Before we got Bennie to the house we decided it’d be a good idea to take him to The Soggy Dog, our neighborhood “do it yourself” dog wash. After all, he smelled like months of his own urine and very fresh ass juice from the anal gland expression.
We got him really wet and started washing. About 1/3 of the way through the wash he started to get angry enough that I was worried about another attack, so we did a half-assed rinse and partially towel dried him. I tried to trim his toenails and was greeted by another bite to the hand. This is starting well.
Our new dog now reeked of ass juice, piss-covered wet fur, and lavender….just like the Four Queens.To his credit, he managed to make it back to his crate without mauling me again. Small victories, I guess.
We got him home, put the other boys in the back yard, let him in and showed him the house. Rich from Sin City K-9 (world’s best dog trainer) suggested we tether him to us for the first week or so to evaluate his potty training. Stephanie took the first shift and it went well. He followed her around the house, got familiar with the scents, and sat next to her while we watched a movie. He even allowed her to brush out some knots and use the Furminator for a good hour or two!
After the movie we though it time to make intros to the rest of the pack. Fortunately we got this right. If you aren’t familiar, the wrong way to introduce two dogs (particularly if you are unsure of their level of dog aggression) is to let them off leash and do their own thing. This can lead to fights.
At Rich’s suggestion, we put Ernie (our bouvier) and Bennie on leashes and walked around the house with them. I had Bennie and Stephanie had Ernie. We didn’t allow them to look at each other or interact – we just walked, let them share space and get used to each other.
After 15 minutes with no low growls or back fur on end, we decided to sidle up to one another. Stephanie put Ernie on a sit-stay and I walked up next to Ernie, facing the same direction….so we were dog/handler/dog/handler.
That went well and Bennie was not showing any signs of aggression so we did a head-on walk by. That went well so we allowed Bennie to sniff Ernie while he was on a down-stay. No problems there! We allowed them to do a less structured intro and kinda do their dog thang. Again, no problems. Whole process took about 45 minutes. After that we did the same thing with Ollie and Bennie, with Ernie in the room on a down stay. (Ollie had been diagnosed “highly dog aggressive” so we were concerned about the intro.) We kept Ernie in the room because we knew that Ollie was cool with Ernie and figured if Ernie stayed relaxed Ollie might take the hint. He did!
Shocker – no dog fights!
We went to bed that night with our pack of three crated on the floor next to us. 
Next: Bennie’s Big Secret and Vodka Party, aka “why you should crate your dogs instead of giving them the run of the house.”