When blending families or integrating a new furry family member it is important to go slow. We spent more than six weeks working on introducing all of the dogs. Luckily our house has a split yard so we had options for slow, safe introductions. Once we all moved into Scott's house I realized that Nigel was afraid of the Bigs. He would growl whenever they came near him. I thought I did a great job socializing Nigel but apparently I forgot to introduce him to enough gigantic dogs. We did one on one interactions with Nigel and a Big until he became comfortable enough to play with both Bigs at the same time. Again, we went slow and didn't force anything so that today, this is my living room: (Charlie, Nigel, Rufus, Bruno)
The next challenge was my Serial Rapist of a pit bull. He is a horny guy and when he gets excited, he humps. I didn't figure that Rufus would have a problem with it but Bruno was a concern. Enzo got to know Rufus one on one off-leash first and he did mount him but Rufus thought it was a fun game so they wrestled. Next stage was meeting Bruno one on one, off leash. This went well. He did try to mount him but Bruno gave him a snarly-snap and Enzo stopped! I was so proud. Slowly we started adding more dogs to the play groups. ALL initial play groups were supervised by both myself and Scott. Once I saw Enzo do his signature roll-onto-his-back-googly-eyed-crazed pit-bull-open-mouth maneuver, I knew were making great progress. (Bruno, Enzo, Rufus)
We eventually had all seven dogs in the yard together. When play escalated we jumped in and calmed the crew before they could resume playing. We kept the all-seven group play sessions short at first and built up time over a few weeks. Once we had a few all-seven meet and greets outside, we tried having all seven dogs in the house together. Again, we didn't force anything and kept the time brief that all seven were loose in the house. Luckily all dogs are crate trained and the Bigs have their own room so we could crate and rotate when needed.
We have had a couple minor scuffles in the house since we started this whole project but nothing major. I truly believe that if we had gone too fast or forced introductions, this could have been a total disaster. Now, we can let all the dogs out into the yard together, unsupervised, for potty breaks. I don't believe that we can EVER trust them all together loose in the house when we are not home, but this is an easy thing to manage. Rufus and Enzo even have a relationship now that allows Enzo to be himself (and Bruno allows it to happen).
As a trainer, this has been one of my biggest challenges. I've learned a lot and now have more knowledge to pass along to clients. Here are some more cute pictures of our dogs living peacefully together:
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