How to Live with Dogs

Think twice before having more dogs in the house. If you’re planning on bringing home more members, there are a few factors you need to consider first to ensure that you’re capable of living with multiple dogs at once. Each puppy will require extra time and effort to feed, clean, train, play, as well as cost an additional amount of money. In addition, in the event that one dog misbehaves, it can draw the other in, leaving you with both stubborn dogs. You should also be aware of your current dog’s needs; If you are an old dog and do not like the puppy playing in the house due to weakness or illness, this is not the right time to raise more pets in the house. However, maybe the lazy but healthy old dog needs company!

If you determine that you can control the number of pets that need to be fed, trained, and cared for, you can add more dogs. One of the great benefits of having multiple pets is that they bond intimately and play on their own. However, you should also determine from the beginning that adding pets means more responsibility and bonding to ensure a good relationship between the dogs.

Introduce your new puppy to your current one before bringing it home. One way to introduce new pets to existing pets is to have them meet first. If the pets get along well, you can bring a new pet home. However, if they are aggressive towards each other, you should not adopt this dog.

• Do not allow your new puppy to interact with current pets for the first day at home. It’s a good idea to keep your current pet outside and let your new dog explore and get used to the house first.
• When introducing new pets to pets, you should choose a neutral location where the current dog will not be there much. Be slow; It may take some time for them to get used to each other.

Know the possible situation when the dogs meet for the first time. Remove the dog’s leash so they can communicate with each other. Dogs often communicate by sniffing each other’s butts, sniffing each other’s noses, and making gestures (stiff walking, placing one paw on another dog’s shoulder, ruffled fur, etc.). They can make sounds such as barking, purring, and growling. ^[1] This is canine communication etiquette, and should only be observed as most dogs see this as greeting and acceptance of one another; Their actions are hierarchical, and you should wait until it’s time to claim you and the others as ruler! In addition, you should also note the behavior of marking the territory. This is a common form of communication for dogs and a means of determining dominance and social standing, but it can be troublesome if it takes place in your home. ^[2] You can use dog training techniques or use products that prevent territorial marking, such as sprays, dog diapers, and special clothing for prevention. This incident.

• Keep a positive attitude. Dogs are very sensitive to negative emotions. Instead of worrying, you should be happy when you have a new pet in the house. Then the pet will get along with its own kind.
• Notice and separate pets if you see or hear them growl, buck each other, pose about to jump, don’t care about each other but constantly disturb (common in young/old dogs) , look at each other but do nothing (struggle for dominance). ^[3] In these cases, you must intervene and separate them. Then you have to slowly introduce the pets to each other (and you or another person to walk them when they are on a leash to start socializing).
• Seek professional help if the dogs cannot get along. This can happen and you need to seek the right advice. You should see your veterinarian, dog trainer, or animal behavior specialist.
• Note the hierarchical system in dogs. Hierarchy builds up very quickly and the dogs will show you which dog goes first, eats first, plays with you first, etc. ^[4] You need to reinforce the hierarchy. this along with your own behavior (still in a dominant role) and don’t let the lower level dog feel isolated.

Take control of the situation and build a bond with each dog. Once you’ve introduced your pet, you’ll begin to manage your dogs as the person in charge, not them. This sounds easy, but if there are many dogs in the house, they tend to view you or the rest of the family as lowly (usually due to submissiveness in your behavior and actions). What’s even worse is that many people assume that having multiple dogs means they can take care of each other, thus giving up the responsibility of individually controlling and bonding with each dog. In fact, you have to put in the same effort and time with your second, third, fourth, etc., as you did with the first.

Do not allow the dogs to watch the subordinates being ruled. Start training your pet and note your own behavior towards the dogs. Train all pets basic commands; if the current dog is already trained (before you get any more pets), you can simply test his obedience skills and review the content if needed, and train the new dog just like your current dog. in. Ask each pet to see you as the owner and each family member higher up in the herd. If you don’t, they will fight each other for dominance and ignore human commands.

• Don’t downplay yourself. You still have to be the owner, or “leader of the pack”. Ask each dog to obey and carry out your commands through obedience training. If they disobey, you should retrain the basic content. Do not walk, snack, play, etc. until the pet obeys commands! Also, don’t let your dog walk through the door in front of you; retrain them if they have this behavior.
• Dog training is a science; You need to learn about this, and seek advice from a professional dog trainer if needed. Effective training is essential to maintaining peace in a home with multiple dogs.

Train the dogs to get along with each other. If your pet gets along right from the start, you don’t need to worry. However, this can take a long time to achieve, so you should keep them separate while you are away and slowly introduce pets to each other while you are at home as well as increase contact time until you are home. when they can bind themselves together. It is important that when you are away, the pets can play with each other and not think about you or the other person.

• Cage training can help in the beginning as you train your dogs to get used to each other. Keep pets in the same room so they can see each other.

Recognize signs of aggression. Learn your dog’s body language and you’ll know when it’s a joke or a real fight, as well as when a fight begins. This is no different from observing the initial greeting; It is important that you stay alert whenever they are near each other. However, if the dogs get along well and are well trained, they will rarely get stressed. You need to be mindful at times when pets are sick, fighting for food, pregnant or nursing, bringing a new pet home, having young children in the house, and when everyone in the household is too busy. have time to take care of pets.

• Note that dogs can bond with a specific object. If the other dog doesn’t understand that the object should not be touched, a conflict can arise. Most dogs will understand if they hear a growl. In the event of a problem, you need to remove the item while the dog is not looking.
• No punishment for growling. Dogs growl to signal discomfort and prevent conflict. This action is considered a canine version of diplomacy. If you scold them, they will no longer growl but still feel stressed. Then they can attack without warning.

Feed each dog its own bowl, away from each other, or even keep it in a separate crate or room if there are signs of aggression while eating. Feeding the dogs doesn’t have to be an uphill struggle. Do not let the pet see that the other dog has more food or better treats. Feed each child a separate bowl and in a different area at the same time. Feeding in a cage or separate room can prevent problems from arising between the dominant and the dominated dog. This is something people would like their dogs to avoid but in the canine behavioral concept this is not the case, and exposing them to too close can make the situation more stressful. Once you’ve finished feeding your dog, put away all the leftovers so that each dog doesn’t look over the other’s portion and start fighting.

• Feed the leader dog first to prevent hierarchical conflicts.
• When feeding your dog bones, you need to distribute them evenly at the same time. If there are signs of competition for a bone, you should separate each dog to avoid the situation where the dominant dog takes away the bone of the ruled dog. Even if you have segregated the area with wire, you should still make sure that each dog gets his or her share of the bones.
• One bowl of water is enough for the dogs if the amount of water is enough to meet their needs, ^[5] but if concerned, you should prepare another bowl of water.

Give equal attention to each dog but maintain a hierarchical role. Dogs are herd animals and instinctively hierarchical positions in the herd. They usually don’t care about their place in the herd, as long as they secure their place. Most of us often think that it’s fair and reasonable to give a lot of attention to the treated pet, but this inadvertently ruins the hierarchy. The dogs will fight if they don’t know which one will be the leader. You should feed the dominant dog first, play first, walk through the door first, and be cared for first. Do not ignore the dominant dog, but only praise and care after caring for the dominant dog. This will limit the risk of competing for dominance. ^{[6] [7]}

Prepare a separate sleeping area for each dog. As with food bowls, you should prepare a separate mattress for each pet. Make sure each dog has his or her own mattress and keep them apart so the pet doesn’t feel overwhelmed. If you don’t allocate space, the dogs will find their own place to sleep. If you don’t like the place they choose, you should train the pet to move to another location. Don’t be surprised when pets sleep together; Just make sure the rest space is large enough and that each child has its own mattress. ^[8]