need advice on puppy sitting

[honeybears]

I have a friend who wants me to watch her 9 week old pup for a week while she is on vacation.

I said I would but I need help adjusting my dogs to the puppy. How do I do this, Wylie is an old cormudgeon, I know she will snip if pestered enough. I have seen my friends older dog put him in his place, but I worry about Wylie sinc esheis my dog, oh they will always be supervised when they are together

Also, what about my cat. Do I put the puppy on leash and to check out the cat.

[Jamiya]

When I bring a new foster home, I let everyone check each other out in the front yard - on leash, but keeping all the leashes loose. If that is working out well, I bring them into the backyard and let them go. Once they have calmed down out there, I bring them into the house. I make sure if there are any items that might cause fights, they have disappeared. I always feed separately.

A friend who fosters puppies takes everyone into the backyard where she sits on a lawn chair with the puppy on her lap and lets her dogs come over to investigate. After a while, if everyone is happy, she will let the puppy down for some supervised time. I think she also will put a puppy in a crate in the house and let the other dogs get to know him that way for a while.

I would put the puppy on a leash to meet the kitty, so you can control him if there are any problems. I have found that my cats usually intimidate new dogs by hissing at them. My wild rat terrier foster will run at my cat to chase her, but she turns and hisses at him and he stops dead in his tracks, LOL. But definitely supervise to make sure kitty doesn't get hurt. And I always gate the fosters into one room so if the cats are being pestered they are able to leave the room and get some peace. This also cuts down on potty accidents and destructive behavior, as a puppy with the run of a whole house can be hard to watch and he can become overwhelmed by all the space.

I guess with Wylie you should just watch and see what happens. If she snips at the puppy but does it appropriately, and if the puppy responds by being more respectful and/or leaving Wylie alone, then you shouldn't have a problem. Beware of scolding Wylie if she does snip - you're better off distracting or intervening in some less negative way. And you already know to NOT leave them together unsupervised, so I don't have to tell you that.

Is this a large puppy or a small puppy? Is the puppy being crate trained at home? That would make things much easier, as you can always pop the puppy into his crate for 5-10 minutes so you can go to the bathroom or something without bringing him along or leaving him alone.

[honeybears]

Thanks Jimiya, great advice!

My friend works with a person who trains labs to hunt and she has been taking a few of them to do basic training for the first few months, they go back to owner after that for their hunt training. She brought one over last December to visit that was huge terrror at 9 weeks. He would jump up and try to hang from Jakes ears Wylie did snip at him, she was not about to put up with that, but Jake did.

I went and visited this one, he is lot melllower. he is being crate trained so that is good. She is going to bring him over for a test drive on Sunday, so we will see how it goes and I will print out your suggestions to have with me.

[Jamiya]