Re: a new member to the household

In Reply to: a new member to the household
Category:   Other
Posted by:  Damon
Posted on:  March 28, 2002 at 12:16:05

: We have a 2 year old male jrt, he's been raised around other dogs all his life, he's been neutered, very playful, rarely shows aggression towards other dogs. Now, we are bringing home a 6 week old male german shephard puppy, we are planning on house training him the same way as Jake(jrt). We were planning on leaving the new puppy in the bathroom at night, to train him on newspaper, also my wife and I work all day until 6pm. We don't want to leave the puppy in the bathroom all day and we don't want to give him the run of the house either. Is it ok to fence off the puppy in the kitchen or half of the kitchen to keep Jake and the puppy separated while we're gone during the day, or what do you recommend? Keep in mind that Jake already has the run of the house and we're planning on waiting a while before we let Jake and the puppy stay together without supervision. We're just afraid keeping them separated all day might cause them to become territorial overtime.

Response:

Hi Damon,

It is absolutely necessary to keep an adult dog away from a puppy if you are not there to supervise. You just never know what can happen.

I am a bit concerned that you would be bringing home a 6 week old puppy. The weeks between 3-8 weeks are absolutely critical for a pup to learn how to interact with its littermates and for discipline. Dogs pulled to soon from its mother and littermates often develop behavioral problems.

Please if you can, don't pick that pup up until at least 8 weeks of age! In many states, it's even illegal to let puppies go before 8 weeks of age.