Introducing Dogs at Home

When You’re Preparing to Introduce Your Dogs…

Dog to Dog Leash Introductions

The introductory period can take weeks of brief, supervised interactions after the initial introduction to get to the point of calm interactions. Observe both dogs' body language and behavior to determine how they are feeling about interactions and their new roommate. 

1. Before the dogs meet, make sure both dogs have burned some energy through a sniff walk, interactive play, a training session, brain games or another form of mental enrichment to promote calm behavior.
2. Begin the introduction in a neutral space such as a park or a walk in the neighborhood. Have both dogs on leash, being handled by two separate people.
3. Each handler should have high-value treats on them for rewarding calm behaviors, redirecting the dogs if they are fixated on each other and luring the dogs away from each other to increase the distance between the dogs. 
4. Important: To prevent resource guarding, DO NOT offer the dogs treats or have treats visible and within their reach when the dogs are interacting or closer than 15 feet to each other. Don’t use treats to lure the dogs towards each other or to pressure them to interact. For more information, check out: Social Pressure & Animal Interactions and What is Resource Guarding?
5. Find a comfortable distance between both dogs, where they can observe one another without becoming reactive and aren’t pulling together to greet. This distance should be roughly 25-30 feet, but this depends on the dogs. For some dogs, you will need to start much farther away. 
6. Try to keep the leashes loose to prevent leash pressure that can contribute to your dog feeling restricted, stressed or frustrated. You can use treats to work on loose leash walking, lure the dog to walk next to you rather than pulling ahead and redirect them if they are straining or lunging at the end of the leash. For more tips, check out: Success on Leash and Training Tips: Loose Leash Walking. 
7. Go for a walk! While still maintaining a distance, take turns letting one dog trail the other to smell their scent. Check out this video on Parallel Walks for an example. Reward the dogs for looking at each other and displaying calm behaviors and relaxed body language. Redirect them if they become fixated on the other dog. The goal is for the dogs to feel neutral about the other dog and be able to look away from the other dog. Otherwise, they are not ready to meet yet. 
8. When both dogs appear relaxed and comfortable or are occupying themselves by sniffing around or looking elsewhere, you may begin to close the distance slowly, roughly 5 feet at a time.
9. Each time you close distance, wait for your dogs to “relax” again.
10. Once you are able to walk within 15 feet of each other, with both dogs appearing relaxed and comfortable, you may be ready to have them meet. If either of the dogs are tense or fixated on the other, redirect them away and increase the distance between them.
11. Allow the dogs to approach one another with handlers making an effort to move with the dogs in an “arc” or U-shape to avoid approaching directly or in a straight line. Important: Keep the leashes loose! It may to difficult to keep the leashes loose as the dogs first approach each other if they are enthusiastic to greet and pulling on the leash, but once they have reached each other, the leashes should be loose. In polite greetings, dogs will move in a circle, taking turns sniffing each other's rear. The handlers should follow the movements of the dogs.
12. If at any point during the on-leash greeting the dogs are face-to-face for longer than approximately two seconds, redirect them using high-pitched sounds or calling them away from each other.
13. The on-leash greeting should be brief, as dogs don't enjoy greeting or interacting on leash because the leash pressure inhibits their natural movements. So, once they have successfully interacted on leash without any signs of discomfort, quickly but calmly move away, creating distance once again. End the on-leash interaction before they begin feeling frustrated by not being able to play or move freely.
14. Allow both dogs to cool down from the excitement of the greeting before initiating an off-leash interaction. 
15. The off-leash greeting should ideally be done in a neutral area as well. Check out Sniff Spot, a way to rent a private "dog park" to allow your dogs to enjoy exploring and playing without the risk of other dogs or people interrupting or adding unnecessary conflict. 

For additional tips, download this Introducing Dogs At Home flyer and watch this B&T Lecture: Introducing New Pets.

A Note on Reactive Dogs

If one or both of the dogs have a known history of dog reactivity on leash, but greet and play appropriately off-leash, consider modifying your introduction. Try to read the dog’s body language to understand if their reactivity is due to fear, excitement or frustration. Fearful reactive dogs will need slower, shorter interactions. Excited or frustrated reactive dogs may need frequent breaks during play and interactions to avoid over-arousal or escalations. Good options for reactive dogs may include:

• A brief leashed introduction, only long enough to allow the dogs to quickly greet and sniff each other for a second or two before being redirected and separated.
• An introduction with both dogs dragging light leashes that can be grabbed by the handlers if things escalate, and tools to interrupt escalating play or disagreements (water bottle or hose, spray citronella or loud non-threatening noises like a clap or air horn). 

Additional resources & training classes for reactivity:

• Thinking about bringing a reactive dog into your home? Learn more through this short course. 
• B&T Lecture: Reactivity (Management for Reactivity & Potential First Steps) which is part of our YouTube playlist: Sociability, Reactivity, Leash Skills & Play
• Learn about our Reactive Rover series of classes and why we only offer them online.
• Enroll in a Reactive Rover: Mat Work or Reactive Rover: Heel Work class to get started. 

Preventing Resource Guarding

Resource guarding happens when an animal is trying to protect a resource that they see as valuable. A dog that resource guards isn’t trying to be dominant, "alpha" or mean — they are just scared that something they value will be taken away. 

There are ways we can help dogs feel more confident about their access to resources to prevent resource guarding in multi-dog households.

• Keep resources (food, bones, treats, toys, beds, people, etc.) separate for both dogs in your home for at least a week. Provide both dogs with their own bed, toys, food and water bowls and treats or enrichment. Provide both dogs with an equal amount of human interaction, attention and access to people separately. Do not expect or force your dogs to share resources. 
• If your dog has something they aren't supposed to chew on or play with (shoe, clothing item, TV remote, object, etc.), do not just take it from them. Instead, trade them for something better. Offer them their favorite toy or a delicious treat. Wait for them to willingly drop the object and go for the trade before taking the object from them. This will help them view you as a "giver" rather than a "taker." 
• Provide an abundance of resources, so your dogs do not feel they need to hoard or guard resources due to a scarcity. Provide more than enough toys, multiple of each type. For example, if you have many toys but only one rope toy, there is a chance the dogs could fight over that type of toy if they both want to play with a rope toy. 
• Supervise the dogs when they are playing with toys to ensure they don’t fight over them. Put away all the toys when you are unable to supervise them. 
• Feed separately. In general, it is good practice to always offer food items or items containing food in completely separate spaces as a preventative measure. Completely separate your dogs during feeding time. It's ideal to feed dog in separate rooms or areas of the home, where they cannot see each other. However, you can also utilize baby gates, ex-pens or furniture to create a barrier between the two dogs as long as the dogs are a fair distance away from each other. Make sure they cannot interact through the barrier, because dogs can resource guard or "fence-fight" through barriers.
• Do not leave food bowls, treats or enrichment out and accessible, even if they are empty. 
• Do not use punishment, force or intimidation to attempt to stop your dogs from resource guarding. This will only make it worse, as it will add to their stress and insecurity. Do not take things away from your dog or out of their mouth, this could result in a bite and cause future resource guarding (For more information, check out: Positive Punishment, Safety: Dog Bite Prevention, and How to Stop Unwanted Behavior Without Intimidation). 

For additional tips and resources, check out: Resource Guarding Resources YouTube Playlist, Behavior Challenges: Resource Guarding, and Resource Guarding in Dogs.

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