It is easier to get two young animals to live in harmony as they will
grow up together, however with a bit of time and patience (it may take
up to 6-7 weeks) a young kitten or puppy can be introduced to an older
pet.
Your old pet should be exposed to as many new situations, visitors and
pets as possible. This will help them to adapt to any new pets in the
house.
If you are getting your new pet from a shelter then you should ask the
staff about its behaviour towards other animals; does it have a
history of aggression toward other animals?
When your new pet arrives it will be very tempting to spend a great
deal of time with it, perhaps at the expense of your old pet. You
should lavish praise and attention on your old pet to avoid any
jealousy issues, which can occur. When you are dealing with a puppy
and an adult dog, you should resist the temptation to be
overprotective of the young dog. If the adult reprimands the puppy try
not to interfere, this will upset the normal household hierarchy and
may lead the older animal to use excess force in the future....

http://groups.google.com/group/dogfoodmave

In article ,
ashley ross wrote:
It is easier to get two young animals to live in harmony

... than it is to get people to fall for your
badly-disguised ads.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

ashley ross wrote:
It is easier to get two young animals to live in harmony

than it is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Or was that something about
camels?

As I understand it, young animals mature into adults. I've heard many
horror stories about young animals, as they matured, deciding that, yes,
their housemate Must Die NOW.

Idiot spammers make good housemates!

If you are getting your new pet from a shelter then you should ask the
staff about its behaviour towards other animals; does it have a
history of aggression toward other animals?

Don't believe a word they say. They're caring for dozens or hundreds of
animals at a time and you cannot expect them to spend the time to
thoroughly evaluate each one. You also cannot expect the average shelter
worker or volunteer to have sufficient understanding of animal behavior to
accurately recognize what they're seeing. Also, some shelters seem to have
the attitude that any placement is better than keeping the critter at the
shelter, so they tend to be overly optimistic about potential adoptees,
sometimes to the point of misrepresenting the animal.

Observe the critter for yourself, keeping in mind that the shelter
environment tends to be stressful and the animal's behavior under different
circumstances might be completely different.

Ultimately, the decision is yours. The responsibility is yours, whether
the advice you receive is good, bad, or indifferent.

--
Mary & the depleted Ames National Zoo
(Ranger, Duke, Rhia-cat)

Mary Healey wrote:

Observe the critter for yourself, keeping in mind that the shelter
environment tends to be stressful and the animal's behavior under different
circumstances might be completely different.

Yep. Animals may behave very differently at the shelter than they
do at home. Alsotoo, they will usually take awhile to settle into
their new home, so you may not see their *true* colors until weeks
or even months after the adoption.

The responsibility is yours, whether
the advice you receive is good, bad, or indifferent.

I've never heard it put quite like that before, but a-freaking-men.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

"Mary Healey" wrote in message
.4...
It is easier to get two young animals to live in harmony

than it is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Or was that something about
camels?

How about entering dogs in Ames IA agility trials?

I've been told that it is pretty easy so, in today's mail, I gave it a try.

Judy
(heading out your way in a few weeks..........)

In article ,
Judy wrote:
I've been told that it is pretty easy so, in today's mail, I gave it a try.

Be honest - you're trying to get as far, far, far away from
the PA primaries as you can get.

Will this be the furthest you've traveled for trials?
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

"Melinda Shore" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Judy wrote:
I've been told that it is pretty easy so, in today's mail, I gave it a
try.

Be honest - you're trying to get as far, far, far away from
the PA primaries as you can get.

I had a discussion with a Clinton volunteer last night. She wanted to know
if I had made my decision yet. I told her I had decided to vote for any
candidates who addressed the issue of the incredibly annoying phone calls
from candidates and pollsters during elections and why they couldn't be
included on the Do Not Call list..

She told me that if I didn't declare - to her, right then and there - FOR a
candidate, that the phone calls would continue. And if I did, then they
would stop. boggle

She seemed completely unaware of the volume of calls that come into
households during elections. And not terribly concerned that they were
irritating to me.

Actually, the Clinton/Obama ones aren't too bad. There is a state senator
race here that is getting really noisy on the Republican side. The good
part of that is that it will end with the primary.

Will this be the furthest you've traveled for trials?

We've done trials in Florida before. It's two days of driving to both Ames
and to Palmetto.

The ones in Florida have a guest room about fifteen minutes away. And for a
couple of years, there were trials at that location three weekends in a row.
Which was wonderful for agility but *was* stretching that guests and fish
after three days rule........

This one is a couple of hours south of daughter in Minnesota. I like small
trials and the trial secretary tells me that it's a really small trial and
that they never fill. We had hoped for one actually IN Minnesota and DURING
our stay there but that didn't happen. So we'll take two days to drive to
Iowa, do two days of trials and then head to Saint Peter.

And see how the schnauzers feel about two cats. And vice versa.

Daughter has decided it's time for her to get a dog. I think she's ready
but I'm not so sure about the kitties.

Judy

"Judy" wrote :
"Mary Healey" wrote in message
.4...
It is easier to get two young animals to live in harmony

than it is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Or was that something
about camels?

How about entering dogs in Ames IA agility trials?

Oh, it's LOTS easier to enter the CCKC agility trials (May 31, June 1 PLUG
PLUG PLUG) than to raise young critters.

Judy
(heading out your way in a few weeks..........)

Oh, I should be around g.

--
Mary & the depleted Ames National Zoo
(Ranger, Duke, Rhia-cat)

In article ,
Judy wrote:
She told me that if I didn't declare - to her, right then and there - FOR a
candidate, that the phone calls would continue. And if I did, then they
would stop. boggle

You should probably let the Clinton campaign know that
they've got volunteers committing extortion. That's
insane.

This one is a couple of hours south of daughter in
Minnesota.

Ah. I was trying to figure out how, in a continent full of
agility trials, you chose that particular one.

Daughter has decided it's time for her to get a dog. I think she's ready
but I'm not so sure about the kitties.

Oh, cats always need something to feel superior to, and a
dog is just the ticket.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

In article ,
"Judy" wrote:


She seemed completely unaware of the volume of calls that come into
households during elections. And not terribly concerned that they were
irritating to me.

I totally ignore them. We've gotten very, very few. One Dem and one
Republican in the house (although we usually wind up voting the same
way), maybe they think we're not worth the effort.

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com