New Puppy Question

[SamsonsMom]

I will be welcoming home a new puppy on 1/21. I am trying to figure out how I am going to arrange things when I am gone to work. I have a 4 yr old lab boy Samson. He was crated until he was 2. I am thinking of two options for new puppy. 1. Crate him and leave Samson out like normal, or 2. set up an xpen in the living room attached to crate and keep Samson and puppy together. The crate is in the living room. I have a fabulous pet sitter that will be coming over at the 4 hour mark. I am away from home 9 hours a day (includes my commute). Pet sitter may sneak over more than once a day but right now, it's set at one visit a day. She has been Samson's sitter since he was a pup. She is wonderful.

My concern with the crate the puppy (Asher) option --- it will stress both of them out by not being able to be together? Then my concern with the xpen is that Samson will get excited when pet sitter arrives and will accidently step on Asher. It's 100% play time when the pet sitter arrives and the boy goes a little wild with pure excitement every time she arrives.

Looking forward to some advice! I'm super excited to get this boy home.

[smartrock]

When we got Lark, Lark was crated, Chase was not if I left the house. Chase was crated until he was about 3 years old, Lark graduated to no crate much younger. The puppy was a bundle of energy and even though Chase was good with other dogs of all sizes, I wanted him to be able to get away from the puppy if he wanted to. I wanted the puppy not to be "corrected" by Chase when she was little unless I was there to supervise. Asher will still be pretty small and new to your home. I'd crate him for the first several weeks or months until he's gained some size and weight and you have a better idea of how "the boys" will interact day in and day out.

[Meeps83]

I would not recommend keeping them together. For the reason you stated, but also because this will be an adjustment for Samson and he may not be super thrilled about Asher yet. I do recommend they be near each other, whether you decide to crate Samson or leave him free. Your puppy will get comfort and security from Samson.

FWIW: we did an ex-pen with Bear. While it made me feel better to give him extra space, he began to think of it as his private bathroom and just kept peeing and pooping all over the floor. I was taking this as a sign that he couldn't hold it. In actuality he could, he just didn't need to as he had a place away from his bed that he could go. It might be different if you do it. I don't think Sparky and Crafther had any issues with Latte. Just something to keep in mind.


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[barry581]

I crated both Bruce and Brooks while my grown Lab, Sophie, had the run of the upstairs of the house. The crate is in my bedroom. It's never been an issue. Once you get them into a routine, maybe a week or two, you'll be fine.

[Snowshoe]

While I have never had two at the same time I would absolutely NOT crate or even X pen them together at all when I could not supervise.

We put the crate, door open, in a sturdy, home made pen or in our gated kitchen. Xpens are not very sturdy. Puppies can ruin kitchens and hurt themselves but we had no such troubles, lucky. Puppy was not alone for more than three hours, except overnight.

[SamsonsMom]

Thank you thank you!! Great advice. Just confirmed my concerns about them together. I'll do the crate option. I will feel much better knowing Asher is secure in the crate with Samson in his "normal" routine with free run of the house. The puppy will be so tiny when I get him....I have to keep reminding myself of that. My big boy Samson is 100 lbs of excitement.....

[SunDance]

I'd attach the crate to the x-pen. Let Samson have the x-pen and Asher the (closed) crate. Or vice versa. Separate but next to each other.

[Tanya]

separate. I would never leave two dogs new to each other together unsupervised like that. Too many potential issues. I've had a variety of set-ups with multiple dogs (mine, fosters) and never had issues with my own dog being loose and the other(s) being crated as that's how it would go from day 1. If fosters were not crated they were in their separate area. Even two dogs that got along well and were together 6 months before being left loose - turned out the foster was stealing rocky's kong! I found out by accident. Oh and once I left Penny loose and the foster rated and she pulled the blanket out of the crate :P so I had to separate penny and the crate or crate penny as well (I think I just crated her as it was temporary).

Plus it's good to crate train and help the puppy develop some small amount of independence VS if they are crated with the other dog they may well be completely depending on the other dog for the rest of their life.

[Annette47]

We’ve had an older dog with a new puppy several times and have always crated the puppy and left the older dog loose. We do make sure the crate is in a room the older dog is likely to want to be in though, but we don’t force it.

[Labradorks]

Putting them together could be dangerous to the puppy for many, many reasons. Definitely do not do that! I typically crate the puppy and leave the adult loose or crate them both in the same room. I typically crate the puppy in a room the other dog is likely to be in or I move the dog bed to the room where the puppy is located, kind of forcing the adult dog to hang out in the puppy's vicinity. Depends on the dogs though!