# Bringing him to his new home



## dashiel (Aug 24, 2012)

We are excited by the upcoming addition to our family, a new V-pup. This will be our second Vizsla but our first since losing Ozzie at 15 in 1996. So as we get closer, our thoughts are on making this work in our current home.

We have an 18 month old English Cocker, Fitz, who has earned his freedoms in the house - room to room, not crated at night and also sometimes not crated when we are away from home. No gates any longer etc.

My question is about bringing our Vizsla puppy into this home without creating undo hardship for Fitz. We know things will change but are now thinking about important but mundane things like gating off rooms, are Fitz and V-pup kept in crates, do we crate the V-pup in out bedroom along with Fitz (out of crate) and us.

I know many of you have been through the multiple canine experience. We've done this before too but it's been awhile.

All advice welcome!

Thanks


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## yv0nne (Aug 25, 2012)

I have 19yr old Yorky who is not crated, free range of apartment& is free fed.
He was supposed to pass away 8yrs ago (got attacked& bit through the skull) so a lot his structure went out the window when we figured he had 2wks left to live.

He has done fine with his freedoms, but definitely wondering about the dynamic once the new pup arrives. We figure she'll be fine crated if our older dog isn't ..but that's just wishful thinking on my part


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Even if we've have had a older dog that earned its freedom, the new pup is always been crate trained.
You don't want squabbles over food and chewing. Potty training goes faster if they don't get to run the house unsupervised. The older dog my want a break from the puppy at times while they are working thing out.
Even my older dogs go in their crates at times. When we travel my dogs are normally crated. It safer for them. June is my truck dog. She gets to ride shotgun if its just me and her. She loads and unloads on command, never moves from the passenger seat unless told to.


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## dashiel (Aug 24, 2012)

the first time we did this, around '93, we fed our Vizsla a nice piece of steak in front of our two new cockers. And he almost never had human food so he was really excited. The boys looked on jealously while the alpha dog enjoyed his meal.

My thinking is that the pup will have boundaries that will not apply to big brother. So gates go up but Fitz keeps his routines pretty much as it is.

Thanks for the note!


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## yv0nne (Aug 25, 2012)

Dashiel- sorry for stealing your thread but I just have to ask. Why did you feed the steak to him aha 

Our new pup will 100% be crate trained ..I really am disappointed that we didn't keep up with the crate for our older dog but oh well. I'll just make sure the crate& his bed are in the same room so they will comfort each other (or the puppy will just drive the senior nuts aha)!


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## dashiel (Aug 24, 2012)

Ok, the steak story. Somewhere along the line we heard of this method of helping an existing pet to accept the new.

This takes place outside of the home. When your new puppy comes home, bring the older dog out to see the arrival. Then with the puppy restrained or held, feed the older dog something very special - make sure the pup is paying attention. Whether it's true or not, the belief at the time was that doing this gave a clear message to both the older dog and the new arrival about who was in charge. If I recall, and it's been awhile, one of the concerns was that an older dog may not accept and could be aggressive towards a new puppy. Clearing this up right away helps to keep the old guy in the pack leader position.

By the way, it was great to watch - all of us remember it and it did seem to do the job. Ozzie and the two pups got along famously. Big brother and his tiny, ten year younger siblings.

Thanks for asking


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