How to introduce 2 dogs correctly?
SocialDog wants to share the golden rules and best practices for successful meetings, and help you and your doggo to achieve the best meet-up, increasing the chances of both dogs becoming great mates.
1. Take your doggie for a walk before the meet-up, don’t come straight from home.
🐾 A small 10/15-minute walk will help your dog calm down, release tension and excitement, and feel more relaxed for the meeting.
🐾 If your dog has lots of energy, increase the solo walk time to 20 minutes.
2. Please keep your dog on the lead when you see their new friend, don’t let him run up to the other doggie.
3. Do not do an on-leash greeting, nose to nose. Most of the time, dogs find themselves in an immensely uncomfortable situation and that can start the relationship on the wrong foot.
🐾 A leash gets in the way of their natural communication, and instead of “shaking hands” they could be sending each other mixed signals. Dog greetings are a “bit of a dance”, they approach from the side and they circle each other to sniff one another’s rear end. Face to face caused by the tension of a lead can be rude and threatening in dog language.
🐾 The tension causes reactivity: dogs have fight or flight instincts, and when leashed, the f light instinct is eliminated, which leaves the option of fight (or growl, or snap) if they feel unhappy or tense.
🐾 It reinforces poor behaviour: usually pulling, hyping, getting over-stimulated before the actual meet-up.
4. So, what’s the best approach? Social distancing is the greatest thing that can happen to dogs when they first meet.
Start walking with the other owner / dog (dogs on the outside), preferably with the dog at a heel, keeping a considerable distance so the dogs can’t approach each other.
This gives both dogs the time to acknowledge and get used to each other, while moving along and getting distracted by the smells & environment.
Slowly decrease the distance (might take a few minutes) until the 2 humans can walk next to each other without the dogs obsessing over each other.
Once you are consistently walking well and both dogs start to mind their own business and have a relaxed body language, you can reach an off the lead area (or swap to a long lead and release them) and let them say hi freely, while you keep walking with the other owner, calling your dog, making sure you are not “making a big deal of it” as the walk continues.
5. Meeting in a neutral space - a park, the beach - is the best way to go. In fact, SocialDog discourages meet-ups at another dog’s house. Doggies can get territorial and stressed around new dogs in their property, and it increases the chances of a poor meet-up.
Meeting in a neutral space will avoid this, even if you end up at the other owner’s house, we recommend meeting somewhere else first and getting rid of anything that can cause tension in the house (toys, food, balls, bedding, etc.).
6. Be the referee: don’t get distracted by the chat with your new “human” friend, always supervise your dog during the playdate. See the body language of your dog around the other doggie. Is your dog stressed? Is he being boisterous? Make sure everyone is having a good time at all times.
It is not up to one dog to correct the other dog when they feel overwhelmed, humans should always step in.
7. What is healthy play between 2 dogs? A good playdate includes bows, mutual chasing, backing off and pausing / breaks. In general, both dogs enjoying and looking for each other to play.
8. Bring lots of treats to share with the dogs if they are being respectful, polite, and well behaved. Treats will also help you keep them relaxed and have healthy breaks if they are being too hyped.
Incorporate these “treat breaks” from time to time to keep the doggies calm, especially in summer when it might be too hot. After these treat breaks, they will re-engage in a better manner.
Also, don’t bring balls or toys or play with anything that could create a competition between them or could create resource guarding.
9. And finally, if you are unsure of how your pooch can react with another dog, use a muzzle, don’t risk it!
We feel very happy that you and your doggo have joined SocialDog 🐾
We’re aiming to keep everyone safe by providing education on how to create the best environment for your dogs, so please follow these rules on your next meet-up
We hope you have a great time!
Thank you, SocialDog team 🐾