The biggest mistake when introducing a second dog into a home is rush. Owners are often eager to see how each dog will interact and await the introduction with great anticipation. This often translates into stress in both dogs and unpleasant encounters, just the opposite of what all owners have been dreaming of. The biggest secret therefore, in making a successful introduction is patience, allowing the dogs to get accustomed to each other and if plausible even before they meet. Here are a few tips on how to make things works out.

1) Work on Scent

If you are adopting a dog from the shelter ask if you can bring home something like a blanket or a toy that has this dog's scent on it. Also ask if this new addition dog can be given something that smells like your dog at home. Dogs rely heavily on scents and if they already get used to each other's smells you may have cut some corners already. Then the day they will meet it will be like ''Hey, I have smelled you before!''

2) Neutral grounds

Dogs are territorial beings. You may already know that since your dog may bark at passer byers and other dogs getting close to your property. You therefore want to make the dogs meet on neutral grounds far away from home and familiar scents. A good place would be a quiet park or a nice path where you can walk.

3) Walk as a Pack

You do not want to introduce the dogs as of yet. Rather, have a friend walk the new dog while you walk your dog. You want to study their behaviors carefully and see how they react. Walk at a distance and watch for body stiffness, growling, aggressive barking and other signs suggesting nervousness. If they both appear relaxed they may be walked closer until they are almost side by side.

4) Learning Curve

Turid Rugass in her great article ''Calming Signals'' suggests to let dogs meet in a curve rather than directly straight on. It appears that dogs tend to meet this way in nature and that doing otherwise may make them defensive. Always keep dogs on leash when coming closer to each other and watch their behavior closely.

5) Go Slow

As stated , you do not want to rush things. Even though the dogs seem to get along well, you never want to leave them unattended. This is when serious fights may take place. The worse fights appear to be between female dogs. Male versus male can be troublesome, while male/ female combinations seem to work best. Keep the new dog crated and allow your dog/dogs to go sniff the crate every now and then. If your dog reacts to the new dog by growling, give a correction and retry another day..

5) Test your Leadership

If you are not a strong pack leader and are not firm in establishing a no fighting policy, be ready to see some fights take place. As a strong leader you must assure your dogs that you will protect your pack from fights. Always firmly correct any signs of escalating aggression. Your main goal is to strongly send the message that you will not tolerate any form of aggression towards this new dog and vice versa.

The longer introductions take place the better. You want the dogs to be well accustomed to each other so to reduce the chance of conflicts. The stronger leadership skills you have the better. If you already had leadership issues with your first dog, adding a second dog may further escalate problems. In this scenario, it would be better to deal with one problem one at a time.

Learn more about this author, Janet Farricelli.
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