We went about this integration thing all wrong 😭

[ambertopp]

Okay, so I brought in a rescue bully Friday with my current bully.

When we went to pick him up I brought my bully with but they had us meet in the yard of his foster house - we did not do the walk together thing I keep hearing about, they did not meet on mutual ground & then she had me bring her inside his foster house to meet together inside where he was kept on a leash on the couch completely away from my bully - then we took him home.

They are separated by a baby gate. But, he's gone at her multiple times and she has snapped at him multiple times when they were out together with us around - therefore we decided to get the baby gate and let them come around to each other on their terms.

A friend of mine sent me the CEBR's bulldog integration guide which seems like a much better way to go about this and I wish I knew that before.... now I feel like we are way past the point of getting them acquainted and I am wondering if I should attempt at following the steps even though we've already messed it up. Any advice?

http://cdn.fbsbx.com/v/t59.2708-21/...cd6320424d835f7e37030739007a&oe=5978ACE4&dl=1

 

[ddnene]

Oh dear... I've never taken in a rescue so I'm going to tag some members who can advice.

 

[brutus77]

You are not passed the point of no return! dont worry. keep the gate up, and make sure they can see and smell each other through it. remove all toys for now until they are fully intergrated and you are comfortable they will not fight. let them smell each other and get used to each other being in the house. you will get clues that they are getting used to each other. signs include, one or both of the dogs turning their bodies sideways against the fence. This is a sign of submission. Also you can look for signs of play or pose. When a dog goes into a kind of "downward dog" pose, they want to play. I would give it about a month if not more of separation through the gate and see what happens. I had an established alpha male bully in my home when we rescued two year old Frankie. I had to do the gate thing for about a month. We rescued another bully who was only 8 months old last September and we again did the slow intergration with the gate. This time it worked out a little differently for us as Brutus and the new rescue Jack are both alpha males. They have accepted one another to the point of we have no problems all day until about dinner time at 5pm. by this time Brutus has had enough of the crazy puppy behavior from Jack and we crate and rotate until Jack goes to bed around 8pm. Most times Brutus is very happy to be in his crate and doesnt want to be rotated and at this point we leave him alone. intergrating can be done just do it very slowly.