Out & About: First impressions

Catty is reactive to other dogs so, we have always been very careful when we intro a new foster dog. In reality this care should be taken with all dogs - reactive or not. After 40+ fosters we have a pretty good system down ensuring success.

When a new foster arrives, first dog introductions happen on a walk. Starting out, I take the new foster and my husband takes Catty and D'light. They go first and we follow - we keep a distance of 10-15 feet. Then after a bit, D'light gets handed off to me (as we are all walking) and we walk that way for a good while. I do lots of leash management while we are walking - keeping space between dogs. Because everyone is moving there's no time for scuffles and the walk reduces anxiety and nerves. Not much time for those things when everyone is moving in an active environment.

If a potty/ppop break needs to happen then D'light goes back to my husband. While the potty/pooping is going on - food reinforcement is handed to the dogs so that the association of "a new dog" equals awesome food - we carry high value treats.

Whenever we have to stop for cars or lights - dogs are given high value food rewards while we are watching all dog body language and providing lots of space. If we see anything brewing then we put more distance between the dogs and provide food reinforcement. We are not cheap with our food reinforcement!!

At this point we are pretty far in our walk and then D'light goes back to my husband and Catty comes to me. Catty walks ahead of the foster and we just keep moving - more leash management during this critical time. Of course dogs will want to sniff each other and we allow for split second butt sniffs (no face to face greetings) and then it's time to move! As the walk progresses I will have Catty and the foster walking on each side of me still moving forward. If we have to stop distance is placed between the two dogs and there is more food reinforcement. Catty is queen of "find it" so that game is played during the stops - it's amazing the power of this game with just 1-2 high value treats at a stop. Of course we make sure that the new foster stay a good distance from Catty while she is playing "find it". With Catty playing her game, it gives the new foster time to take in more of who is around (us and our dogs) and the environment.

I had planned on video taping portions of the above since I've had folks asking me how we introduce Catty and our foster dogs but, I forget the battery to my camera at home! So, we will have a post with video from our next foster once Seven is adopted.

The first set of below pictures are after a 2 mile walk - everyone is a bit tired and we have been very successful in our walk. We are NOT looking or expecting everyone to be BFFs - below is pretty perfect as everyone has space and they are all having a nice time.

People often have extremely unreasonable expectations of dogs being immediate buddies. That's just crazy - how many people do you meet and in the first couple of minutes know you will be BFF's?! We as humans need to do a better job of putting ourselves in the dogs (foster or resident dog) shoes and adjust expectations.