It’s always a little scary for me to bring a new dog around my dogs. When they meet, there’s always a tense moment where they stare each other down sniffing their noses really hard. Their backs are rigid and their tails are up. After a few seconds everyone relaxes and then they sniff each other’s butts and start to play.
That tense moment could go sideways. That’s why it’s always good to introduce dogs on a walk. Here is my never-fail 3 step process of how to introduce dogs:
- Take your dog out for a walk and meet the other owner and their dog. Do not stop to acknowledge each other (you can say hi). Don’t meet head on. Avoid a situation where the dogs can make eye contact for an extended period of time before beginning the walk.
- Don’t let your dogs sniff, just start walking side by side with the other owner. Have one of you or both of you walk between your dogs.
- Walk with both dogs for 5-10 minutes. Let them take a potty break. Now they can smell each other.
This tactic works like a charm. The dogs come to trust each other through the “pack walk”. They relax knowing that you and the other owner are in charge and this other dog is on your side.
Ideally, your dog and your friend’s dog are on prong collars. Check out my prong collars post here for more info.
This has worked for me introducing all of my dogs to each other and to friend’s dogs.
Let me know when you try this and if it works for you!
p.s. Here is a post from fomo bones about dealing with fireworks anxiety. I found it helpful. Definitely check it out!
