(bright folk music) (air whooshing) - Hi, I'm Karen Kalunian, and today we're gonna be speaking about how to integrate a puppy into your home.

♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ (dog barks) - Welcome in to another episode of "Animal Talk."

I'm your host, Karen Kalunian.

We're here at the heart of Rhode Island with Jen Reynolds from Training Tales, and we're gonna just go over a couple of little tips if you're gonna try to integrate a new puppy into your home.

And say, for instance, that this beautiful coonhound, Paris, is your current dog, and you wanna bring this little sweetheart, Moon, into your home, what do you do?

So, Jen, tell us what would be the best way, hopefully, you do get to meet the dogs, first of all, at the shelter or the rescue that you're going to.

That's imperative before you even bring the puppy home.

That being said, what would you do when you finally do get them home?

- So the first few days is gonna be the most important for integration into the home environment.

So we wanna make sure that the first day that you bring 'em home, that you're gonna start by taking them for a walk together around the block in an area that is not super familiar to each either of them.

- Right.

- That way, you're on neutral territory.

So as we're walking- - Sniffing is important.

- And we're sniffing.

- Dogs sniff.

- So we're gonna walk kind of parallel to each other, and then we're gonna let them sniff for a few seconds, and then we're gonna keep walking, and then we're gonna repeat that several times.

Usually over the first few days, we definitely wanna focus mostly on outdoor walks and outdoor play in the yard.

And then over the next couple of weeks, we do more integration in the house.

Resident dogs who are already home and, you know, have already claimed that's their spot may get a little upset if a puppy comes and takes their favorite toy or their spot on the couch.

- Or their food.

(laughs) - Or their food.

So we wanna make sure that we're really monitoring our resources once they start integrating in the house and that they're not sharing anything at first.

- And you know, it's important to know too that right now Paris is being pretty calm, and that's not always gonna be the necessary case in your home because you might have a little bit of a hyper dog.

That's why you're getting the puppy to occupy the dog.

So you're just gonna wanna take things slow.

I personally, Jen, love to keep a lead on a dog when there's a new dog coming in just in case something should happen or go awry.

- Yes.

- It's always nice to have something to grab.

You never wanna grab a dog by the collar to try to pull it.

You just always, if you could have, this is kind of a heavy slip lead, but maybe a lighter slip lead so that in case they get a little frustrated, you wanna be able to separate them easily without a challenge.

- So a drag leash on is definitely really important and going really slow, you know?

- Slow is the key.

- Slow is very- - Slow and steady is the key.

- And I have taken home, all of my dogs are rescue dogs.

It takes me about a good three weeks to fully integrate a new dog into the house.

- Sure, sure.

- And depending upon temperament of your resident dog, it may take even a little bit longer.

But slow and steady for long-term success is very important.

- Patience.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - Patience.

Not only you gonna be trying to train a new puppy, but you're also gonna be trying to have them become best friends.

- Yes.

- So I wanna thank Jen for stopping by today at the heart of Rhode Island from Training Tales and tell you a little bit about, those are just the tip of the iceberg.

There's so much more you can learn, and that's why you're gonna tune in again next week.

To watch more videos like this, visit ripbs.org/animaltalk.

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