adopting an adult male

[kelsey]

my resident dog is Roxy, a 7 months old female and we are adopting a 1.5 years old adult male and will be coming to live with us in 3 weeks time.

the rescue golden was a victim of neglect and abuse. he has excellent temperament but with a few bad scratches on his body. he was emaciated when he was first rescue, he was kept in a cage where he is unable to turn most of the time. we spent a whole day with him and he clicked really well with us. our dog was fine with him too and we decide to adopt him.

question - my female dog seems fine but do i need to prioritize Roxy in meals etc? the rescue dog has little training but he is a calm dog that just wants u to give belly rubs and hug him all the time. Roxy is more rambunctious and i want roxy to follow his footsteps, how do i do this?

thanks and this 3 weeks will be the longest weeks of our lives awaiting the arrival of the golden whose name is Casper.

[suzysues]

Congratulations on your new baby! And well done for taking on a rescue. :029 I will be interested to read the replies to this thread & hearing how your dogs get on. Abbey is quite dominant in our house & I often wonder what would be best with her a pup or an older dog.

[clement's golden rule]

all the best to you, and roxy and casper... I too, rescued a pup, but very young, in october, of last year.. my jaeger was 1.5 at that point.. I made it a point to have them both sit for their dinners, but put jaegers, on the floor, first, and then goodwin's. I was free feeding Jaeger, before win's arrival, but he came with to us, in such a state of misery with sore gums, and hungry, (his dry kibble was too hard to eat), and anxiety about getting left home all at his first home, that we had to make a huge effort to get him to eat... he wasn't able to make the connection between spaso dog == hungry puppy... so we had to make meal time for both of them.. they still have a bowl of dry kibble, to snack on, but neither really chow down on that...aside from that... try to make time for roxy, alone, one on one.. it'll be hard, but you've said that casper is laid back, so maybe he won't mind... I have the opposite here. my rescue is especially needy, and anxious, and hasn't figured out , yet, that he's pretty much, got life, by the butt. :) banana.
it's hard for me to groom jaeger,cuz win wants a piece of the action, and can't bear that he's not the center of attention..
aside from that, they'll work out any pecking order, issues. don't interfere in that, at all.. it'll be however it needs to be for them.. just don't lose your spot, as top dog...
keep us posted on their progress. would love to share notes with you, if you choose... pm me if you choose.

[kelsey]

thanks for the feedback!!

When we spend time with Casper, Roxy seems to "respect" Casper, not sure if its because we are not at home where Roxy will probably show her dominant side.

Roxy respects us at the top dog and Casper seems to take a special liking to my husband. So i guess i will let them decide the pecking order among them. both of them are like good friends, kissing and playing with each other.

We are going to get both of them fixed as as much as i love golden puppies, i cant afford to have 12 chewing machines at home! :)

will keep you guys updated and post a picture of Casper.

[Merlinsmom]

Congratulations on your new dog!!!Its so good to see people taking in rescue dogs-makes me smile :)

About feeding-all I can suggest is putting down the food at the same time(as much as possible) but-as far apart as possible-from each other...

My reasoning being-if their bowls are really close together-one or other may get defensive about their food..

I look after dogs in my home-and have seen the most placid good tempered dogs get hugely aggresive if another dog gets near their bowl while theyre eating...and more often than not-its the dogs that have come from a rescue place-that do this-probably because they used to have to fight for any piece of food they had....

I feed the dogs that stay with me at the same time-and place their bowls in different parts of the kitchen-I also stay in the kitchen and supervise while they eat-and usher out each dog as they finish-with lots of praise :)

Hope this helps anyway and yay for you for doing this! :029

[kelsey]

my adopted golden...we have been taking him every weekend to stay with us till we move to the our new home. he will be staying with us permanently in 11 days!!!

He has mild HD and i am starting him on G & C soon. but overall a very sweet and gentle dog. he wont even hurt a fly.

[kelsey]

hey all,

casper has been "home" for about 3 weeks now and he is doing great. i received his papers last night and found out he is actually 5 years old!!! almost a senior golden.

he is having a hard time coping with Roxy's 9 months puppy antics but he is moving on just great and correcting roxy when he needs to.

he is an amazing dog and my 6 yrs old has taken to him immediately. he even wants to train the dog.

thanks for all advise. i feed them both together at the same time and they dont have any problem with this but i did put casper's bowl down first. casper also gets pets and everything else first. Roxy seems to accept she has to be 2nd tier being female and younger.

[Newman's_Dad]

My wife and I are also considering adopting a golden from the local rescue. Newman is 5 months so we planned on waiting until he was bigger and more established so he wouldn't get pushed around by a new dog. We've always had males and planned on another one but have been told a female might get along with Newman better since they won't be battling each other for the alpha male spot. Anyone think that makes a difference?

I grew up with two collies but they were brothers. They had their battles but always new when to call it quits. They got a little jealous of the other getting attention but they would just barge in to make sure they got theirs too, nothing serious.

I worry that Newman will feel neglected if we get another and show him/her attention too since he has been our sole focus since he came home with us. I also think he will be grateful to have a companion during the day while we are at work. Any thoughts or shared experience with this is appreciated.

Thanks

[kinseysmom]

I just finally looked at this thread and the photos you posted. Oh wow. I'm telling you, that picture of the 2 dogs together is to die for. Just beautiful. Whoever the professional photog was that did that for you, terrific. I really love it. :)

[kinseysmom]

Well, we've always had 2 dogs and the companion part is the best. Maddie and Max were best friends for 9 years. When Max finally died of renal disease, Maddie was so sad. She kept running to the corner and barking up the hill toward the park just sure Max was up there. Oh those 9 years were great but it was heartbreaking to lose Max and realize that Maddie was grieving also. We lost Maddie a short 11 months after Max. We now have Finny and Kinsey, again a boy and a girl. Finny is a male rescue and was terribly abused so we really didn't want a larger male dog to take away all the progress he'd made. So we have Kinsey...who is twice his size and beats up on him like a 6 year old and a 4 year old. :D Again, they're best friends though. I find myself constantly saying, "go on, get in there Finny, fight for yourself!" Remember the first Arthur movie? Dudley Moore was drunk and knocked on the wrong door and ended up having it out with "Perry's wife"..."good god Perry, get in there" etc...funny. Everyday Finny and Kinsey remind me of Perry and his wife. :D

[kelsey]

hey kinsey's mom

my husband is the one who did the photographer. he is the professional one. roxy (our female) has been with us since she was 8 weeks and we must have about almost 1000 pictures of her taken by my hubby.

thanks for the compliments again.