Help - Adding Third Dog to House - Page 1

I have recently rescued an 18 Month old Czech male GSD. This dog is dominant (he was neutered last month)and was very dog aggressive when I got him. I have two other GSD's (an 18 Month old Female & 6 Year old un-neutered male GSD - also dominant). I crate them all and have been rotating them for excercise, training etc. The new dog is getting along with the female but still gets very snappy, stiff, tail high in the air and agitated around my older male. I have been walking them together but they can't be close to each other when nobody is moving. They both want to "T-Off" on each other. It's been almost 8 weeks. The new dog is 90 lbs and my older male is 110 lbs. Any suggestions (other than put the old dog on a diet) would be greatly appriciated.

I have 2 unneutered males ,both adults and what i did was NOT set them up for failure.For the first SEVERAL months i slowly introduced them to each other .Always one in the crate until everyone knew that EVERYONE was part of the pack.What did help me alot was Leerburg's website,Ed Frowley has some very good articles on both introducing new dogs and dominant dogs. and some excellent ways of gaining control so that you know exactly what's what and who's who .I know there are those that dont like him but i personally dont have a problem with him.He does have a very informative website.Please take some time and go to his site and read.Today,one year  later my dogs are great together because i dont allow anything but that .I still dont EVER let them stay loose together  without me present..Even with me present ,i always have an eye on them and never let it get to a point where it is escalating towards something brewing.I hope you get some good results with your dogs.Good luck

Thanks...I'll check it out. Did they ever fight to establish rank? Is one dominant over the other?

I dont allow them to get to that point,once in a while they try to show the other that "hey im tougher than you" with posturing but there is only one boss and its ME

Oh yea,and im only 5ft 4in tall.If your dogs are at the point of physically fighting ,You really need to do some reading on that site before one kills OR seriously hurts the other.Please do NOT take this as an insult or sarcasm,i am only trying to help.

I appreciate your suggestions. I'm trying to go slow with these guys but it can get tense at times.

I think that Dominic (Dominic, Bernhard said hello to you!)  makes good suggestions. Even with reading advice (and I don't like a lot of the advice Frawley gives and him less so), you are playing with fire. The young male will likely always get along with the female. There is a good chance the two males will never get along.

In close proximity especially, a fight can start and even if you are right there, you will get hurt trying to break it up and the two dogs will get hurt.  I have many unneutered and unspayed dogs who live together, but I also have lots of space, and years of experience dealing with them. I am a strong leader and the dogs know who is boss. I also know when it is time to separate them well BEFORE problems break out.

Good luck.

I'm in a similar situation and I've resigned myself to this being a long process.  I have a 10yo neutered male that's very dominate, a 5yo unspayed female that can be dog aggressive and I've just added a 13mo unneutered male that I think will be a dominate dog as he matures.  I'm glad to hear that slow going works since I've had quite few folks that keep saying "just throw them together and let them fight it out".  So far the two boys seem to be the best together but the younger dog is fairly pushy and would tend to irratate the older one if I allowed it.  My girl has been more of a wild card.  She goes from ignoring the new boy to trying her best to intimidate him.  It's only been 3 weeks but we will work it out and I'm willing to keep them seperated long term if I have to.  The younger boy seems to really get along well with dogs outside the family and my older boy is ok for the most part (there are several breeds he doesn't like).  Anyway I'm off to do some more reading.

We had 4 dogs and we just lowered it to 3 because of the fighting between 2 of my bitches.  One is 8 and the one that went to live with my boss is 7.  It was very upsetting having to let her go, but it had to be done.  The 8 year old is a rescue and continuously got beat up for quite a while now.  We could'nt let it go on and she doesn't deserve to live in fear the rest of her life.  I still see the other dog when ever I want and she is doing great where she is now.  My 8 year old here at home is acting like a puppy again!  She runs and plays like she use to, with out fear of getting attacked.  Everyone won in this situation.  My boss really liked the other dog and has always mentioned that if I had to get rid of one of them, she would take Princess any time.  Sooo we took her up on it.  Hope your pack works out better than ours did.  Good luck : - }

I guess the biggest question would be why you want to introduce a dominant, dog aggressive dog to your pack when you already have a dominant, unneutered male in the home.  I think it's great you've rescued a dog, but you already have two in the home and their personalities and needs should take precedence.  You always want to make sure every dog in your home fits well with everyone else.  Between my mother and myself we've had some experience dealing with dominant dogs and no matter how much you work on them, there's always that hint of doubt that sparks will fly and it is highly unlikely that there will be any real peace in the home.  This wears on the human very fast and can also be stressful to your pack.

5 years ago I purchased two males from the same litter and thought that raising them together, they'd be great friends.  Well, the bigger male started doing lots of posturing and intimidation on his brother when they were about a year old.  I got him neutered, put him on a low protein diet, tried re-directing tactics, food, treats, praise, water bottles, shake cans, clicker training, Ed Frawley DVD's, dominance collars (that I found at Ed Frawley's site) and even utilized books and DVD's that dealt with reactivity issues.  Although they can sleep in crates side by side and they even say hello to each other if one's out and the other is in the crate, I know that they'd start fighting in a second if I let them out together.  In fact, the bigger male's tactics made his brother reactive to other dogs and that opened up another can of worms that then needed to be addressed.  He became skittish around his brother and that translated to every dog.  While both are highly intelligent, trained dogs, you'd never know it if either sees another dog and starts barking and acting like an idiot.  It's the dynamic that one's dominant and the other, while not dominant, isn't going to be second fiddle to his brother.  It's been a real nightmare having to walk them separately, play with them separately, etc.  They slept in the same playpan as puppies and walked and played with each other, both in and out of the house, from day one.  Their personalities just clash and no amount of work has helped.  They're also both reactive personalities, so that adds yet another dimension that helps fan the flames.

My mother is currently in a sort of similar situation.  She has two unneutered males (one almost two, one 1 year old).  She also has two unspayed females.  The females get along fine, and each boy gets along with the girls, but there's starting to be some posturing between the two boys.  They've slept next to each other in their crates since she got them, have walked together, and seen each other, yet there's a high probability that a fight will ensue.  Since the older boy weighs about 25 pounds more and is much more substantial, even a skirmish could end up injuring the younger boy.  On their own, neither boy is dominant with people and are submissive to the females.  They don't go looking for a fight .  But put them together, and things are kind of iffy right now.  We're working on it, but it takes a LOT of time and effort.  And this is from two boys that have grown up with each other; not a new, adolescent that just joined the pack.

Neither myself, nor my mom are pushovers and work everyday with leadership and having the dogs mind us.  However, just as certain people don't get along, certain dogs don't get along.  You can do everything you can, but in the end, you can't force them to like each other.  You may never quite know what might set one off (i.e. a scent, a toy, food, etc.) and day-to-day activities in the house can get pretty tedious and tense if you can't trust dogs not to fight.  If you're up to putting in daily work for