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HELP! I've
got a new puppy, and my old dog just hates
him! (or her !)
Old
dogs are not prejudiced, they are equal
opportunity "snubbers". Whether female
or male, some old dogs just take a while
before they want to be bothered with the
annoying pests that intrude into their
totally perfect lives. They also don't
seem to care if the intruder is the cutest
little bitch you've ever seen, or the best
looking, smartest male ever!
We've all heard the old dog
myths: it's ok to have two males, it
works fine if you have two females, you need
to have one male and one female, they must
be the same breed, more than one dog only
works with litter mates, they must be from
different breeds. All of the
above "statements" are true, and all of the
above is false! There does not seem to
be any rhyme or reason to which dogs get
along and which do not; at least where sex
and breed is concerned. To mis-quote
Cesar Milan, it is a matter of having
balanced dogs. When he says balanced,
he means mentally balanced and secure dogs.
Bringing home a new puppy is
a different matter, altogether. You
are introducing the equivalent of a
rambunctious 7 year old child to an 80 year
old Grandparent, who, most likely, has not
lived with little ones for about 60 years.
Wow. When we look at it that way, is
there any wonder they just don't have a lot
in common? The 7 year old wants
nothing more than to run and jump and play
ball, and tug o war, hide and seek, and any
other fun thing 24/7, or until the youngster
collapses from exhaustion. The
grandparent would be totally happy sitting
and watching the grass grow, or enjoying the
nice comfy sofa, along side it's owner 12/7.
The other 12/7 the old dog would prefer
sleeping in bed with the owner.
I'd bet anyone who has tried
to bring a new pup into an old dog home, has
a great story, or ten. My personal
favorite happened in 1985. We decided
to get a Vizsla puppy, and drove from Orange
Park, FL to Lakeland, Florida to pick her
up. Our first two mistakes were, 1 -
purchasing a 6 week old puppy (way
too young to go home); and 2 -purchasing
from a back yard breeder, who knew nothing
about breeding dogs. But, that is a
whole different story!
We drive 2 hours home with
the sweetest smallest (we know now) little
Vizsla puppy. We knew
that this was the best thing to help
our depressed, sad 13 year old Beagle,
"Dinky". My husband had wanted a
Vizsla for 13 years. We were thrilled
to find one for sale.
And Dinky's friend, who
lived with her, slept with her, ate with
her, and went through 5 Navy moves with her,
was a female English Setter, Sadie, who
joined her when they were both 10 weeks old.
After Sadie's sudden, sad death, Dinky was
lost and alone. Now, she would have a
new friend and all would again be right with
the world.
When we arrived at home, our
sweet little new puppy, saw our "Sweetest
little old dog" (a Title Dinky had recently
been awarded at a school dog show). It
was so cute, the little very shy Vizsla pup,
ran across the room, right up to our
sweetest little old dog, Dinky, and promptly
gave her the sweetest kiss (lick) on the
face. She lay down and snuggled up as
close as she could get to our sweetest
little old dog Dinky. IT WAS SO CUTE!!
This sweetest little old dog
Dinky had convinced more adults and children
who hated, or were afraid of dogs, that
canines were the best thing to ever happen
on earth. NO ONE who ever met Dinky,
dog, cat or human (ok, not rabbits) ever saw
anything but sweet.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT, NO
ONE, WHO HAD EVER MET OUR SWEETEST LITTLE
OLD DOG DINKY, WOULD BELIEVE!
First we heard it, then we
saw it. It sounded like a LION, a huge
friggin lion! THE BIGGEST MEANEST NASTIEST
GROWL, EVER!! And it came from Dinky's
mouth! As fast as the sweet little
puppy snuggled against the Sweetest Little
Old Dog, Dinky growled, then quickly stood
up, letting the puppy fall onto the hard
floor. She then looked us in the eye,
turned around, and walked out onto the
really hard hot cement and laid down,
totally snubbing the pup and everyone in
the room.
This Sweetest Little Old
Dog, who never once sat on anything that was
not a cushy pillow, got up from her cushy
pillow, and on purpose, walked away
from it (and the puppy) and sat, for the
first time in 13 years on the Hot
HARD CEMENT. wow. this is
not a good start...
to be continued.............. |
