Just adopted 2nd new rescue - help please!

[Gillian Howard]

Firstly can I say that as I had been considering getting a second rescue dog for a while I was absolutely mortified to find Doggie Door had closed - Im hoping you will be able to help me here.

Here goes...

I have had my 1st dog Jackie who I rescued in Nov 2004. He is male 2-3 terrier. He is a little bag of energy but generally very well behaved and adorable.

As my working hours are starting to increase I thought it only fair I get him a little playmate so he isnt just sitting alone all day.

Yesterday I adopted a female mongrel 1 year old.

She seems to have been mistreated and is very timid. I had them introduced at the rescue home first to make sure they could get on which they did.

Jackie has been generally jealous and possessive every time she goes onto 'his space' but even in the space on 1 day things are better. I have been reasurring Jackie that I still love him and im not going to treat him any differently.

However, I have so many questions.

Please just any general advice about 2 dogs would be great.

Feeding, Walking them, just making sure one isnt left out.

Making sure they dont kill each other. They have had a few mini fights.

Any general advice woul be great. xxx

[Gillian Howard]

Also wanted to add -

my new dog 'Pippa' has had no training she wont even sit. How do you try to teach one dog when you have another butting in all the time?

[Renee]

gillchick-

Start by rewarding Jackie everytime Pippa is in the room with him. Make it a game - say "look Jackie it's Pippa" and give him a treat. Make sure great things happen to Jackie when Pippa is around.

Also make sure that you don't give Pippa all the privileges that you give Jackie. If Jackie is allowed on the bed, then Pippa is not allowed on the bed. Pippa has to earn privileges of the household just like Jackie probably did.

Also make sure your dogs are on NILIF (see my post to you in SA forum).

If you want to work on training with Pippa, put Jackie away in the bedroom with a stuffed kong filled with goodies - then you can focus your efforts on Pippa.

[Gillian Howard]

thanks for that - 1 question though - how do I put her on NILF when she wont respond to any commands? She is also quite weak so I dont want to deprive her of food for training purposes.

I have started putting her in the sit position before food but she doesnt seem very repsonse it is very early days though. Thanks

[David Crandall]

Do you allow the dogs to free feed, or feed them just at structured times? We found with our 2nd rescue that when getting dinner quickly depended on her doing what she was supposed to, she really learned quickly. :D
Of course, it was a little easier with her, since she was 50+# overweight when we got her, so she could go without a little.

I completely agree with all of Renee's advice on keeping both of the dogs happy. After doing all that, we can have our two rescues in the same room as each other, though unfortunately after 2 years of this we still have to keep them apart (such as with one of us in between them). One of the things we did with Bozie was not let her get treats unless Tien is in the room. This calmed things down a lot.

Is there anyone available who can help you train? That person can work with one dog, you with the other. This way they can be in the same room together, but they're not bumping into each other trying to be the center of attention.

Dave

PS I just realized why your name looked familiar; there was a Gillian Howard in my dorm at Michigan.