Family is visitng w/ 2 dogs!!!-long sorry

[sschleper]

I hope this is on the correct board if not i apologize....

We currently have 1 female boxer (Lexi) and in november we adopted a male boxer (Pepsi). Lexi has always gotten along great with my mother in laws 2 dogs (golden retriever - male & a bermise mountain dog - female) Since we adopted Pepsi we have asked MIL not to bring her dogs down. It was our hope to go to NJ to introduce the dogs (my mother doesnt have dogs and we would stay there ... this would allow us to introduce my MIL dogs to our dogs slowly)

Anyway point is MIL is insiting on coming down to us in the begining of March. I know this may seem mean but my MIL has nooooooo control of her two dogs and i would say that they are notthe best behaved dogs... and worst part is she doesnt see anything wrong with her dogs and how they act.

We expect our pups to behaved and be well mannered even in the company of K9 friends. Thats not to say they arent allowed to go nuts and play but when i say enough is enough they are expected to chill out. Not possible when her dogs are around... CRAZY!!!

My question is i am concerned for Pepsi and how he will react to MIL dogs. he is very protective of the house and especially my husband and myself. Other than the day we adopted Pepsi we have never seen him with another dog. On walks most times if another dog passes it takes a bit of strength and some will power on his part to keep him restrained. Now i have no idea if its a good happy reaction he is having or a bad one. I am honestly very worried with how clueless my MIL is. I am worried that all hell is going to break loose at my house. Her philosphy is let them loose and they will fight it out.... well Pepsi is a big dog and lets just say i doubt he will be the one getting hurt!!!

I want to suggest having them meet outside the house and on a walk but to be honest i doubt that will do much with how she could careless abotu how her dogs act once loose. Any suggestions on the safest way to introduce them and what i can be doing in the mean time to prepare??

 

[LILYLARUE]

I think your idea of a walk is the perfect idea. The best thing is to walk your dogs for 20 mins before she arrives and have her walk hers into the pack as you pass her by. Another 20 min walk of them getting the energy out first and associating that energy with the newcomers would work out just fine. Once you get back to the house, allow your dogs to go in before the others. Let Pepsi be the one to welcome them in. He will probably be beaning at the threshold to show his new friends his digs.

If Pepsi is aggressive towards the other dogs, then Leave lexi behind and just walk Pepsi and one of the other more relaxed dogs and wean the other one in as you go along. Eventually Pepsi may settle down and enjoy the walk.

Of course, this is if the MIL is accepting and willing to make this transition an easy one. It's your house, so it's by your rules. Your visit shouldn't be spent playing referee to the dogs fights. She may like you want to enjoy her visit.

 

[sschleper]

Lily....

Thank you for the advise. We have no idea if Pepsi will be agressive. When we rescued him he was all wiggles and happy to meet us & Lexi (i think he was just happy to be out of his cage and in fresh air b/c he didnt pay a lick of attention to Lexi hahaha!) But he has definatley changed since he has been with us. Its almost like he realizes this is his home and he has become very defensive/protective.. for instance we share a driveway with our neighbors and if he is outside he will bark like a mad man at them. But when you walk him over to them on his lease he gets VERY nervous and wont let them touch him at first. it usually takes a few minutes of reassurance before he will let strangers near him at home... but you take him to petsmart and he is an angel with people and cowers at other dogs?? But if a dog came to our fence he would bark his head off.

We do have a contact for a dog behavorist... with the holidays i have yet to contact her to work on these issues. I think i need to call her sooner than later.

I worry about how diffrenetly he acts in the neighborhood & house versus out in unknown territory. I dont want to assume he will be fine and him hurt someone or some dog. but i cant be certain what he will do.... he may take a clue from Lexi and when she acts like they are welcome he may go along with it??

I think we may do what you said and take them on a LONGGGG walk before MIL gets here. and then i think i may take Pepsi and not Lexi for the walk with MIL two dogs. This will allow my husband to have one dog me to have pesi and his mom to take the 3rd dog. I know lexi will be fine with MIL dogs so she doesnt need to go with us... unless you think we should??

When Lexi was a pup we brought her to puppy kindergarten and dog parks and socialized the crap out of her... with him it easy to not do that b/c they have each other... but this is making me realize... training classes may be a good way to socialize him?? (i dont trust most dog parks anymore!!! people are crazy!)

seems like i have a lot of homework before MIL gets here!! I also need to work on my backnbone and tell MIL this is my house my rules!!

wish me luck!

 

[LILYLARUE]

I do wish you all luck in the world. My Lily was attacked by a dog and became dog aggressive and I used a puppy class to re-socialize her. It worked wonders! Of course the instructor knew of our situation and put us in an appropriate smaller class with puppies. So she wasn't threatened at first. Now I take her everywhere to get her more accustomed to adult dogs. She is very loud when seeing another dog and will show signs of aggression but is really just a scaredy cat when approached.

So classes would be a good thing I think. Just gonna take lots of patience and persistance. A behaviorist would also do some good since they are trained to see signs that we may overlook. They can also diagnose this behavior and give you excercises to help eliminate them.

Good luck and fill us in on the visit!

 

[BoxerMom999]

I think that you are on the right track. See the behaviourist now - before the MIL visit. Socialize Pepsi. Do all these things so that there won't be a problem to deal with later. Let us know how things progress.