this is on behalf of a friend , she is getting a rescue " boxador" he is 4 years old  and is good with other dogs, just really excited. she already has a young male boxer type who up in till a month ago lived happy with an elderly bitch who sadly passed away hence the getting another dog.

both males are castrated, her young boxer type (bru) is about 14 months.

how should she go about settling them together, is there likely to be fights?

Hi wolfwoman,

This quote "the dog gets on with other dogs" is a quote that annoys me.

Dogs, (like people - hate to use the comparison) can get along happily with some dogs but just not click with others, just like we click with some people but not with others, a passive dog all his life, can become an aggressor to another dog, and vice versa. You can put two passive 'dog friendly' dogs together who hate each other?

Until the two are put together you can not know, once they are together they will either hit it off, or they won't by all means behaviourists on this site can help with methods if they don't but until they live together it is impossible to say. :-)

On the plus side a 4 year old and 14 month, the ages are fine, the 4 year old is the new dog though so not a residing Alpha which may or may not cause heirarchy issues to be sorted out depending on his character, your friend will truly just have to wait and see and then get back to the site if there are problems.

As for settling them in together, introduce slowly, don't leave them alone together when out, put them in seperate rooms, get new toys for the 'new' dog so that the 14 month does not feel threatend by his things being taken and feed them at opposite ends of the kitchen, until their characters together can be judged.

Would it be possible for the dogs to be walked together before the actual rehoming?

the dogs have met each other already and have been walked out together. however to be honest both dogs are social dogs who meet a lot fo dogs on walsk and so both did nto really mind each other had a good play.

however friend is more worried about the fact that the dog will be entering her dogs territory and so woudl it be liekly to change things.

I have found it helpful to walk the dogs together and then enter the "territory" together.  Yes, living together is very different to just walking together, but at least you've ruled out hate on sight!

ok so far so good, dog had a god night with friend and other dog and a good day. only there seems to be 2 problems. one is he keeps humping the younger dog and another is he keeps peeing everywhere. he cocks his leg when he does it, however sometimes he actually walks and leaves a tral of wee. it is a pale colour and dosnt smell. could this be marking behaviour?

Yes, you are right he is marking, also the mounting of the 14 month is his way of saying I'm older and the boss.  Looks as though he is settling himself in, is the 14 month ok about everything? As long as there is no challenging all should be well. ;-)

yo be honest the 14 month old just seems to enjoy having someone to look up to as a leader. he ceretainly seems more happier and confident and copies everything the older dog does. the older dog growls at the 14 month old if he gets to rougth and the 14 month listens, so it must be doing him good.
as regards to the marking, when will he stop doing this as he is making the house really wet.

He'll do it until he's been trained not to I'm afraid.

he never did it in his old home you see, and he has been house trained since a pup, he is 4 years old.
so it just seems strange that he has taken to doing it.

Males that are perfectly clean at home will often mark in houses of other dogs in order to put a familiar smell there and cover over the other dogs smell. 

It is the reason I will not look after friends males, including castrated ones who for some reason almost seem to be worse, as it they are so overwhelmed by the presence of so many canines here to 5 girls) that they simply must make the place smell homely.

You need to be vigilant and distract him with a stern no and onto some positive behaviour.

Only allow him supervised access to any areas he must not mark/pee in.

Change of circumstances - change of behaviour. His old home didn't have any other dog smells that needed to be covered up. The new place has, so that's what he's doing. As soon as his smell has completely overlaid that of the other dog (ie his urine isn't cleaned up and/or the other dog ceases to have any odour at all) he'll feel secure enough to stop naturally. Obviously neither of those will happen - one is unhygeinic and the other is physically impossible! So it's back to retraining. :)

how do you train a dog to stop marking, he still wees and poos normally on walks and in the yard, its almost like he has a reserve tank for the marking wee!

Very similar to housetraining a puppy - constant vigilance! The difference is that, with an otherwise housetrained dog, you can say "No!" when he looks as though he's going to wee, and rush him outside and praise when he performs there.

However 'marking' is a deliberate urinary action and you say that sometimes he wees as he walks. That doesn't sound like marking, more like a medical problem. Has he been vet-checked for a UTI?

the weeing when he walks was more of a case of being caught marking and dripping some as he ran off it only happened once. he came from the rspca and was vet checked when he cam in from the home who no longer wanted him .

He is a male dog, they pretty much DO have a reserve tank!

He needs to be watched closely and every time he goes to scent mark, a sharp 'oi' and off to do smoething else, say sits or downs or a game, anything. Just saying no will get v boring and repetative, he does need the distraction of somethign else to do.

Also make sure its being cleaned up with something that is NOT ammonia based, or that will make him go back and remark there.

A combination of the cleaning and the 'oi' and redirection to something else should help and when he feels more comfy in his new home he will chill out adn stop.

Em

Watched like a hawk is the answer and every time you see even the slightest lift of the cocking leg off the floor it's an immediate and sharp "Oi, No!". I'm afraid you can't let your guard down until the message has very clearly got through and until that time the dog needs to have its access restricted at home.

Nips is as clean as a whistle at home and knows full well that marking isn't acceptable but for all that I still keep an extremely close eye on him anywhere that other dogs frequent or when he encounters picnic hampers on the beach or casually discarded rucksacks on pub floors! :rolleyes:

Cant add any more advice to the thread,it'll just be a matter of starting toilet training from scratch. The whole thing reminds of what a friend of mine with 2 male dogs said to me the other night,"boys are so much harder than girls",and i have to agree