Rushing a first meeting indoors, with both dogs off leash and no easy way to create distance, makes the introduction harder to manage. A short meeting on neutral ground gives both dogs and both handlers more room to respond calmly.
The first meeting
- Meet outside, somewhere neither dog considers theirs. Not the garden, not the doorstep.
- Two people, one dog each, loose leads. A tight lead changes a dog's posture and the other dog reads the posture.
- Walk in the same direction, several yards apart, before either dog gets close. Parallel movement allows them to notice each other without forcing a face to face greeting.
- Let them close the distance themselves if they want to. Sniffing then disengaging is a good outcome, not a failed one.
- End it early, while it is still going well, and go home separately or with one dog well ahead.
The first two weeks at home
Separate is not unkind, it is what stops a small disagreement becoming a pattern. Feed in different rooms behind a closed door or gate. Give each dog a bed the other does not use. Pick up chews, bones and favoured toys entirely for now, because those are what most early fights are about.
Supervise everything that happens in doorways, on stairs and beside the sofa. Narrow spaces and raised resting places are where tension shows first.
What good and bad look like
| Reassuring | Worth slowing down for | Stop and get help |
|---|---|---|
| Loose bodies, curved approaches, sniffing then walking away | One dog repeatedly following the other around | A hard freeze with a direct stare |
| Both dogs able to settle in the same room | The resident dog leaving rooms the new dog enters | Any fight, regardless of injury |
| Play with pauses in it | Play that never pauses and escalates in volume | The resident dog stops eating or starts hiding |
Give the resident dog somewhere to be
The dog who already lived here did not choose this and is the one most likely to be overlooked. Keep their routine, their walk and their bed unchanged, and make sure there is at least one room the new dog does not go into.
A resident dog who becomes withdrawn, stops eating or starts guarding things they never guarded is telling you the introduction is going too fast, and that is worth acting on before it becomes an incident.