Need Suggestions on Adding Another Dog to Our Family.

We recently added a lab puppy to our home. She jouned our 14 year old male small mixed dog. We chose to put a kennel in my son's room (its his dog) for the puppy. It has worked out well for us since both dogs have thier own space and the old dog didnt seem to mind the puppy being around. The puppy has grown to really like the kennel plus we can put her in it when no one is home so that nothing gets destroyed. Hope this helps.

1 mom found this helpful

The first time you introduce your Shih-tzu to the new puppy, do it on neutral territory, away from the house. This way you can see how they react towards each other before purchasing the new puppy and they can get to know each other without any territory issues. I have also heard of people keeping the two dogs separate by using a baby gate for the first couple of days to allow them to become familiar with each other without any concern of them getting rough with each other. As for dominance, dogs are pack animals and generally the oldest male is the dominant dog, but the dogs will sort that out.

1 mom found this helpful

A good idea for adding another puppy to the family (especially a larger breed) is to crate train the puppy to sleep in a travel crate at night. This will give the new puppy a place of their own for a safe haven since your bathroom really won't be his/her "own".

When you let the puppy out in the morning make sure the older dog is around to see you have control of the puppy to help with creating you as the dominant member of your pack.

Watch the two dogs while they interact and you could be surprised that your Shih-Tzu may take the dominant position in which case he should not feel jealousy issues. However, as the puppy grows be sure the puppy still remains submissive to the Shih-Tzu to avoid hurting the smaller dog. IF the puppy decides to take the dominant position then you need to take a little more caution when the two play together. Most large breed dogs are perfectly fine with smaller breed dogs, but there are a few individual dogs that may not like smaller animals.

Good luck and have fun with your Shih-Tzu and new puppy if you choose!

- S.

1 mom found this helpful

The only thing I have to add is that crating is a GOOD idea. Lots of people think it's cruel or weird, but dogs enjoy having a "den" of their own. Our dog would even go in it to relax. We left it open except for when we put him in when we left the house (he had behavior issues). It worked out fine.

1 mom found this helpful

I have always had 2 dogs,when our older dog passed on( he was a blue heeler) our little dog (A Dacshand) kept looking for his playmate, I just decided one day to go to the Pound and look for another Heeler,I took chief with me so he could help pick one out, unfortunately there wasn't one so we just looked around anyway we found the most unlikely dog and he met chief and they did do the doggy dance Chief liked him and we are all happy with our choice ALi is larger than I wanted but Chief was OK with that as for who sleped where they sorted that out between them.

1 mom found this helpful