Hi,
Long winded so I'll keep it to bare facts. I have a fixed male Vizsla, 6 years. Calm boy. Recently I adopted a 4 year old fixed female Vizsla, quite excitable. Their first meeting was bad, he was on a lead nice and calm, she ran up to him. He went to say hello, she attacked him. Later on she wanted to play, now he's nervy of her, ignores her, pretends she's not there.

She moved in with us. We treat them equally so walk them to the garden on leads, me walking thru doors first. We make them sit before eating, sit putting on leads etc, to keep her calm. Walking both on leads in the fields at moment, absolutely no off lead yet. Superb on walks but totally ignore each other...she only reacts to him and bites him on shoulder when we run. Absolutely no bond between them yet, she has smelt him a couple of times, he won't even entertain the idea.

Great at feed times, no aggression. She becomes nasty when I show my boy affection, so vet advised no affection for 2-4 weeks for either of them.  Very horrible to not be able show love to them both.

I'm walking them for 2 hours plus every day, more at weekends. No ball games yet.
She is a nervous dog, I'm not enforcing this behaviour at all. I just don't know what to do. Their initial meeting was rubbish, how do I backtrack? How can I make them interested in each other? They share a garden and won't look at each other, why not, again what do I do? I hope I have made the scenario clear.
He's calm, she has nervous aggression and easily wound up.
Any advice to get this relationship to work would be appreciated, or do I just sit back and be patient??
Thank you in advance, Ali

just out of interest, if you felt the first meeting was so bad, what made you decide to take her home?

where did you get her?

ive been in a similar situation
actually what you are doing is very good. spot on. be patient. you cant 'make it happen'.
it will come at its and time and pace, and may not ever come in the way you want anyway.
as long as they are safe and managed, they dont need to be 'buddies'.

lexus and akita are basically flatmates, but not buddies, but over several years we have gone from managed calmness to relaxed calmness.
good enough for them, good enough for us.

one tip, ensure you house has no restrictive space trigger points.
your male dog sounds like he is performing calming signals.
one good signal is dogs arching around each other - they need the opportunity to do this indoors.
rearrange furniture so they have some good arching turning spot, so they dont have to squeeze past or rub up against each other.
this made a great contribution to our success.

we also employed a stair-gate so the dogs had their own time out/breathing space from each other and us.
we had to mix together 3 shepherd bitches

i agree with the other post, this really is a case of take this very slowly.
when introduced my third dog my second dog found it very hard to accept this new one and we had to be very careful. i put a stair gate on the kitchen so they could see each other but no be in each others face.small amounts of time together like you are with both on the lead.try and make this as relaxed as possible and do not let your new dog jump on your boy, the new girl needs to learn doggy manners and not all dogs like an over excited dog.
it has taken me six months to get to a stage where my dogs play together but i still calm things down if my youngest gets to excited as this could easily tip over and get silly, then all my hard work would be wasted.
make sure their never in an enclosed space, so that if your boy wants to get away he can. a dog cornered can end in a fight,as they say most dogs don't want a fight and would rather get away than feel they need to protect themselves.
my newest dog has taken second post in my pack and luckily this has been accepted, if my newest runs at the other one she just turns her back and ignores her and this is good behaviour as it shows she's being submissive which is what you want.
i think your boy is playing the right game and showing he is submissive to the new bitch, if he really didn't like her he would be the opposite. in time i'm sure they will become closer but only time will tell and can't be forced.
i would enroll in training classes with your new dog so you bond with her better and she learns some manners with people and other dogs.also training will burn off alot more energy than just long walks.
make  sure you take both dogs out for walk on their own so they both get to spend time with you away from the other dog, i think this really is important with this situation and i still take mine out together and apart.
if your new dog gets over excited remove her behind the stair gate to calm down your boy should not be expected to cope with her jumping or biting him at the moment, in time he may well want tp play rough with  her but they both have to work out who's incharge etc first and trust each other.
i would think that the bitch will be top dog anyway as thats what usually happens but it doesn't have to be in an aggressive way.
try distracting when she is over excited by calling with treats and make them both sit and reward, then they forget what their doing.
when she learns to respect you and knows some commands things will be a lot easier ie 'leave' so you can tell her to leave youboy alone.
one thing you must do is never leave them alone together before you are completely happy they are settled with each other, if you let things get out of control sometimes this will spoil things forever and your have to start rebuilding their relationship up again which isn't always easy or do able.
good luck hope all goes well but be patient.    

        

Have no advice to give, but have lots of sympathy.  I hope it resolves quickly and positively for you all.

Yu've had lots of great advice already hope you get it sorted.  Try looking up 'Turid Rugrass'  'Calming Signals for dogs'  it's helped me understand what my dogs are saying to each other.  As others have said - don't expect them to be best buddies - how long does it take you to take to someone?  If they can 'rub along' withut fighting they may actualy be enjoying each others company - just not being manic about it.

Hello,
Thank you all for your replies and advice.  It pretty much came to a head on Saturday when it kicked off into a nasty fight which resulted in my boy twisting onto his back and biting my girl on the chest.  He punctured her in two places and bruised her chest pretty badly and she had him round the throat.  My husband had to get them apart without losing fingers. 

I took her to the vets, now on antibiotics.  After I got home, I can't tell you how angry and upset I was to the point I called a trainer in straight away that evening.  I understand they may have spats but to cause serious damage and vet visits was the final straw.  The trainer agreed they had picked up on my 'no mess attitude' combined with my girl's absolute horror of being put in her place, all is wonderfully calm.

The trainer was happy with our routine and control of them both, he just gave us some pointers to ensure neither tried to become top dog again.  It is working for now and is an absolute joy to go out with them, off lead.  No more biting at shoulders and challenging looks.

So thank you all again for your time and support.  I am a much better handler and have learnt a great deal in this past week!