Introducing a New Dog to Your Chihuahua

If you’ve purchased a new dog or adopted an adult rescue, you want  initially to introduce her to your Chihuahua, which should go as smoothly as possible. One of the best ways to introduce two dogs to each other is in neutral territory. For example, try to have the pair meet in a park or on the sidewalk in front of someone else’s home. The reason for picking a neutral location is to allow the dogs to meet and greet each other without the older Chi trying to protect her home and people from this new intruder.

The advantage to arranging a meeting at a fenced-in park is that the dogs can meet off leash. This makes the meeting of the dogs less confrontational. Apparently, being joined by a leash to an owner often gives a dog the feeling that she must protect her owner or, if she is timid, the frightening sensation of not being able to escape.

Another way to introduce two dogs is to bring the new addition into your home when your older dog is not home. This is the same method used when parents are bringing home a newborn baby. Keep the new dog in your home for several hours or even a day before bringing the older dog home again. With the new dog’s scent already in the home, the older dog is not as confrontational as he might be if a new dog crossed the threshold to your home.

Supervise the two dogs whenever they are together, and never leave them home alone without crating either one or both dogs. Until the dogs have accepted each other completely, which may take several days or even several months, anticipate that they will have a few squabbles. The worst of the squabbles will naturally occur when you aren’t home, so you’ll have no idea what led up to the situation except that you have two injured dogs.

How will you know when your Chihuahua are cohabitating well? They will play together nicely, and when they’re not playing, they’ll either cuddle up next to each other or completely ignore each other. What you don’t want to see is constant picking by one of the dogs or an overly excited sustained interest in the new Chihuahua. If you see any signs of predatory behavior in your older dog (stalking, creeping, intense staring, body stiffness, or rigidness), safely separate the two dogs and seek professional help from an experienced trainer or animal behaviorist immediately.

Pack Ethics Essentials

When it comes to dogs, as soon as you add that third dog, the balance and relationships between your dogs will shift. You now have a pack, and along with it, you will see your dogs displaying pack behavior, which they never have displayed before.

Though the change in power and dog-dog relationships in your home, may be very subtle, it’s important to understand how your dogs’ behaviors might change and what kinds of situations you might see emerge over time.

Pack Power

Three or more dogs running loose together tend to be much more aggressive than a single dog or even a pair of dogs, and these groups have been known to attack dogs many times larger than themselves.

The surprise to the owner comes in that the individual dogs in this pack previously may not have shown any aggressive tendencies at all when by themselves. Somehow the safety in numbers of being in a pack is empowering to the dogs. Never allow your Chihuahuas to run loose for any reason together unless it is in your own backyard and you can control the situation.

Gang Mentality

You will also see your dogs pick on a sick or injured dog in the pack. This is very disturbing to most owners, who would like to think that their dogs would be more empathetic to the disadvantaged dog. Not so. If you have five Chihuahuas and one gets involved in a squabble with another, all of a sudden the remaining three Chihuahuas will side with the stronger of the two Chis.

For this reason, it is wise to separate your Chihuahuas into smaller groups or put them in individual crates when you must be gone. And, be particularly aware of any potential changes in pack order that could trigger a free-for-all.

If you see the beginning of a power shift within your group of Chihuahuas, and you suspect the shift may not be a peaceful one, don’t leave the two competing Chis alone together. Supervise them at all times, and prevent arguments by removing potential triggers, specifically, attention, food, chews, and toys. For example, don’t praise, lavish love on, or punish one Chi when the other Chi is present. The Chi not receiving attention is likely to take exception to this and will jump in and attack the other Chihuahua on the spot.

Make sure the sparring Chis are fed separately and don’t have any opportunities to create issues over the last piece of kibble in a bowl. Give highly valued items, such as chews and favorite toys, to the Chis in their crates to enjoy.