How We Do Dog Introductions

I've been meaning to write this post forever, I think at one point I actually said I would have this written "next week" and that was at least a month ago, so if you've been wondering where this was, sorry! Better late than never, right?

Having multiple dogs can lead to some false perceptions about our dogs' friendliness with other dogs. Obviously they all get along with each other really well, but that doesn't mean they get along with every other dog they see on the street. Both Nemo and Melanie will react to unleashed dogs while they are out on walks. They just don't do well with spontaneous face-to-face introductions.

However, that doesn't mean they don't get along with other dogs at all. With proper introductions, that same unleashed dog that they probably would have hated, they might love with a proper introduction in a neutral location.

Here's what we do to get the dogs' new friendships started on the right paw (or the left paw, either one will do really).



Before the Meet and Greet
There are several steps we take before the dogs are ever introduced to each other

(1) Know what kinds of dogs your dogs are most likely to get along with.

Some dogs only get along with males or females. Or maybe they only like big dogs. Or only puppies. In our case, we look for submissive low-key females because Nemo likes being the pimp-daddy of the house. Whatever the case, be mindful when choosing your dog's friends.

(2) Get the dogs in a good mood.

Make sure they've pottied, are fed, and aren't hyper. We like to take them on a short walk to get any extra energy out before we do introductions. No one likes meeting a Grumpy Gus.

(3) Enlist help.

Each dog should be handled by their own person. It's much easier to make corrections when you only have to monitor and control one dog yourself. Since we only introduce one dog to another at a time, it only takes two people to keep an eye on the dogs. Hopefully it shouldn't be too hard to wrangle up a friend to help you out.

(4) Choose a neutral location to meet.

We pick places that are relatively quiet, but are still interesting for the dogs so they enjoy being out together. We never use pet stores as meeting locations. Our dogs aren't very territorial, so we can do introductions in our neighborhood, but many people find they have to go somewhere less-familiar to find truly neutral ground.

The Introductions
When we do introductions, we basically follow PBRC's dog introduction guidelines. (<-- I highly recommend you read the PBRC guidelines before doing dog meetings.) The dogs are taken out for a walk, by separate handlers, on neutral territory. Although the dogs are being walked at the same time, they aren't walked "together." The dogs are kept a far enough distance apart so that they can't reach each other.

PBRC recommends walking the dogs parallel to one another, but we've actually found that walking the dogs one behind the other to works better for us (although as the walks go on we sort of morph into walking parallel). The idea of the walk is to allow the dogs to acknowledge each other, get used to their presence, and then to facilitate a nose-to-butt greeting. Face-to-face greetings are very confrontational for dogs, so by walking them one in front of the other you're literally lining them up for a proper greeting.

How quickly we bring the dogs closer to each other varies. We don't bring them closer when they are lunging or barking (either out of aggression or excitement). When the dogs are relatively calm and well behaved, we gradually move them closer together, rewarding their good, calm behavior. The walk has the triple benefit of working off some of the dogs' excited energy, allowing them to get used to one another, and learning to associate the new dog with something good (a walk in a fun place).



The first time we let the dogs officially "introduce" themselves to one another, we keep the interaction short and sweet. They sniff each other, get lots of praise, and then we keep walking (giving them lots of praise again). Gradually, these "short and sweet" introductions get longer and the dogs are eventually walking side by side for the duration of the walk.

Bringing Home Foster Dogs
When we bring home a foster dog we do the walks described above once, usually twice (or even three times) each day. In the meantime though, the dogs are all living under one roof so we have to manage them when we're all confined indoors.



While in the house, we don't give the new dog free reign with the other dogs initially. We always crate train foster dogs, so in the very beginning we "crate and rotate" (one dog in the crate, another dog out of the crate).

From the walks, it's usually pretty easy to tell how the dogs are getting along with each other. When we brought Heidi home she and Mel got along right away, so the first dog she got free reign in the house with was Mel. The two of them would get full use of the house while Nemo chilled in our bedroom for awhile (he got a Kong to keep him occupied and happy). We'd start with just a few minutes at a time and work our way up to longer and longer periods of time out together. When we were satisfied that Nemo and Heidi were cool with each other on walks, we went through the same process with Nemo.



The basic foster-dog process we go through looks like this:

(1) crating and rotating with (multiple) daily walks
(2) gradually longer "sessions" with the foster dog having full access to the house with one other dog at a time
(3) add one extra dog at a time to the daily walks (so we walk all three dogs at once)
(4) add one more dog to the "sessions" where the foster dog has full access to the house

GIANT DISCLAIMER: There are lots of options for how to introduce a new dog into your house - things like tethering, tie-downs, and baby gates immediately come to mind - what I'm describing here is just what works for us. Your mileage may vary. You should always take into account the dispositions of the dogs that you are working with and above all else, take it slowly! There's never any harm to going slowly, but moving too fast can mean trouble.

Other things we do:
-- Since we have multiple dogs, we start the introductions with the most friendly/least reactive dog in the house first. If we were bringing a new dog home now, we'd introduce Heidi first, then Melanie, then Nemo.
-- Keep the area free of toys, treats, and other high value items that the dogs might want to guard.
-- The "dominant" dog (or the dog that you have the most concerns about accepting a new dog) is the dog that initiates the introduction. In other words, they are the dog in the back sniffing the butt of the dog in front of them first.
-- Even when we're introducing the dogs to dogs they don't live with, but will be visiting each other after being separated for a period of time (for example my parents' dogs), we repeat the walking introductions each time the dogs meet.
-- Even after the introduction, we do not leave the dogs together unattended. Their interactions are always supervised.



There is no strict time line for how this stuff works. We've been lucky that each time we've introduced a new dog into the mix that it hasn't taken very long to get comfortable having all the dogs out with one another, but this process can take weeks or even months. That brings me back to what I think is the most important point to remember: know what kinds of dogs your dogs are most likely to get along with. If your dog hates energetic males, then don't be surprised if she never warms up to one that you bring home with you. You want to set your dogs up for success from the very beginning, so choose their canine buddies carefully.

And even though I've said it already, I feel compelled to say it again: this is just how we do it, you might need to tweak this process or do something entirely different with your own dogs. Please don't consider this as the be-all end-all post on dog introductions.

I know there are lots of multiple dog households out there so I'm curious - how does this stack up against what you do? What do you do differently? Have any other tips for successful doggie intros?





p.s. In case you can't tell since she's in every picture, Melanie is an excellent ambassadog for new dogs in our house. Even though she may be overly interested and excited by new dogs on-leash, she's been a wonderful companion to every dog we've ever brought home with us. Even though she's already nine years old (my baby!) she's been the playmate to both Winky and Heidi despite the fact that Nemo's four years younger than her.