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Advice for integrating a service puppy into household with older, non-service dog?

• I have Aspergers, complicated by Bipolar II. I do very well for myself as a whole, but in order to prevent/Cope with the occasional attack of sensory overload or severe anxiety attacks that may trigger a hypo-manic episode, I was authorized to utilize a service dog under the ADA. I have a 14 year old Goberian (Siberian husky/Golden Retriever hybrid breed) that I have raised and loved like my own child since I was 9 years old. While she is in truly astonishingly good health, especially considering her age, my parents agreed to pay for the cost of adopting a Goberian puppy from a reputable Goberian breeder, and most importantly, also pay for all the costs involved with the two to four extra months of training this particular breeder offered to fully prepare the new puppy to act as my certified service dog. The breeder will also take care of the certification process and obtain the official vest before shipping him up to my new home. I am grateful for this opportunity, as getting an official service dog usually costs upwards of 10,000, according to others I have talked to; and I fully intend to use McKinley to aid in my mentoring of young kids with Aspergers, as Denali has done so successfully. However, this means McKinley (I let the breeder know the puppy's name so that she could start training him to respond by name from the start) will likely not be introduced into my home until he is 4-6 months old, which I worry may make it harder for him and Denali to bond in a parent/child manner. Now that all that background is out of the way, here is my concern: Denali (the 14- year old Goberian) has been serving as my support dog in academic situations, since I moved out on my own for college (support vs. service are very different levels of certification, and thus differ in where you can easily utilize one or the other). While she is an amazing service dog, she does not have the rigid training and certification McKinley will be receiving, and I am concerned that the transition to a new puppy will be made doubly hard by the need to integrate McKinley into my daily routine as an official service dog. How should I go about introducing this puppy into Denali's and my home and integrate him into the family without making my darling girl feel displaced? I certainly don't want her to feel as if she is being replaced or feel old by the sudden introduction of a teen-age puppy's energy. And how should I deal with the role of both dogs in my daily life as service animals. Should I bring them both with me, or alternate? Or let Denali laze on her big chair and watch tv and stalk squirrels while McKinley takes over? Finally, this is particularly sensitive for both Denali and I because she has distanced herself from other dogs as a general rule after the tragic death of her brother, who was my sister's dog and grew up with Denali. He died almost six years ago, but I'm wary of whether Denali will welcome a new dog into the family, or ignore him so long as she is still number one with me. How can I best make them feel like family, rather than competition? I would like her to take to McKinley as an adoptive mother ideally, as she has so many wonderful traits I would hope he would learn by example, and then when Denali finally does pass away from us, there will be something of her she left behind. But then my final concern (for real this time) is how to let Denali maintain her habits and personality, which seems like it will be modelling the far less formal training and more-casual home habits (versus her very formal behavior while with me as a support dog) Denali is familiar with to McKinley, who will be coming from a far more strict, formal training to act as an Autism/Aspergers service dog. How can I best try to make this transition easy and positive for both dogs and myself, while making sure both dogs feel equally important in the family, without making Denali feel displaced, or McKinley feel like he is only a "back-up" service dog. I want them to get the best from each other and from myself, and ideally feel like McKinley has integrated into both roles, service and family member. I want this puppy to be the adoptive son Denali never had the option to have, in every sense, So any advice? I realize this was very complicated and full of what may come across as needless exposition, but an Aspergers/autism service dog is such a blessing, never mind two, that I don't want to mess this up.

• Answer:

  I personally think you are treating Denali as having human feelings rather than canine ones. She is never going to see a new puppy as her adoptive son, and she is not going to take offence if a new dog is doing more for you in the way of support than she can do. Denali is now a really old lady and will probably be more than happy to just sit back and take it easy. As long as you just treat her basically the same as you always have she will be fine. She may take a while to accept a new pup into your house and you must make sure she has a space of her own to retire to if she needs to be away from the antics of a young dog. You must also allow her to chastise the pup if it gets too much for her sometimes, as long as its not actual biting him. Pups need to learn boundaries from older dogs. You may find that having a younger dog about the place will give your Denali a new lease of life, as is often the case when old dogs get a younger companion. There are some really helpful tips on introducing an older dog to a new dog on the websites below. http://www.google.co.uk/webhp?source=search_app#hl=en&sugexp=cgsbsh&gs_nf=1&pq=keeping%20a%20dog%20occupied%20after%20surgery&cp=32&gs_id=d3&xhr=t&q=introducing+a+new+dog+to+an+older+dog&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&oq=Intrducing+a+new+dog+to+an+older&aq=0l&aqi=g-l2g-jl1&aql=t&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=1f9f75d11f399bcc&biw=1280&bih=653 Stop worrying so much and relax and all will be fine. Good Luck.