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Permalink Reply by Julia on January 17, 2011 at 12:17am

That's a lot of changes. Are you saying that you are moving into Rachie's home? Is Rachie not crate trained? Do you not allow dogs in the bed, or are you concerned about adding a third dog to the bed? Is your daughter living in the house, and if so, is she staying? These things will all be factors in how the adjustment is made. This could be a rough time for Rachie.

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Permalink Reply by Joe on January 17, 2011 at 2:02am

Last May my boyfriend graduated from the college that we attend.  The apartment building I'm currently living in does not allow pets, so our corgi Carter had to live with my boyfriend and his family.  My boyfriends parents had just gotten an Australian Shepherd.  Unfortunately, with everyone's busy schedule Lily (the Aussie) does get out to run as often as they would like.  She's very hyper.  Carter will be 3 this summer and Lily is a little over 1.  They both get along very well.  We also had some concerns too.  Lily was still a learning puppy and we were worried Carter would learn bad habits we'd already overcome with him or something else.  My boyfriends parents have Lily's bowls upstairs in the kitchen.  They feed her twice a day, in the morning at at dinner time.  With Carter, we leave his bowls downstairs in my boyfriends room.  Unlike Lily, we just leave his bowl filled because he stops eating once he's full.  At first the dogs would try to eat each others food, but if you teach them not to or separate them while the other is eating it doesn't get that bad.  As far as food the only problem we have is when Carter is visiting  my parents house Lily has the tendency to sneak downstairs and eat his food.  Also, when Carter first started living there, Lily was crated.  She didn't have issue's potty training she mostly had an issue of chewing on things.  Thank god Carter didn't start chewing on furniture and etc after seeing her do it.  We did notice that when Lily was in the crate she would start whining since Carter wasn't in one and she just wanted to play.  As far as the bed thing, Carter is allowed to sleep in the bed, Lily is not.  I don't know how bed time will be for you but when it's night time Lily goes upstairs and sleeps in my boyfriends parents room.  She has her own doggie bed but is not allowed on any furniture or on any beds.  We have always let Carter sleep in the bed, through out time he's learned where he can be in certain areas.  For example, at my boyfriends house Carter is only allowed in my boyfriends bed, not on any furniture.  At my parents house, Carter knows he can go on any of the furniture and beds.  I think what really helped us with both dogs being disciplined and owned by two different people it helped that the dogs knew exactly who there owners are and who's the boss.  I hope this helped. =D

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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on January 17, 2011 at 10:19am

Hi Renee, would you mind elaborate your concerns? Are you concern about your own not playing nice or Rachie? Were there any history? Incidence? How were they introduce? what is your lifestyle and method of training and how are they different from Rachie?

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Permalink Reply by Jane on January 17, 2011 at 12:22pm

I would feed them all in their crates if you're concerned about it. If Rachie isn't crate trained, it should be fairly easy to teach her just for meal times at least. I'd also invest in some baby gates in case the dogs need to be separated for whatever reason. They may just need a break from each other once in a while.

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