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Standard Poodles - Introducing Your New Puppy
Introducing Your New Puppy - What’s one more mouth to feed! I started with one Poodle, then got another one to keep the first one company, then got another one because I felt, “Oh, what’s one more mouth to feed and three can’t be any more trouble than two!” If I had more room, I’d probably have lots more, even one of each color! Having more than one can cause a few challenges integrating them all in to your household, but with the information below, hopefully, introducing your new puppy will be a lot easier. Make Sure It Has a Clean Bill of Health Before bringing your new Poodle home, make sure it has a full physical from your veterinarian. It’s very important that the new puppy is disease free, dewormed and current on its immunizations before bringing it home. Be sure all your other pets are in good health and current on all immunizations and medications as well. Meeting the Pet Family! When you bring your new Poodle home, let it get used to its new surroundings first before introducing the new family pet members. Ideally, you should try and introduce one pet at a time to the new puppy, so it won’t feel overwhelmed. Give them time to sniff and inspect each other. They may growl and bark at each other at first, but this is just a sign of insecurity. Once everyone gets used to each other, they should get along fine. You may want to consider having your new puppy and your resident Poodle meet on neutral territory such as a park or neighbor’s yard, where the resident dog won’t be so protective of its territory. Make sure both dogs are on a leash so you can control them. The resident Poodle may feel threatened when a new Poodle comes on to its territory. When introducing your new puppy, make sure your other pets know that everything is fine and don’t neglect them trying to make your new puppy welcome. Don’t leave your new puppy and older pets unsupervised until you know they are getting along OK. Puppies tend to pester older dogs excessively. Don’t scold the resident dog if it doesn’t act the way you want it to when introducing your new puppy. Dogs have their own rules and your older dog will set the younger dog straight on what the rules are, usually by growling - this is normal! Be sure to give the resident dog some extra attention and quiet time away from the new puppy. Don't expect the two dogs to hit it off right away, eventually they will get used to each other. Some problems can and do occur, so, it’s a good idea to follow the gradual introduction process outlined above when welcoming your new puppy to ensure all goes well!
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