Hi Guys,
I'm sure you all know that we're getting a puppy in 5weeks time, and although I'm really excited about him coming home - I'm starting to feel little pangs of guilt about Baillie. Is this normal? I didn't want to hijack someone else's thread - so thought that I'd post this. It seems that the closer he gets to coming home with us, the more I seem to be dwelling on all the possibles that could go wrong rather than focusing on the positive!
I know that lots of you have more than one dog - so did any of you feel like this?
I'd appreciate your thoughts.
Sharon
X

If anything I found it the other way round :) We tried not to make a fuss of our puppy and carried on as normal with older dog. It took about a year before I felt a real bond with puppy and felt a bit guilty that I didn't love her as much as I did the other one :)

It's much the same as having a second baby - you end up loving them all the same - just in different ways, because they are different :)]

Good luck !

Daisy

Thanks Daisy,
I didn't feel like this until maybe the last week or so, now everytime that I look at Baillie, I feel like I'm being really mean! Maybe selfish is a better word to describe it - But I'm sure that you're right and I'll just have to continue making a big fuss of him and making sure he stays 'top dog' but you know what it's like ... everyone fusses over a new puppy - How did you get around that?
Thanks again
Sharon
X

Well - it was fairly easy for us as I have two older children who were both on holiday when we got our pup last year. We made sure that we took it in turns to play with the dogs separately to start with and kept the time that they were together limited and supervised :) Puppy was left in the kitchen at times (sometimes in her cage) so that she got used to being alone while the rest of the family were in the rest of the house. After a few weeks, older dog didn't mind the puppy being fussed as long as he got some love too (always first) :D

Daisy

Daisy,
Again thank you. My kids are older as well, my daughter's almost 10 and my son almost 15 - so they would be a good help in keeping both dogs amused.
Obviously both dogs would require supervision when they were together for obvious reasons - but I guess you just have to follow your instincts and I'm sure that it'll be apparent when Baillies had enough of his new friend :) :)
Sharon
X

I'm sure that it will come naturally :D Main thing is to keep older dog's routine as normal as possible so that he doesn't feel that the pup is changing anything.

Good luck :)

Daisy

Thanks :)