[nickmaniac]

Hi everyone, I'm new here! I was wondering if anyone could provide some advice.

I have two dogs, both female, one who lives INDOORS and one OUTDOORS. We had the outdoor dog first, and later introduced her to a puppy that we subsequently kept indoors, even though we let the two play together. I guess the preferential treatment to the puppy (a.k.a. indoor dog) caused an "imbalance of power", and as the puppy reached adulthood, fights began to break out between the two.

Now I believe the indoor dog considers herself to be the leader - she certainly is the younger and the stronger of the two. They constantly have to be separated, although they are amicable enough even when face-to-face with just a fence or gate in between them... it's only when they encroach on each other's territory, or come face-to-face with no barriers, that they start to fight.

The thing is, we are hoping to introduce a new puppy to the household, and we are keen on letting her live indoors as well; so I'm wondering if anyone could advise on how we go about doing this. Would allowing the new puppy to live indoors further antagonize or "upset" the outdoor dog? Should we allow the new puppy to befriend BOTH the indoor and outdoor dog, and allow her to socialize with both? What if our current indoor dog isn't accepting of the new puppy? Are there any other concerns I should be thinking about?

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and best wishes!

[german sheep]

Hi nickmaniac,

so you already have two dogs. And you already have problems with your two dogs, so allow me my question: why another dog?

You should think of how you can come to a solution about your existent problem. Your situation is stressful for both of them and a third dog can not enhance this.

Maybe the following months will show that you are not able to get on with everything and you have to get a dog away as a result.
Firstly it is not good for the dogs and nobody takes willingly and gladly a dog with a problem behaviour, secondly the pain is much more to yield one of them to sombody but to prevent the upcoming circumstances....

LG
gs