The new girl in town...
Funny thing about our family dog, Chippy... He's ornery when he's alone... So we got him a girlfriend!
Not really, she's spayed and all. And he actually is just ornery in general, but the company and companionship is so good for dogs. Being socialized helps them a lot.
Her name is Bella. Her previous master was a very kind woman who was simply no longer able to take care of her anymore. She very kindly gave Bella to us for nothing! She loved the idea of Bella coming to a home with another dog to play with and a family that would play with her, walk her, and love and spoil her as much as possible...
So, now we have two dogs again! Haha!
There have been some tiffs between them, but otherwise it is going very well!
The two biggest concerns now are:
1) Getting Bella to listen and follow our commands.
2) And not allowing Chippy to be possessive of us or the furniture if he is up there before her.
Bella has been learning and is doing very well with our basic training. It's still in the intermediate stages though.
Chippy gets held closely and pet and kissed when Bella jumps up on the furniture with us, so he knows that he doesn't need to feel threatened by her. This has seemed to help a lot of the fighting to dissipate between them.
The next step is considering obedience training for the two of them so they can become therapy/emotional helper dogs and we can bring them to the hospital to visit patients. The only thing is that the training is SO expensive... Anyone have any ideas/tips/tricks that have worked for them or their dogs for training without paying a buttload of money?
I would greatly appreciate ANY feedback on helping two dogs to co-exist and hopefully (fingers crossed) someday even become the best of friends. We want both dogs to feel how much we love them and know how important they both are to us.
Again, any feedback is more than welcome!
Not really, she's spayed and all. And he actually is just ornery in general, but the company and companionship is so good for dogs. Being socialized helps them a lot.
Her name is Bella. Her previous master was a very kind woman who was simply no longer able to take care of her anymore. She very kindly gave Bella to us for nothing! She loved the idea of Bella coming to a home with another dog to play with and a family that would play with her, walk her, and love and spoil her as much as possible...
So, now we have two dogs again! Haha!
There have been some tiffs between them, but otherwise it is going very well!
The two biggest concerns now are:
1) Getting Bella to listen and follow our commands.
2) And not allowing Chippy to be possessive of us or the furniture if he is up there before her.
Bella has been learning and is doing very well with our basic training. It's still in the intermediate stages though.
Chippy gets held closely and pet and kissed when Bella jumps up on the furniture with us, so he knows that he doesn't need to feel threatened by her. This has seemed to help a lot of the fighting to dissipate between them.
The next step is considering obedience training for the two of them so they can become therapy/emotional helper dogs and we can bring them to the hospital to visit patients. The only thing is that the training is SO expensive... Anyone have any ideas/tips/tricks that have worked for them or their dogs for training without paying a buttload of money?
I would greatly appreciate ANY feedback on helping two dogs to co-exist and hopefully (fingers crossed) someday even become the best of friends. We want both dogs to feel how much we love them and know how important they both are to us.
Again, any feedback is more than welcome!
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