I  am retiring from work at the end of August  and I am then acquiring our new Sheltie puppy. I have been to see her regularly since she was 3 weeks old. The breeder has been really helpful and has kept her for me until I retire when she will be 12 weeks old. She is very pretty, sable with a big white ruff and paws and I have called her Isla since the breed originates from the Shetland Isles! She will by then have had her first vaccination and have been microchipped. She has been eye tested clear.

I have two other dogs, a Westie Lucy and JR type called Pip. Both of my dogs are good with other dogs, not nippers or fighters in any way.

I will get a crate for Isla. Now, how should I go about introducing Isla to them? And what about the first day I bring her home? Would it be better to get my other two looked after for a day while I get her used to her new enviroment? I am just a bit anxious about the first few days. I thought the crate will give her some security and as I may have a go at showing later I would like her to be able to travel in it. Do you think Pip and Lucy will be jealous?

Any advice appreciated.

Petunia
  

Hi Petunia

Good luck with your new baby.

Whenever I have bought a puppy in, I have taken the others in the car with me. They get the smell of the puppy on the car journey home and I have never had any trouble.

Hi! Congrats on the new puppy!

I have recently bought a Weimarner pup and we have crate trained her since day one. The first day or two were a bit stressful as she didn't like being away from her brothers and sisters, but when she realised we were fun to play with she was back to her normal self.
We only crate train at night, as there are some days we have to leave her for a couple of hours and I personally don't like to leave her in the crate without me there. I know a lot of people do crate during the day and will probably thoroughly recommend it. Instead, I have a pay pen for her during the day, which means she can play with all her toys and not just have to sleep.
From the first night, we bundled her into the crate with her favourite blankey and toy and then left her alone. Admittedly she is in our bedroom, but thats purely personal choice. She cried for the first two nights and just about drove us up the wall, however when she realised we weren't going to come running whenever she demanded, she settled right down to sleep. Now she takes herself to bed everynight without a peep. If you have problems with them crying, try putting a towel over the crate, it makes it nice and dark like a den.. however if it's hot I dont recommend this as she wont get enough fresh air.
This also helps massively in house training as they usually do not want to go to the loo in the crate, so learn the feeling of holding on and not just going the moment they feel the need. Especially seeing your pup will be 12 weeks, you would hope to see some quick results (cross fingers). My pup is 12 weeks and will the whole night without a problem.
Obviously we own completely different dogs, but I just wanted to share my positive experience with crate training and wish you the very best of luck.
My first ever dog when I was 2 years old was a Sheltie... great little dogs :-)

AlisonGold: That sounds like a great idea!

We had someone at home, and when we arrived with pup they took the others in the garden on their leads, and we took pup out there before going in the house.

Hi
Just wanted to say good luck with isla,
We have got a sheltie puppy who is four months now.
He is great and gets on well with my others , 3 dobermanns and a boder collie.
I bought him for my daughter to train in obedience ,
We all love him to bits he is a cracking little dog.

My older dog and new puppy met in the garden at first.  My older dog was away when we collected the pup as we had just come back from holiday but my sister in law brought him home within half an hour of us getting in.  I borrowed some sheep pens from the local farmer for the garden so that I could separate them occasionally if they needed it but we barely used them.  The pup used them as a climbing frame and the older dog thought they were undignified!!  I just made sure they were never unsupervised and I got into the habit of toileting the pup separately so that he knew it was time for business not playing!  My older dog could use the front garden and then come out when the pup was finished and I'm sure this helped make the pup quicker - he got a biscuit, praise and a playtime!

Both boys have crates as their primary bed/dens and we preserve these as safe spots.  This is where they go if they 'want to be alone' are very tired or a bit off colour; also at bedtime or if we are out.  There are other beds around the house for different moods.  When my pup was younger I would use the crates and baby gates to partition spaces so that the older dog could get some peace and the pup could have a bit of calm time.  I also used them to enable me to give each dog some 1:1 attention to avoid the jealousy issues.

My dogs are now 5 and 12 months and I still use baby gates to 'manage the manics' as the pup gets pre and post food excitement and will pester and annoy the older one who would often far rather be asleep.  I would say mine are great with each other but because of the age difference they still have slightly different time clocks so closing the doors on their crates at night prevents one from waking the other up and starting play which I'm not there to oversee.  The puppy treats his bed as a proper boys den - tips his fleece every which way, makes it smell like a locker room, and emerges from his pit looking like he's been dragged through a hedge backwards!!  Partly for this reason I've never encouraged the dogs to use each others crate and although not defensive about this space it's as though they are quite respectful of the others bedrooms.  Every other dog bed in the house is first come first served - and 'if you sleep like a starfish, the other dog can't get on'!!

Enjoy your new pup, she sounds gorgeous