We just added two foster chihuahuas to our family. I was so worried about introducing them to my dogs that I practically gave myself an ulcer.
I thought Max might think they were little squeeky toys and give them a good shake!
We did everything by the book - introduced them to eachother on neutral turf and then brought them home and tried not to show the new guys any more attention than our dogs. We didn't change Max's and Jake's routines.
While we were on neutral turf, Max and Jake couldn't have cared less about the new guys. When we got home they became much more curious.
It's been a couple of weeks, and we're still keeping the chis on leashes for housebreaking reasons. It would probably be best to do that anyway, because I'm afraid of a dog fight.
One thing I learned is that you just can't predict what is going to happen! Max is scared to death of the little chis, and they seem to want to attack him at every possible opportunity. I thought Jake would want to play with them, but he ignores them for the most part.
Oh - I also learned not to feed them in the same room, at least at first. There seems to be a little more aggressive food guarding going on now. I think Jake would bite them if they came too close to his dish, and I'm positive the chis would bite either of the big ones who tried to sneak a bite of their food.
My vet strongly advised against ANY unsupervised chew toys until everybody was 100% settled in. They seem to provoke fighting at first.
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