New puppy, sad first dog

[dd's mommy]

As the title suggests, after much thought, we decided to get into a foster-to-adopt situation. Our original dog, Diamond, is 3 and really the best dog ever. He loves other dogs (the neighborhood literally has more dogs than people), is neutered, has no aggression issues, is in no way an alpha dog. He's very much a pacifist.

Fast forward to now: we are fostering a 6 week old lab/beagle mix... And Diamond hates him. It's been a week today, and there is hardly any improvement. Best case scenario, Diamond ignores the puppy. Worst case, he barks at him constantly. He's never bitten the pup, but he has bared his teeth and put his mouth on his head and back, without biting down. Is this a correction?

Honestly, in three years Diamond has only bared his teeth one time EVER, so this is... different.

The puppy desperately loves Diamond; it's heartbreaking how sad he is when Diamond does these things. At first, puppy was afraid of the barks, but mostly he now ignores them, but does look dejected. He also will bat at Diamond then immediately go belly up, the tease.

Diamond JUMPS up and walks away when the puppy walks up, most often. Or barks.

Any advice? Or should I prepare myself to give this little guy back at the end of the foster period? We have two weeks.

[fidgetyknees]

If it makes you feel any better one of my dogs takes months to accept another dog fully. 1st Time with her we had no problem, 2nd Time it took about 5 weeks to accept, and 3rd time which is now we are at 5 weeks and it is definitely better than it was a few weeks ago.

Some dogs just don't like puppies. I would make sure you are getting the puppy on play dates with dogs who will like him.

[bett]

first of all, puppies are a PITA. and 6 week old puppies are a bigger PITA. they bite, nip, hang on and think your dog is their personal chew toy.

time, give it time. it will be ok, and the pup will eventually grow a brain and take cues from diamond.

[JenC]

See what you think after the foster time is over.

[arentspowell]

Do you think Diamond just has issues with THIS foster or do you think he would have issues with any other dog into the home? How do you feel about the foster in general? Would you keep him but for Diamond not liking him?

A second dog is really more about you than Diamond. They may never "love" each other but Diamond will probably adjust to having another dog around especially once all the puppy antics are over. The nice thing about foster-to-adopt situations is if you're on the fence about this puppy in particular you still did a good thing by fostering him and could always give it another go around with a different puppy or dog in the future.

[shelly]

Six weeks seems so young to be taken from it's mother and litter mates. He might just be more of a PITA than the average well adjusted puppy. Whatever put him into a foster situation at such a young age may have adversely affected him and he needs even more attention from you. Our then 3 year old Lab (only dog at the time) took at least 3 weeks before he would pay any attention to the 10 week old puppy we brought home. They didn't actually play together for months. I think it's positive that your Lab is correcting the puppy. Ours didn't and took a lot of chewing abuse. Don't forget to separate them sometimes to give each a break from the other and individual attention from you.

[dd's mommy]

Thanks everyone. I'm just... I guess a little overwhelmed!

Aside from all the neighborhood dogs and playdates, we have had multiple dogs in our home and stayed in homes with dogs; Diamond has never had a problem with any of them!

shelly - They whole litter was abandoned at the shelter, poor things.

arentspowell - I don't know what it is that Diamond doesn't like about him... but WE do want to keep him! He's a beautiful pup, and so loving; he immediately endears you to him. However, it would make us so sad to have two miserable dogs for 10+ years if they never end up getting along. And I agree; although we would be quite sad if it didn't work out (my heart breaks thinking about the little pup; he'd be so hurt if we had to leave him), we also decided we would feel good about giving him this chance and loving him, even if only for a shorter time than we wanted.

fidgetyknees - I think it might be true that Diamond doesn't like puppies as much as older dogs. There have been about three puppies brought into the neighborhood, and he hasn't had much time for any of them until they were grown.

Poor Diamond; I feel like I've betrayed him. He's tried to escape to the one neighbor's twice already! And all the puppy has to do is walk up to him and he's 'tail between the legs' half the time, walking away, growling.

It hasn't ALL been bad. He did let the puppy rest his head on his butt yesterday. They did sit within two feet of each other, too, lol... I'm just really holding on to these little steps. I just feel so rushed; we have two weeks before our foster period is over. Eep! Come on, Diamond!

[Doreen Davis]

I agree that 6 week old puppies are a pain in the ass. Hmmmm, that's an awfully short time and based on all of Diamond's other interactions he might come around, the problem is he might not and maybe an older dog is the answer. If the rescue is busy, then this pup will find a home, most pups in rescue do in my experience and you could try again with a slightly older dog. Or could the rescue be willing to extend the fostering period to see if Diamond comes around?

When Anthony and Stella met it was all play all the time. We drove Anthony 3 plus hours to RI and he hopped out into the yar foster's yard where Stella was and they immediately chased each other all over the place. But Anthony is a loveable but not terribly smart (don't let him hear me) good looking guy.

The one thing that helped was introducing them away from our house so no one got territorial.

Keep us posted.

We

[Maxx&Emma]

Emma wanted nothing to do with Maxx when we brought him home. It took a week before they could even be in the same room, weeks before they could act appropriately together. I really think you need more time to make a decision.

[Tanya]

it happens. I have friends who got puppies at 8 weeks an their PERFECTLY friendly well behaved adult dogs HATED the puppy for a long time. from days and some for weeks and weeks. They will adjust. they may never become BFF'S - you can never know that, but they can and will learn to coexist with time and be happy living together even if they are not bff's. your situation is not at all unusual and honestly more common than you would think.

give the older time some space. special one on one outings. entertain the puppy more and try to redirect him from the older dog (though if the older dog is giving appropriate corrections that's fine too).