Slow and Steady Keeps Everyone Happy and Safe

Most frequently, I use these steps to integrate foster dogs. I do some version of this introduction for every dog that is expected to live harmoniously at my house. For reactive/selective dogs that may not see each other again or would only be around for a day or so, I will typically just crate and rotate–it often isn’t worth the effort of a true integration.

I realize that there are many dogs that can meet other dogs and be BFFs two seconds later. This guide is NOT for those dogs (although some of the principles could still be helpful). This is how I introduce and integrate dog-selective and dog-reactive dogs into the home. My process for seriously dog-aggressive dogs is more intensive. That doesn’t mean that selective and reactive dogs can’t be aggressive. Indeed, they can and often will be in situations that are stressful for them.

Remember: Not every dog will get along with every other dog. And that is okay.

This is where I remind you that dogs are, in fact, animals. They are not robots. Just like people. Do YOU get along with everyone you meet? No. You don’t. I don’t. I guess we are all some degree of human-selective. Sometimes you instantly dislike a person. Sometimes you can tolerate a person but wouldn’t want to hang out with them. Sometimes you initially hate someone but realize over time that they are actually pretty awesome. Sometimes you are forced to babysit your friend’s kids and you can only take it for 2 hours.

Working through reactive/selective dog introductions is NOT for everyone and inherently puts your own animals at risk. Intensive management is key but people are fallible. I always try to make sure there are back up safe-guards so even if I mess up, both dogs should still be safe. Please read the site disclaimer. This is what works for me, but it may not be what works for you.

Never forget that dogs can seriously hurt or kill each other.  No one likes to bring this up and everyone thinks ‘it can’t happen to me’ and they are wrong. I have had trusted, dog-experienced friends go through the horror of having their foster dog kill their resident dog. Because of their experience, I prepare for the absolute worst case scenario in dog-dog introductions. Dogs can be incredibly forgiving and most of the time I feel like a ninny for all of the precautions I am taking. Then something scary will happen–a dog will burst through a crate door, leap over a baby gate, or slip their collar–and I am boneless with relief that at a minimum, I prevented an unpleasant experience for both dogs.

Now that I have spoken about the potentially devastating and heavy reality, take a deep breath, remember how much you love dogs, shake it off, and review my process.

Below are the steps I usually take to introduce reactive/selective dogs, in the order I usually take them:

(You can click on the link to read each article separately)

1. Crate and Rotate
   
2. Short, Positive Training Sessions
3. Group Walks
4. Interacting Through the Crate
5. Interacting Through a Baby Gate/Exercise Pen
6. Tie Downs, Leashes Indoors, and Drag Lines
   
7. Yard Introductions
8. Sharing the House

Here are some general rules for management of reactive/selective dogs during introductions:

• To be left home alone, they need a minimum of two solid barriers between them. I usually do three. At least one of the barriers needs to completely block vision. I typically recommend giving each dog their own room and kenneling them inside that room. For the dog I don’t know as well, I always kennel them. My own personal dog I may just keep in a separate bedroom.
• Make sure the kennel is secure. If you have a reactive dog, often times they are a little on the anxious side. If they aren’t kennel trained, they may really test the kennel and potentially escape it. I know of a dog that broke out of a kennel, chewed through a solid wood door and killed another dog that was loose in the house. A secure kennel is a MUST. I always zip-tie the crap out of mine just in case.
• For both dogs to be out, two people need to be in the home (typically in the room) and one person needs to be actively managing them.

With reactive/selective dogs, I start out with crating and rotating when I bring them into my house with my resident dogs.

What is crate and rotate?

Essentially, it’s keeping the dogs completely physically separate. Each dog has their own safe space (see reactive dog Matt’s old personal room above). It gives them time to get  completely used to seeing, hearing, and smelling each other.

The length of time we crate and rotate varies with each dog and situation. It can be for just a couple of days, it’s usually a week or two, but sometimes it can be a couple of months. It doesn’t mean that they are only in their crate or that is the only time they see each other.   It just means if I am not actively training them, they don’t have access to each other.

Reactive dogs can become used to seeing a stationary dog during their crate and rotate experience, but often times a moving dog is a whole lot more exciting. I never introduce dogs after only crating and rotating because it can lull you into a little bit of a false sense of security. Your reactive dog can be completely non-reactive with another new dog in the house, but the whole ballgame changes when suddenly that dog is let out of the kennel and can make contact with them (rudely greet, overwhelm, etc).

Additionally, I almost think there is a difficult to find ‘sweet spot’ with regards to how long to crate and rotate. You want the dogs to be used to seeing/smelling/hearing each other but you don’t want them to start to only think of the other dog as a non-interactive fixture. If you crate and rotate for too long without any other interactions between the dogs, it can take longer to integrate them because of the expectation they may have that the new dog doesn’t move.

Mental Toll

It is HARD WORK to successfully, humanely crate and rotate.

For the dogs, it can be difficult to not always be right with their human. It can be extremely difficult or impossible to do with dogs with separation anxiety because the stress level can be high. Depending on how many people are in your household, they may have to spend 50% less time with humans.  To make it easier, make sure your dog thinks of the kennel as a happy place (it’s nice to train them to it before-hand). Play crate games. Enhance their experience by freezing Kongs with goodies and only giving treats and food to them in their crate. Exercise them as much as possible. Cuddle with them and spend as much time with them as you can so they don’t get lonely.

For the human, the hard work is spending enough interactive time with each of the dogs, making sure all the barriers are in place every time you move around the house or let a dog out.  Personally, crate and rotate is hard because I feel way too guilty to do ANYTHING else other than spend time with dogs when they have to be 100% separate. People have to take care of themselves too, otherwise your frustration can get the best of you and your fuse can get shorter and shorter. It’s so much nicer to crate and rotate with two or more people that can be TRUSTED to follow the protocol. Having friends/family over is often difficult, because you have to make sure they are going to be reliable to close the door behind them. When we have company I am on alert for potential management pitfalls and the confusion/disdain that non-dog people have for our ‘chaotic’ household.

Like I said before, the rules for crate and rotate include:

•  To be left home alone, they need a minimum of twosolid barriers between them. I usually do three. At least one of the barriers needs to completely block vision. I typically recommend giving each dog their own room and kenneling them inside that room. For the dog I don’t know as well, I always kennel them. My own personal dog I may just keep in a separate bedroom.
• Make sure the kennel is secure. If you have a reactive dog, often times they are a little on the anxious side. If they aren’t kennel trained, they may really test the kennel and potentially escape it. I know of a dog that broke out of a kennel, chewed through a solid wood door and killed another dog that was loose in the house. A secure kennel is a MUST. I always zip-tie the crap out of mine just in case.

Group walks are a great way for dogs to get used to the excitement of seeing a dog. They entail a lot more than just going on a dog walk together, though. The basic tenants of group walks are:

• This is a WORKING walk. That means everyone involved should be actively paying attention and training.
• The most reactive dog starts off in front so they aren’t constantly stimulated by the view of the other dogs. Depending on their training level, the dogs in the back may pull on the leash to try and get closer to the lead dog. For a normal dog, this is often no problem. For a reactive dog, straining on the leash can make them more and more anxious.
• Give lots of SPACE! You don’t want your reactive dog to be over-threshold. The goal is to have them react as little as possible. In  the above photograph, the dog in the foreground is stressed and a little too close to the dogs walking behind him (his face looks tense and his ears are back, focusing on the three dogs in the back). He is obviously stressed but is still heeling and not out of control.  At this point in the walk he was still looking up at me when asked and responding appropriately. You are going to have a hard time finding a distance for most reactive dogs where they won’t (at least initially) feel a little stressed. Do your best but don’t worry too much if your dog is still a little too intense when you are 90 feet away. A little bit of stress is necessary to learn and practice helps.  Over the course of the walk you can often get closer and closer.
• Communication. If the front dog has to stop to sniff something, let the people behind know so they don’t keep getting closer and closer.
• Don’t let the dogs interact. You can get close enough for them to sniff each other’s rears, but as a general rule the dogs should just be getting used to walking at the same time and not worried about actually meeting.

• Switch it up. If your dog seems comfortable with the other dog when they are in front of them, try walking to the side or behind. Different vantage points are often exciting all over again.
• Limit outside concerns. If you know there is a neighbor dog that rushes the fence and barks–take a different route. If you see a dog (or a kid or a bike or anything else the reactive dog might be too interested in) coming your way, change directions. If you absolutely cannot get away, throw a handful of high value treats on the ground to interest the dog before they can focus on the distraction.

Over time, you may be able to walk a reactive dog with a dog they are very comfortable with (In the above picture, the two dogs on the left live in the same household. The German Shepherd is dog-reactive and not comfortable with the black dog). Be careful. Dogs can re-direct when they are overstimulated. That means that they can turn and bite their trusted friend (or you). Make sure you are in control and can keep the dogs under threshold. If you can’t–don’t walk them together. You don’t want to ruin a good relationship.

The above picture is the result of about 3 years of consistent (but not intensive) training. It took that long for the shepherd to remain focused and attentive on her handler with the strange little black dog (LBD) so close. She was not crated and rotated with the LBD and no effort was made to integrate her with the LBD, who was a friend’s dog and an infrequent visitor.

 Interacting through the crate–this option is NOT for every dog. Some dogs guard their crates or are too anxious in their crate so it would actually be a horrible idea.

For the dogs that the crate isn’t a big deal for, it is can be an excellent tool. If you are the only person home, you can still get in some good togetherness time for the dogs without putting any of them in danger.

Treat these interactions as training opportunities. You can see the dogs in the photo above are working on “sit” and other basic obedience commands.

Don’t allow any cage-fighting and increase distance if you have to. Sometimes having the dogs meet while one is in a kennel will give you a good idea how they would initially react when meeting.

It has the additional bonus of keeping overly exuberant dogs from leaping on top of dogs that may be intolerant of such rude behavior or from running amok during group training situations.

Make sure you are reading the kenneled dog’s body language. Above is our current foster, Jonah, showing that he is pretty anxious and would not like to be introduced to anyone at this time. How do I know that? Look at his posture. he’s tense and hunched over. His eyes are wide and his pupils are large (although it is dark in the room, which can confound things). His ears are back and his brow is furrowed. He’s obviously not comfortable so it wouldn’t be a good time to introduce more stress into his life.

You want to make sure that crate interactions are a positive experience for every dog involved, but especially the dog in the kennel. The kennel is supposed to be their safe space. Don’t ruin that for them with a kennel interaction gone south.

Interacting through a baby gate/exercise pen–realize that these are NOT secure. Dogs can knock them over or jump over them.

That doesn’t mean they can’t be great tools when used under supervision, though. If you know your dog physically can’t make it over the barrier or if they are well-trained you may not need to have them on leash. The unknown/reactive dog should be on leash and it should be treated as training time.

In the case of dog-selective dogs that might not appreciate an overly enthusiastic friend stepping on them, an exercise pen can provide  a physical barrier but still have all dogs feeling comfortable and part of the family.

You may not have to have the dogs on leash but you should be in the same room, supervising them. Exercise pens (even when hooked into the wall) can easily be knocked over and are not considered a secure barrier.

First, a brief description:A tie down is a tether that is attached from the dog to a solid surface (preferably a wall). Pictured above

An indoor leash is being held by someone (similar to umbilical training but I prefer not to have the leash tied around me and don’t use this exclusively for house training. Pictured above.

A drag line is essentially a short (3-5 foot) leash that you leave connected to the potentially questionable dog. Pictured above. It is used when you are getting closer to and actively working for full integration and is often one of the final steps.  Although they can be used to gently interrupt behavior (ex. step on the leash when they are getting over excited and running around, pick it up and lead them away when a situation arises that could get them into trouble). Drag lines are also about damage control. They are easy to pick up in the case of a fight and help give you control of the situation. KEEP IN MIND, if you think there is going to be a fight, YOU SHOULDN’T BE USING DRAG LINES–your dogs aren’t ready for it yet.

Before we graduate to having the dogs interact off-leash, we use tie-downs and leashes indoors to control their interactions. Having dogs hang out in the same room, relaxing or focusing on something other than each other, while on a sturdy tie-down can really smooth out the integration process. I recommend having the other dog also on leash, unless they are reliably trained. Just because they are on a tie-down or leash doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay attention to them. You still need to be monitoring, making sure they aren’t getting tangled and aren’t feeling trapped.

There are a few things I make sure to watch for when using tethers indoors.

• Is the collar secure? Is the anchor secure? You don’t want a shoddy collar or a dog that can pull a chair to result in management failure.
• Can they hang themselves? I’m not joking, I ask this every single time and never leave my dogs tethered and unsupervised. Dogs can fall off of couches or get caught around something, so you want to make sure they are safe.
• Does the leash/tie-down make them anxious or reactive in the house? If so, you are obviously going to skip this step because it isn’t going to help anyone.
• Are the dogs getting caught together in the tether?
• Does the dog on the tie-down feel the need to protect themselves/their space
• Hard stares and still, potentially threatening behavior–if you see this, it’s time to re-evaluate your integration plan and take steps to build positive associations.

 

 

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7. Imperfect Dog Introductions: Yard Introduction

Yard Introduction

I prefer introductions to be performed outside. It gives everyone some breathing room and space is important. I will perform a yard introduction before using an indoor leash or drag line.  The above video is a good example of two reactive dogs meeting. Essentially the principles are:

• Make sure they are not full of energy–take them on a group walk to get their yahoos out first and to get them used to walking next to each other again. Even if they have done it before. Even if it is just for half of a block.
• Have the dogs enter the yard one right after the other (don’t have one dog in the yard and bring out the other one after the dog has had some time to think ‘hey, this yard’s mine’). Ideally, you would meet in an area that neither of the dogs thinks is their territory. Luckily, my dogs have shown no territorial behavior over the yard and we use our own yard for convenience.
• If on a leash, have the dogs meet circularly–not rudely face-to-face.
• Go SLOW.
• If they are too excited, increase distance.
• Keep it SHORT.
• Try to end on a good note.

Here are a couple of things that I consider during a yard introduction:

Should the first greeting be on-leash or off-leash?

I almost always introduce on-leash first. If there is a dog that even after crate-and-rotate that is still leash reactive to it’s housemate (which I have not personally had happen), I may jump straight to off-leash.  For dogs that are an unknown quantity or have taken a long time to reach this introduction point, they are almost always on-leash–you have more control and can easily prevent a bad situation from becoming worse.

Below is a photo of two (non-reactive) dogs meeting off-leash for the first time.  Lois (the tan dog) was dog-selective and not a tolerant dog. Luckily, she had extremely clear body language.

In the first picture she doesn’t notice Homer (our old dog). When she notices him in the second frame she is alert and interested. Look at how her tail changes and how upright her posture becomes. In the third picture, she is clearly uncomfortable/unsure, leaning away from him and whale-eyeing.

Homer was a champ at greeting her though (he was always very polite). He didn’t go straight for her head, he walked up instead of bombarding her, he briefly sniffed and when Lois walked off with her ears back and her hackles up, he stayed behind and didn’t over-crowd her.

Homer and Lois ended up doing well together. They were able to be integrated.

Here is a similar series of Frankie meeting Homer. They are both dog-tolerant. Polite double sniffing, Homer walks away, Frankie shakes off the stress.  You can clearly see that Frankie is the most concerned in this interaction (ears up, body stiff, hair a little raised and her tail is elevated).

Homer and Frankie integrated seamlessly after this. The next picture was taken about a  minute after Frankie shook off. Being on your back with a strange dog is an incredibly vulnerable position. Keep this in mind while introducing dogs, as it can help you see who is comfortable and who is not. Rolling can also just be to relieve the stress. The biggest indicator of comfort is how close the rolling dog lets the other dog get to them before getting up.

In the same vein, if you have a dog that is rolling and another dog whose feelings about the interaction are less clear, don’t let the other dog loom over the rolling dog in the first few interactions. That can lead to a bad situation quickly and as you know, I try very hard to prevent those from happening.

How do you go from on-leash to off-leash?

I may do a few of the same interactions (like in the video above) spread out over a couple of days before we drop the leashes while both dogs are in the yard. That’s right–we just drop the leashes.  Ideally, this is after both dogs have done their little meet-and-greet circle maneuver for that day and aren’t really interested in each other anymore. Do NOT drop the leashes when the dogs are keyed-up or running toward each other on leash.

Dropping the leashes is the hardest thing for me to do because it is the ‘leap of faith’ (as an atheist you can bet I am not good at those).  You cannot control everything in the world. Eventually you will have to drop the leash. Hopefully because of all of the preparation you have put toward the dogs’ relationship it will go well. But it may not.  And you should be prepared for that. They may start healthy play. You should be prepared for that, too. Remember dogs are animals, not robots. Best case scenario, the dogs become instant friends and you are left wondering why the hell it took you so long to get them together.

• Keep everything calm (including yourself). Try to simultaneously be laid-back and on-guard (you don’t want your stress/excitement bleeding into the dogs). Every time I do an introduction I have to tamp down on my enthusiasm so that I’m not making excited voices and trying to get them to play. You want to keep everyone under threshold. It’s okay if they end up playing but I wouldn’t recommend letting them have an exciting session.
• Assist the dogs in keeping things respectful. I recommend that both of the handlers walk around in the yard and periodically calling one dog or another to them for a check-in. We will also ask dogs to come to interrupt behavior that one dog is obviously interpreting as rude or for overbearing behavior. A quick interruption of the action is often all that is needed for the dogs to return to normal behavior.
• The handlers should keep walking (just like you should in a dog park!) instead of congregating and talking or standing with the dogs creepily watching them. Dogs tend to loosely follow where humans go so it is nice walk all over the yard to keep the dogs active so they have less time to stress about the dog they are hanging with.
• Both handlers should drop their leashes at the same time. I think it can be setting a dog up for failure having them meet while one is restrained and the other is not. The restrained dog may feel the need to defend themselves (since the option to leave the situation isn’t available to them).
• Keep the layout of the area in mind. We try to keep the dogs off of the porch because they could feel trapped up there, unable to easily walk away. Anything that forces the dogs to be closer than they would like to be right after meeting should be avoided (i.e. crowding near a gate to go through it).
• Think about your dogs’ arousal levels regarding your position and things in the yard. If they get excited to come in while you are by the door because they think they will get to go inside, don’t stand next to the door. Avoid giving treats while both dogs are right by you (to avoid guarding) and obviously don’t have any toys in the yard. Or sticks, if the dog will guard a stick.
• End things early while the dogs are on a good note. It is immensely preferable to ending things late.

Rarely, I will decide to use a muzzle while doing yard introductions. Muzzles are a great tool and safeguard but don’t get lazy and use them as a short-cut instead of careful introductions. Muzzles only stop the actual action of the biting and don’t change the dog’s emotional reaction. If you are going to use a muzzle, you need to make sure the muzzle is properly fitted and not stressing the dog out (i.e. you have counter-conditioned the dog to the muzzle)

 

 

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8. Imperfect Dog Introductions: Sharing the House

The whole point of our imperfect dog introductions is to (hopefully!) end up sharing the house with difficult dogs who may not have initially trusted each other. Each positive or neutral interaction between the dogs that has occurred in the previous steps has helped build up their confidence and trust in each other.

My favorite way get the dogs loose in the house together is right after a successful and super-boring yard introduction. I just walk inside the house and act like everything is normal. I will usually leave their leashes on as drag lines. I strive to make this portion as boring as possible and do what I can to avoid excitement and call dogs away before they can really start wrestling. I want the dogs to be bored (see photo above).

Just because they can be out in the house together does not mean that your job is done.

Always make sure food bowls and every single toy/ball/kong/bone is put up where the dogs can’t get it. Make sure that anything that could be perceived as ‘high value’ is inaccessible (out of sight and smell range). The note on smell is important–for some dogs, it’s enough to have food cooking on the stove to make them on-edge and potentially resource guard-y.

The other good reason to make sure food is put away is because having delicious smelling things can make a dog clump. With dogs that know each other or are more tolerant, getting close to a dog you don’t know that well might not be an issue. Below is a clump showing Frankie (tan dog) right after we got her and how she is feeling a little unsure about being in the middle of a ‘dog’ clump.

Throw in a nervous dog and something high value and it can be a recipe for disaster. I actively manage dogs so that dog clumps don’t exist for about 3 days. Avoid the dog clump! Three examples of dog clumps are below:

Dog clumps can put dogs that aren’t comfortable with each other into close proximity that can lead to fear aggression. Dog clumps with dogs that know and trust each other are typically not an issue and I don’t worry about them unless there is a specific reason to.

Other things to consider and keep an eye on when integrating dogs in the house are health and real estate.

Health is important because if a dog is uncomfortable or painful, they are more likely to act aggressively. The most frequent problems are usually associated with one dog climbing or stepping on an older dog with arthritis. Getting stepped on hurts and they may snark or bite. A negative/painful interaction early on in the house-integration process can lead to distrust that can’t be overcome.  See Zoey and Lois’s story at the bottom of the page for an example.

Real estate means dog beds, couches, chairs, and human beds. Comfy places to relax can be sources of tension. I don’t usually remove them (or make them off limits) unless their is a dog that is a known space-guarder. But I do keep an eye on the dogs and call them away from one another while relaxing (usually with the “touch!” command) for the first couple of days to give them some time to acclimate and trust each other now that they can be up close and personal.

Try to:

• Call a dog away if they are approaching (or getting ready to climb on) a dog on a prime real estate (Keeping dogs from climbing on each other is especially important if either of the dogs has painful health issues like arthritis.)
• Avoid dog clumps
• Avoid delicious food preparation or eating for a little while (either that or separate them during that time)
• Pick up toys/food bowls before dogs are in the area
• Decide to hold off on social events held at your house. Don’t start integrating during stressful events like parties, home construction, or baby-sitting unruly children.

The picture above shows everything that is fine normally that is not okay with dogs that are just becoming used to each other. Can you find everything that would be wrong with this picture if it weren’t taken after the dogs were comfortable with one another?

1. Food preparation
2. Large number of people in a small space
3. Chaos and movement
4. Food bowl down

Regarding children, everything about difficult dog integration is harder with children, because their safety has to come first. You do not want them getting stuck in the middle of a dog-fight. They also pose other challenges depending upon how large they are, like dropping food, opening doors/baby gates, and potentially creating extra stress for the dogs.

During household integration, you can continue to use tie-downs occasionally and should ALWAYS continue to keep the dogs apart when there is no one home or supervising. For foster animals, we never allow them to be out with our personal animals when we aren’t home. For dogs that have integrated well and are ours, we will often decide to leave them alone together if we feel like we can trust them. Some people never leave animals out together without supervision. For us, it depends on the animals but often once we trust the dogs we will accept a small amount of risk to allow the dogs to provide companionship to each other.

 

Case Studies:

Above: A dog clump that is okay because these dogs know and trust each other. It took dog-selective Meja (the spotted dog on the left) a little over a month to become completely comfortable with Homer (middle) and Frankie (right). It took dog-social Homer and  dog-tolerant Frankie less than a day to integrate (we did this via a group walk and a meeting in the backyard) and they were comfortable with each other in less than a week.

Above: Homer (L), reactive foster dog Matt (middle) and reactive dog Zoey (R). It took about 2.5 months for Matt to integrate into our household. Once Matt was integrated it was like belonged and we never worried about having him out with our dogs.  Matt did resource guard but we knew this before integrating and were able to remove his high-value items from our house so he never guarded with Homer and Zoey.

Above: After a (seemingly) successful and seamless integration of about a week, tan dog Lois (who was a confusing mix of dog-aggressive, dog-social, and dog-tolerant) and Zoey (dog-reactive) had the first (ever) dog fight at my house right after this picture was taken. They were pretty comfortable with each other and chose to lay as shown in the photo. So what happened?

Zoey was laying on the floor still, but Lois had gotten up. Lois walked up and was paying attention to something else, and stepped on Zoey. Zoey had arthritis and her hips were painful. Zoey leapt up and barked/growled at Lois—basically saying loudly that she needed space and did not appreciate being stepped on. That could have been the end of the interaction if Lois was the type of dog to back off with her hands up going “my bad!” but Lois isn’t that kind of dog. Lois interpreted Zoey’s response as an attack and responded immediately by biting Zoey’s leg. The fight would have gone on longer but I was right there with them to break it up.

Although we fostered Lois for 4 months after this incident and tried to repair their relationship (by creating space with exercise pens and tie downs, just like with an initial introduction), they remained distrustful and wary around one another.

Because their relationship failed to improve with work and time, we ended up moving Lois to another foster home.

Although we felt guilty and like we ‘failed’ Lois at the time, occasionally finding someplace else for a dog to live is the best option for the dog. It removes them from a stressful situation (you wouldn’t want to live with someone you can’t stand, would you?)

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