Second greyhound adjustment advice!

[ChipstheGreyhou]

We've had our wonderful first greyhound, an 8/yo female, for almost 5 years. Can't believe we held out this long but we were finally ready this year to adopt a second greyhound. We brought our first dog with us to the kennel and introduced her to a bunch of greys, asked the staff's advice on their interactions, and found ourselves a very affectionate boy who is not even 2 and very recently off the track. He's a real sweetheart. They sniffed politely and then basically ignored each other calmly, which we figured was a good sign.

It's been a few days and the new dog is settling into home life well, but our older dog has been growling or barking at him around the house, generally when she's lying down and he gets too close (a common behavior for her; she likes her personal space). She keeps an eye on him if he's walking around. A couple of times his tail has gone up and he gets a little excited towards her and she's growled and barked at him then too. He was only neutered a few weeks ago... we've never had a boy dog but have heard that's normal behavior on his part (and hers)? In all these situations he's been very responsive to her and backs off right away. 

I'm feeling so guilty and stressed about the change for her and hoping for some guidance on the adjustment period and warning signs. The dogs seem overall to be doing okay, but we've never had multiple greyhounds before and don't really know exactly what is normal vs. a problem.  I'm afraid that we jumped into this decision too quickly, that we disrupted our older dog's comfortable lifestyle, and that (worst case) they fight and we have to return our wonderful new boy to the adoption group. Any tips on knowing what is normal or past stories of what this adjustment period is like would be welcome!

[1Moregrey]

I am a strong believer in prevention I would suggest a muzzle on both for a while til they get used to each other.

I had a female that had won races and was competitive.  When I added my male 2-3 years younger and race school drop out.  We thought he probably came out of the box and jumped into the arms of his trainer kind of drop out and a 2 time bounce.  When they would play in the yard he kept getting T boned by her to the point where you could hear the air go out of him.  Anytime he was next to or would try to pass her.  It took a few days but they worked it out he just learned he was second.  Was glad for the muzzles as I knew they were safe.

 

[HeyRunDog]

If they were going to fight I think they would have done it by now. I think she's laying down the ground rules and reminding him that she's the boss.

[smurfette]

Completely normal behaviour. You got your princess a subject for Christmas and now she is making sure he knows who just turned queen of the parlor. They will settle in a few weeks. It's always a good sign when they lay the rules immediately (in my opinion). My new boy Abu thought he could climb the ladder of hierarchy in our pack the day before yesterday and growled at Paddy to move off the sofa.... Bad idea. Paddy showed him who is the leader of the pack (and hubby was there to supervise and to interrupt if it got out of hand) but it was over in a few seconds. The big blue ex-racer knows how to handle that little youngster.

[mansbestfriend]

Hi. Try to reduce direct eye contact between the dogs if there's potential for stress or conflict while resting, eating. I had to have separate eating areas with a closed door between, separate food dishes, separate water dishes, etc. For a couple of years I had temporary barriers entirely down the middle of my lounge room (but open at BOTH ends), with a comfy dog bed on each side. One dog could relax more without getting the 'evil eye' from the other. Then there's the inaudible (to us) growl, but it was somewhat harder to deal with.   Cheers. Merry Christmas (or whichever holiday you celebrate).   

[Zero]

We've added a second Greyhound twice over the past several years and witnessed similar behavior so this sounds normal to me.

How are they doing now, almost a week later?

We once had a very affectionate male (a "leaner" who was quite people-oriented). He was a wonderful boy. Congratulations on your addition.

 

[ChipstheGreyhou]

Thank you so much for your posts, I wanted to come back here and post in case anyone else is (like me) searching for reassuring threads in the future!

It's been 1 month since we brought our new greyhound home and the 2 dogs are doing so well together. The first week was difficult b\ut it's been getting better and better as the days have passed and now they are very happy roommates (if not friends yet, lol). 

A few things helped us settle everyone in so I thought I'd share, of course I'm no expert and your mileage may vary. 

1. We have plenty of beds and places for the dogs to be during the day so they are not in each other's space.

2. We held off on toys since the new dog is resource guarding and we didn't want to fan the flames. We also feed them in separate rooms (new dog in his crate) to avoid any issues. Hopefully that will become unnecessary in the long term but in the short term it's a minor inconvenience. 

3. The new dog sleeps happily in his crate every night and our existing dog has free reign of our bedroom (including her bed and ours). We had to practice the bedtime routine until we figured out what worked best -- for him, it's the crate partially covered (he can see us from one side), give him a treat to put him in, and only close the door when we're REALLY going to sleep -- not when we're still brushing teeth, reading in bed, etc. Finally a nice long bedtime walk at 9:30PM to tire everybody out .

4. A tired dog is a happy dog. More walks = calmer, snoozier dogs when they're in closer quarters.