monicaei

Hi all.

I posted on here 2 weeks ago that we lost our amazing, eleven year old DoberBoy Roman. And thanks for all the wonderful support. It looks my partner Megan (romanfoster on here) and I may be adopting a cute little fawn male from rescue. He comes over sunday to meet Julie our 8 year old girl. She gets along with everyone- dogs, cats, kids, so it will probably go well. That being said... what should we expect from her long term? How long till they bond? Anyone who has ever introduced a new dog into a home after recently losing a dog? She seems to be doing much better, but shes still on the anti-depressents. Living well chemically, I suppose. :-) Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Roman was a rescue so this is the very best way for his spirit to live on.

reddobes

All of those things are really dog dependent. Some dogs seem to bond more than others, while some just seem to tolerate each other.
I added a rescue Chihuahua to my Dobe gang a couple months ago. She was your typical unsocialized chi - very fearful, used to being carried around. She was signed over to our clinic because the owners did not have any $ for the emergency c-section she needed. They agreed to sign her over to us, let us treat her and find her a home. I agreed to foster her and her babies and see how she fit in w/ my gang.
She has come a long way in only 2 months. The first night, she growled & snapped at me. The second day I dumped her out of her carrier (because she was guarding it), and gave her some food. She then decided that I was ok. She has gone from growling/snapping at the Dobes to now in the last week actually playing w/ my younger Dobe girl. She has started playing with toys, and is learning how to be a real dog that walks on the ground and has rules She has decided that she loves me now. Now that she's vaccinated and no longer caring for pups, we can start to get out and get her more socialized. She is still VERY fearful of strangers.

My advice would be to just be patient and not try to rush things. Also to be sure to give your original dogs some extra love. Be consistent w/ your rules and enforce them from day one.
Good luck w/ everything!

Dobejazz

We added Casper with in days of losing Jazz - Bear Bear is a Chihuahua and he and Casper tolerate each other - I think Bear would like to play but Casper is a bit to rough.

Bear and Casper are nowhere near as close as Bear and Jazz were though

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sebsyd

I believe that temperment and time are the two most important factors. Because Julie is a female, she may just take to mothering him and he will fill the void in her left by Roman. I wouldn't be surprised if she came off her lala pills very soon. Lots of love and play with Julie will reassure her. You don't say how old the rescue is and that may have a lot to do with how they will get along. Give them time and hopefully they will be best buds soon.
Congrats to you on giving another dobie a forever home. You are a special couple. Good luck and let us know how things go with the visit.

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"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your Doberman. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."

hbwright

Give them time and both lots of attention, make sure your older (existing dog ) always gets first, that way she is obviously "top" dog and it will make a difference how she perceives him also.

I was worried about Summer when we added Jordan. She does not like other dogs but loved "her" dogs. The second she laid eyes on Jordan she loved him, just knew he was hers. I know it doesn't always work out that way but boy do I feel lucky it did for us.

Congrats to your new family member and thank you.