 3 nights in a row, she's a natural  

But there is one problem. As soon as Nala is in sight, Zola loses it. She doesn't care about treats (even if she is the most food motivated dog I've ever had), she pulls on the leash and chokes herself (she never had before) and will NOT listen, will not look at me when I ask her to (it's been a very effective command I've been working on since day 1); there is only one idea in her head : play with the new puppy. The play is great - Zola gets on top of Nala, and they munch at each other .. I've honestly never seen her that sweet and soft with another dog, it's like she knows she has to be careful with the puppy. ALSO, Zola has been very protective of me since the 2nd week I got her (sometimes aggressive) over dogs getting close to me, and she seems to not care at all about me holding Nala in my arms or having her on my legs (the first few times Nala crawled on me I was holding Zola by the collar just in case, but she is having zero issue with her being close to me somehow, as all she seems to be able to think about is play/lick/munch the baby). I think she might "understand" that Nala is now part of her family, and she just can't contain her happiness? 

We've had puppy classes and are now in intermediate training, and although she is very interested in the other dogs in the class, when I ask her to focus she always does. She is amazing at 'stay', we work on it every day and I can throw a ball or her favorite toys, treats, etc, she'll stay. On walks I have her sit and stay when I see a dog or a person, and she does great with that too. Her training is going really well, but somehow, Nala is making her forget all of it. 

 

How should I approach this? 

[D'Elle]

Approach it thusly:  Do not attempt to do any training work whatever when the other puppy is in the picture. If you do, and your pup ignores you, you will be undoing all your hard work in training. So, play sessions with Nala are for play only and training happens when you are well away from Nala.  If you need for your pup to stop playing and do something else,  don't call her at all, just go pick her up or take her gently by the collar and take her elsewhere. I would do it very nicely with upbeat words (come on, Zola, let's go get a treat!) and add a treat into that action so that it's not as if all of the fun stops. Explain what you are doing to the owner of the other pup so that person can cooperate with you on this, and gather in her dog at the same time.

[Zola's mom]

On 4/26/2019 at 8:00 AM, D'Elle said:

Approach it thusly:  Do not attempt to do any training work whatever when the other puppy is in the picture. If you do, and your pup ignores you, you will be undoing all your hard work in training. So, play sessions with Nala are for play only and training happens when you are well away from Nala.  If you need for your pup to stop playing and do something else,  don't call her at all, just go pick her up or take her gently by the collar and take her elsewhere. I would do it very nicely with upbeat words (come on, Zola, let's go get a treat!) and add a treat into that action so that it's not as if all of the fun stops. Explain what you are doing to the owner of the other pup so that person can cooperate with you on this, and gather in her dog at the same time.

You’re so right. Yesterday we went to a tulip festival in a big field; Zola did great on the first half of it while Nala was napping in the car, but as soon as she was around there was nothing I could do about her pulling. By that time I was at the other end of the field and I had to walk a good 500m with Zola going crazy on her leash, nothing was working to make her stop. 

I just got back from a terrible 35min walk; she has lost all of her loose leash skills. There was maybe two 3-4min moments where she suddenly seemed to remember we were walking together, but the rest of the walk was me walking the other direction while she was pulling forward, her running in a circle around me to go where she pleased, me trying to calm her down.. 10 weeks of hard work and it seems like I never put any effort into it. Arrr it’s so frustrating. So no more walks with Nala ... this will be challenging as I spend a lot of time with that friend. .. can’t wait for her to grow up 

[GentleLake]

Have you and your friend considered enrolling your pups in a training class together? A good trainer (I'd highly recommend one who uses only positive reinforcement methods) would be able to see what's going on from a different vantage point and might be able to offer some useful suggestions for working with them together so they can be more focused on their handlers than on each other. It might be worth a try.

[Zola's mom]

4 hours ago, GentleLake said:

Have you and your friend considered enrolling your pups in a training class together? A good trainer (I'd highly recommend one who uses only positive reinforcement methods) would be able to see what's going on from a different vantage point and might be able to offer some useful suggestions for working with them together so they can be more focused on their handlers than on each other. It might be worth a try.

I thought about that. Though Zola is already in intermediate training classes (and does great even though other dogs are around) and Nala is very young, too young to join us in that series. We’ve been working on a sit-stay with distractions and somehow with a little work, Zola gets it, she listens; even with her favorite toys/treats/a rolling ball, ice cubes (her favorite thing) and even other dogs, just not Nala. Maybe I should hire a private trainer just to work on that? Nala is not a problem, I mean she does run up to Zola often but also still listens to her human and is interested by other things than “the other dog” ;  it’s really like Nala is Zola’s crack, at the moment. Maybe time will help? 

We are organizing a 4 day camping trip all together, leaving tomorrow. I’m still debating about going (because of that issue), but I really need a break from the city; if we go, I’m planning to spend a lot of time with her on the lead, close enough but away from Nala’s reach. If we spend 4 days together ... she’ll eventually calm down, right? 

[D'Elle]

12 hours ago, Zola's mom said:

If we spend 4 days together ... she’ll eventually calm down, right

No, not likely.

Simply do your training with Zola far enough away, even when you are travelling or camping, that she cannot hear see or smell Nala. Otherwise you will not have a good time in training.

As for her having lost all the training you have done, that is not likely either. It has just been "poisoned" by your attempts to do it all with another puppy present. Start from the beginning again, and act as if she has never learned anything, and reward and praise heavily for good responses. She will get back to where she was more quickly than she learned it initially, but be patient and do not try to rush ahead or skip any steps with her out of frustration.

Be sure you only train her when you can be calm and loving and don't let her see or sense any frustration on your part or that will only makes things worse. She will be confused by that and it won't help. Make your training session very short, maybe 5 or 7 minutes, and do more than one a day. She will be fine if you are careful and go slowly and make sure that you don't ever give her your commands while she is with the other puppy. When she is older and her training has been proofed well, it will be different.

Try not to be in a hurry for her to grow up. You will have the adult dog for many years, but the puppy for only a little while. Enjoy what you have.