# Getting along (gently) with other dogs



## Oyster (Mar 7, 2016)

Ok, this is maybe too much information, but I'm dating a woman with a pomeranian. Don't laugh at me. Ok, whatever, but keep it contained.  Buffy doesn't have an aggressive bone in her body and the pomeranian in question is actually pretty cool for such a tiny dog. That said, other dogs are basically the BEST thing in the universe and the excitement level is vast. Vast enough that the tiny dog feels threatened and can't deal. I watched it go down and the little one was totally fair - my pup was just REALLY intense about wanting to play... So - is there a reasonable way to get these two together? My thinking is to tie up Buffy with the bungee leash and harness outside and letting the little one go free so she can get close but also have an escape. I figure it'll take a few sessions at least and I'll be around with high value treats trying to get Buffy to chill so an approach is not so horrible...

Feel free to laugh at me because I actually thought that one of the benefits of this beautiful puppy at my side 24/7 would be, hey, what woman could possibly resist a single-puppy-daddy? But wow, she's had SO the opposite effect on my life... The woman with no dog had no clue how I could spend so much time on a non-human (see ya, Buffy's better than you anyway. Well, in most ways.), the woman with the lab didn't understand why I didn't just TRAIN my dog ([email protected]#$% you with your dog that would murder for a slice of bacon and just sleeps the rest of the time - my dog has more integrity than that and is way more interesting), and now I'm starting to think if I can't make this work my dating pool is only women with Vizslas and that's a bit rough.

Thanks, guys!


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Other than slowly teaching her the Easy command, I don't have a clue. I would think having her tied would amp her up even more. 
Maybe start going to some vizsla field trial, and show venues. Atleast if you meet someone, you'll know they love the breed. I spend a lot of time and money on my dogs. If my spouse didn't have the same mind set it would cause relationship problems. Buffy is going to be with you for many years. Either they love the breed, or they need to move along. Don't believe they will come around, i've seen to many posts on hunting forums where new wife wants the dog gone.


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## CrazyCash (Jul 12, 2012)

How much time have the dogs spent around each other? Was it just the first introduction where the little one got overwhelmed? My Dad has a rat terrier (small dog) and when he first came around my dogs it was a bit overwhelming - I have two red crazies. . I just let them figure it out but I would sit nearby and be the safe place. If Louie (my Dad's dog) needed some space he would jump in my lap and I would make my two calm down - they could lay down next to me and be near Louie but they couldn't get up in his face. Now you can't keep these three apart, when Louie comes over it's a wrestle fest but Louie will still use me as a timeout if things start to get a little rough. I can actually leave them all alone in the house now and they get along great.


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## Oyster (Mar 7, 2016)

Thanks, TR, yeah, it was an unforeseen consequence that Buffy would reduce my available options like that, but I've learned to get any 'girls of interest' the 'Buffy Test' as quickly as possible. I just cut her loose (after fair warning) and see how they deal. I learn a lot in just a few seconds.  It's one thing to coo at the cute puppy pictures and quite another to experience the reality of my little beastie and her expression of pure joy at meeting a new human...  Good point on tying her up - makes sense. We just don't have Easy figured out under strong distraction yet. I'll treat this as an opportunity to keep working it, and see how it goes. 

Thanks, CC, yeah, we only had one intro - it was pretty instantly too much for the little one, so we sat on the couch for a while but I had to continuously physically restrain my psycho from constant attempts to leap over me to get at her new playmate. When the little one got curious and came over, Buffy would just start lunging and struggling, which wasn't great for anyone. So we went in the yard and tried to let them sort it out but it pretty quickly got to the little one barking and snapping and that only dissuaded my girl for about 2 seconds so my friend ended the experiment (which seemed fair - her dog was getting really stressed).

So I think maybe today I'll just try to bust out the high value treats and see if I can get Buffy to settle long enough for the tiny one to get comfortable with the whole thing. It's really pretty good natured for such a tiny dog (seriously, I don't even think it's 5lbs), but...


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

https://youtu.be/qvVnEjsUp9s

Meant to add this earlier. 
Looks like the dog is telling him It's okay, you've got me to comfort you


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## CrazyCash (Jul 12, 2012)

Another thing you might want to try is to take the dogs on a walk together to get the excitement out and they can be near each other but with a different focus. Also, if you are sitting on the couch with the little dog and your dog keeps being crazy, trying using a squirt bottle with water. My guy hates the squirt bottle - I think I've only ever squirted him twice but if he sees it come out he knows it's time to calm down and back off. It's a good way to give a little correction without physically having to step in.


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## Oyster (Mar 7, 2016)

Loved the vid, TR, and for sure Buffy give me almost everything I need, companionship-wise, but there's just a couple of things humans are better for... 

Oh, yeah, good point, CC, I've got a squirt bottle I think I've used twice too, and I totally didn't think of it. 

We just had an interesting visit. It's rough going - I ended up putting Buffy in her freedom pull harness so I could keep tight control and we spent a long time settling with some bacon... Occasionally there was a lunge but I feel like we made some progress. Going out in the yard was a sh!t show (the yard is play time, I get it), but inside given sort of a constant level of monitoring and attention, we achieved I think maybe excitement level 7-8 of 10.


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## Ksana (Mar 30, 2013)

Have you tried going/ driving farther than your house/ backyard? Somewhere out in the field where your Vizsla could run free and your girlfriend's Pomeranian could stay closer to you. They may eventually start a joined sniffing expedition or play together a bit. 

In our family, it was actually me who got a Vizlsa and my husband and the rest of may family had to learn to share me with my Vizlsa  

My Vizsla boy I think is obsessed with little dogs. For some little ones it is too much to hand;e at once and I need to remind my bout to be gentle. He had learned if he wanted to continue cuddle and play with little ones, he needs to make himself less scarier. So he makes himself smaller in size, approaches small dogs in a gentle way. Usually, it takes a very short time for small dogs to figure this out. Next thing I know they climb all over my boy, pull his ears, put their paws all over him (and this is coming from a dog who often would not allow a single mistake from the same or larger male dog! Unless of course it is his friend.) Small dog owners tell me they have never seen another so gentle and so forgiving dog. 

So yes, it is possible to make this union work; keep trying. Please keep us posted on what worked and what did not work. This forum is great and I am learning myself a lot from other owners' experiences.


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## Oyster (Mar 7, 2016)

Thanks for the thoughts, Ksana! I agree, I think anything I know about V's I know from this forum. Someone needs to compile all this stuff into a book.  And clearly, btw, you picked a smarter sequence - lock down the family first, THEN get the V... That way when you hear, "Does she HAVE to lick my face? This much?" you can respond, "Yes she does. Deal with it," instead of calculating how rude it would be to break up with this one over text...  

We're still working our 'out in the wilderness' behavior... Her recall under distraction is still pretty rough - getting WAY better, but it's a bit scary for me to just let her take off like that. I got a Marco Polo collar so we're about ready to try an experiment but I just have WAY more control in the house. Even the yard was pretty poor given the distraction of a little playmate and we practice a TON in the yard... She actually went into the state where she won't even sit and refuses to look at me regardless of treats, which hasn't happened even on a walk in a LONG time. It wasn't great for my GF to see her in that state, but hey, it happens, so she might as well know. She doesn't think at any point they'll ever be able to play together - she's worried Buffy is big enough that if she accidentally lands the wrong way she'd snap a leg on the little one or something. I know there's not a gentler dog in the universe than my pup, but I can't deny she needs to learn more settling and she does still have some puppy clumsiness when she's excited (which is AWESOMELY cute but admittedly not perfect for every occasion). She knocked over the temporary water bowl I had in the kitchen like, 3 times, so I wasn't prepared to make a strong argument for how careful and agile she was. 

Buffy did naturally get pretty low on approach, but it was a much better vibe when I put her in a down stay. It's when she starts sniffing around that's the problem - she gets progressively more excited, faster/bigger movements, until it's too much. I suspect part of the problem is daycare - she only goes 1.5 days a week, but I think she's got 3 dogs there of a similar energy level and it's nonstop madness. We met one on a walk once and it was instantly an uncontrollable situation. I'm afraid she's been trained into "other dogs = madness" and we have a little more work to do than we should... I probably should've been managing her exercise and socialization more closely myself, but when she was really young those few hours reprieve were pretty desperately needed...  

I'll let you know how it goes after our next encounter! I'm sure it's possible to work this out, but I can also hear the argument in my head already, "well this is your problem for having a psycho dog, go figure it out," and of course, "well wtf gets a 4lb dog, what is that? just get a cat or gerbil and call it done!"  At this point, realistically, I'm just trying to get as much training out of the situation for Buffy while I watch the clock count down. We've only been dating a couple of months - not a biggie.


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## cuddlebuglove (Apr 27, 2014)

Land sakes! I know that you have a problem and I am sorry, but please forgive me if I find some of this so dog gone funny! . After reading and seeing Vizslas romp merrily with Great Danes using maneuvers that would put a Veteran to shame, now it's Pomeranians!

They just love everyone don't they? I can only wish you and Buffy (is Buffy cuddlesome as well?) success. Please don't give up your Vizsla- perhaps as others have suggested, a place where other Vizslas, GSPs and Weimaraners gather might be a bit more challenging and fun for Buffy ( he/she should have their own costume so cute! 8)

Please send pictures we love em!


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## Oyster (Mar 7, 2016)

Oh, I sincerely hope that you find it at least half as ludicrous as I do...  There's still real training to be done and things to be learned here, but let's face it - this is a ridiculous problem to have.  And don't worry, I'd give up on a 1000 girls with pomeranians (I mean, REALLY?) before I give up on my girl.

Here's one of Buffy having fallen asleep while blissed-out chewing on a toy. And yeah, I would use the words, "desperately cuddly" I think to describe her. Sometimes I wanna say, hey, play a little hard to get keeps people interested, but it's just not her speed.


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## Ksana (Mar 30, 2013)

cuddlebuglove said:


> After reading and seeing Vizslas romp merrily with Great Danes using maneuvers that would put a Veteran to shame, now it's Pomeranians!


It is actually incredible how versatile Vizslas are! I was one of those people who posted a video of my Vizsla playing with Great Danes. I believe it is better to see something than to hear a hundred times about it. I promise to dig through my videos or make new videos and post my boy's play with little dogs  And don't get me wrong, my boy does not play with each dog he meets. It took some time for my boy to warm up to the idea of playing with one Great Dane. He was just not too sure about those huge paws flying around. The other two joined the play group a couple of months later.


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## CrazyCash (Jul 12, 2012)

Here's a video of my guy playing with a friends puppy. I still can't believe that he just lays there and gets chopped on by those sharp puppy teeth. 

https://youtu.be/S3mQMNfNomo

But don't think that he's mellow like that all the time, here's a video of what happens every night at my house. 

https://youtu.be/yfahbTi0r78

How old is your girl, sounds like she's still fairly young. She'll get there eventually. Maybe your GF can keep her dog in a purse when she comes over.


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## Oyster (Mar 7, 2016)

Wow, CC that's love the puppy vid! I think Buffy would love the attention like that from a puppy but I don't think she could sit that still. She's only 13 months and we for sure haven't focused on this kind of settling with other dogs around. 

Honestly, the gf would be totally happy to keep her pup in her purse or just holding her (seriously the "dog" weighs nothing) - just doesn't want to leave it at home for 15 hours straight (which is sort of fair - Buffy never does more than maybe 5 or 6 hours TOPS alone, and that's really rare, although it's sort of an apples and DOG comparison ). Buffy is gonna know where that dog is though, and will NOT stop trying to get at it. I could settle her down with some treats, and at some point she even managed to spend maybe 30 min in the yard alone, but when she saw my gf through the back door, she started hurling herself at it (yeah, we have a lot of 'manners' projects we're working on - one thing at a time ). Constantly jumping at the poor girl's purse wouldn't make anyone happy - either we get these two to chill together or we move it along before anyone gets too attached. (not to seem cold, but hey, Buffy's family, the gf is new)

Ksana, where are the vids with the Danes? I'm not sure if there's an easy way to search for it here but I couldn't find it... If I can get this sh!t show of a thing working, I'll take some video and we can make a montage. Vs with Danes, Pomeranians, tiny puppies... I smell an Oscar.


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## Ksana (Mar 30, 2013)

Oyster said:


> Ksana, where are the vids with the Danes? I'm not sure if there's an easy way to search for it here but I couldn't find it... If I can get this sh!t show of a thing working, I'll take some video and we can make a montage. Vs with Danes, Pomeranians, tiny puppies... I smell an Oscar.


He is my Vizsla and his three buddies (Great Danes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmMNJFlr42k

I am trying to get my husband to turn clockwise an older movie I made my boy playing with two smaller dogs so I could post it. I am now on a mission to get movies with very small dogs


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## Ksana (Mar 30, 2013)

Ok, I have realized I need to start taking more videos. I found this video I took this past winter (smaller size dogs, but I will try to locate some really small dogs in the next few days or so):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GbOSAVBwQs


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