Elsa and Riley

Chantel, Riley is extraordinarily beautiful !!! How long have you been been having him now? I’m jealous haha
I have been having cats all my life but I enjoy dogs as well. Riley is definitely a keeper that is for sure! So you’ve been having snow there? I haven’t really seen snow in very long time now, however it doesn’t snow very often here due to the area in which I live. I am originally from New Orleans, Louisiana. I am very close to the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the time we don’t see snow, although I have seen quite a bit of it in my lifetime. Do you see snow quite often there where you are?
OK dear until next time, please take care of yourself and take care of your beautiful dog Riley!









Hugs,

Nettie

P.S. I don’t know if these pictures are going to do much good or not but I did my best because I’m having problems with the Tapatalk system right now. It’s not a current picture but it’s the closest I could find.
I don’t usually send my out my picture, but here it is. I don’t wear my hair as big as you see there in the picture. It’s not current, but it’s close. The last picture you see is of my nephew. It was a year ago today, he was killed in an automobile accident. I’m still having a very hard time with this. He was a high school teacher and a songwriter as well. I cry every day because I miss him so much.
His ashes were strewn across Mount Elbert in the state of Colorado.
www.summitpost.org/mount-elbert/150325
If you go to the link above, you will see beaver Lake. This is the actual picture I see when I turn on my PC.

If you click on the link below, you will be able to hear the last song he ever recorded.

www.jam-community.com/song/2f7954d6-c9cb-11e6-9f28-02fe9cf35e65

I hope you enjoy it!

First night not as bad as I thought it would be .
I left her in the kitchen last night to give Riley a break .
She screamed for a short while but then seemed to go quiet.
We heard her a couple of times during the night time but I just left her . And I got up about 5:30 😊
She doesn’t seem to like been shut away ☹️And when she starts crying Riley gets quite anxious.
But Riley definitely needs time on his own .

Poor Freddy had his breakfast upstairs this morning she just wouldn’t leave him alone and he was getting annoyed with her ☹️
Just hoping Riley gets used to her in time .

Love the puppy and i would think like cats it takes time to bond with a new dog and all a puppy wants to do is play but in a month these will be best of buds good luck with puppy

Oh my how adorable , what a lovely post to gteet me , I just logged on and now hoping to catch up with everything

BIG CONGRATULATIONS XXX

Congrats on the new addition chantel, she's certainly very cute! 

I don't know if you're on facebook but if you are then theres an amazing group called "Dog training Advice and Support" which is managed by certified dog trainers. They've got all kinds of helpful files about raising puppies, including dog introductions, crate training and toilet training.  

It's a public group so even if you aren't a member you can still look at their files and read the posts on the page. I'd really encourage anybody with a dog to join because it's just such a helpful page and very interesting to read some of the posts and replies on it too even if you train dogs yourself. 

*I could go on to say a bit more but I'm running late for work however it's all covered in the facebook group I mentioned 

Finally finished work (so much for an "early bank holiday finish"), so I'll just add in what I wanted to say earlier and hopefully you might find it helpful. 


First impressions are very important for dogs which is why I usually recommend that owners wait until they've had their new dog/puppy for at least a week before allowing them to physically interact with each other. They'll still be allowed to see and smell each other, but only through barriers (baby gates/fences). Then, once you've bonded with the newcomer and both dogs have settled into their new routines, you can allow both of them to finally meet each other properly in an open space and off lead (on lead greetings are very restricting and can cause frustration). The best outcome is that they sniff each other, maybe have a little play but then ultimately ignore each other. 

I worked with one owner who kept her dogs separated at home for 4 weeks (each dog had it's own area of the house). After the 1st week she did the first meeting in a local park but as soon as she returned home the dogs were separated again but every day after that the dogs got to "meet" again in new locations. Only when they were out of the house were they allowed to mix but as the 4 weeks went on they spent more and more time together out of the house so when it came to having them having free range of the house together they were completely comfortable with each other. 

I'd definitely suggest keeping Riley and Elsa separated for the time being until everybody has gotten used to the situation. As Elsa doesn't like the crate currently would it be possible to throw together some kind of play pen? With a bit of chicken wire or anything you might have lying around in the shed? It's obviously important for Elsa to be able to have some freedom also so keeping her in the crate all the time isn't ideal either. Keeping them separate isn't just for Riley as you don't want Elsa becoming magnetised to him either (very common for a 2 month old pup who's just left her litter to "stick" to the next dog she meets). 


As for the crying at night, while I know that it's commonly said to just leave them "cry it out" but that really isn't helpful in the long run (especially if it's making Riley anxious too). Dogs don't cry for no reason and while people may believe that leaving them to scream the place down will teach them to "be okay alone", this isn't the case. I'd definitely suggest sleeping down with her for the first few nights or letting her sleep up in the room with you (in the crate, on the bed, on the floor, where ever NOTE: This doesn't have to be a permanent change). This way you'll be able to hear her if she gets up and needs to go out to the toilet and she wont feel so afraid. 


I've completely lost my train of thought now but I hope that some of that is useful/makes sense for you. I really would strongly recommend that you keep both of them separate for the time being though, give them both time to settle into this new reality.