Hello all,
We're stepping in to take our first 'adopted' dog, actually taking him as opposed to his current owner sending him to a shelter, this weekend! If interested, here is our welcome post with some pics and a little back story on Walter (the new guy), Jack (our current dog), and our former GSD Marshall:
http://www.dogforums.com/attention-all-new-members/114920-hello-just-joined.html
This being our first time taking in a dog older than 10 weeks or so, I have a question about sleeping arrangements and would like to discuss our plans for his first day home. First here's our plan...
Pick Walt up this Saturday morning, and when we get home, first thing is to grab Jack and head out for a good long walk. These 2 have already met once, walked together, played together, and eventually napped together at Walt's current home/yard. Aside from Walt's 15 second jumpy outburst of excitement upon seeing Jack for the first time waiting at the end of his driveway ready to walk, they got along wonderfully. I'm expecting the same when we get him home to our house. They are roughly same age, neutered, and both friendly and playful. When we get home from our walk we'll introduce him slowly to the yard and eventually the house, taking it slow and calm. Next up will be a visit to the vet that afternoon for a checkup, and lots of time spent together getting familiar.
Also, our dogs have always been crate trained, and Walt is crate trained from his former owner so that's a big plus. He is also house trained. Walt will be crated when we leave the house so the 2 dogs will not be alone together unsupervised, and also becuase Walt has chewed a couple of his current owner's rugs when left alone. Lack of exercise and training and just plain boredom...but that's another issue. Walt will get lots of exercise and obedience training with us! The hour or so I've worked with him so far has been a joy. He responds so well and has had zero objection to me handling him so far! :clap2:
As long as we're essentially doing the right things up to this point, my first question is regarding sleeping arrangements. Jack (and if you saw the other thread, our former GSD Marshall) have slept in our bedroom at the top of the stairs of our little bungalow house for the past couple of years. We have a twin comforter folded up on the floor in the corner of the room and our dogs arranged it as they may and slept there. This is currently where Jack sleeps still. There is simply not room enough for Walt's crate to be moved upstairs to this area unfortunately, but rather the dog crates will be kept downstairs in our office room near the back door to the yard. Our eventual goal will be to have Jack and Walt both sleep upstairs on the floor or on their blanket. Currently he sleeps in his owners bedroom on the floor, and he says sometimes he also crawls and wrestles himself under the bed!!!??? (I thought that was funny...)
What do you all recommend for Walt's sleeping arrangements to start off? As I said, first time doing this with an adult dog. With a puppy size crate it would be no problem...crate in the bedroom. But there isn't room for this large of a crate. Should we tether him? Crate him outside the bedroom? What do you think?
