I should add that Raffles respected her space so it was never a problem, so the key is how to get Mickey to respect her space. Also bearing in mind that he's probably partially deaf, though I think a snap would be fairly self explantory! I feel for both of them as Mickey hasn't got a nasty bone in his body, and Ginny just likes her space.

 

At the moment he's absolutely spark out in Ginny's crate, and she is on the mat on the kitchen floor. Heaven only knows how we're going to cope with tonight! At this point - puppies seem easier!
Now they've swapped and Ginny is in her crate, and Mickey is on the kitchen mat. I fed Mickey in his own crate, but that hasn't had a look-in since, though Ginny was in it for a while after. Someone please tell me what's in their heads!

 

My way of dealing with this through the foster dogs I had over the years was to let the dogs work things out themselves as much of the time as possible, within a strict set of rules that I had for myself. I never, ever left the dogs alone even for a minute, making sure one of them even came to the bathroom with me when I went. I've had things disintegrate in less than a minute when I am not in the room. They were always separated at night, using crates and/or baby gates.

I also monitored their interactions very closely, paying attention to the body language of both dogs. Any sign that things might get the least bit nasty, I distracted them and separated them. If the new dog was horning in on my dog's space, I would let my dog correct that without interference, but that was because I knew my dogs well and could tell if they were getting stressed, over excited, or giving warnings to the new dog. If my dog was getting stressed I would, same as above, distract and separate.

I made sure my own dog and the new dog each got separate time with me and time alone as well as time when they were both with me. And of course I immediately started with training the new dog unless that dog was traumatized and afraid. If the dog was able to be trained, I would start out with simple but important things like Wait, Come, Sit, the all-purpose "uh-uh" and Leave It as well as good leash manners.

A good relationship between the new dog and myself wherein the dog knew that doing what I asked would be nicely rewarded always helped a great deal in fostering good relations between the dogs, because it made it so much easier to distract the new dog or to break any tension that was arising.

 

Phew, first night out of the way. Ginny came upstairs with us as usual and Mickey was happy to stay down here on his own, and was still fast asleep when we came down. Waggy tails out in the garden. Just now, Mickey wanted to get up on the settee and needed a bit of a hand, then Ginny got up and lay next to him for a while, so I think they'll sort themselves out. I'd forgotten how nerve racking it was though!
We've got a gate at the bottom of the stairs so it's probably a good idea to keep it that way as he's not really up to stairs.

 

He likes his new swimming pool - four dips already. It's 34C today and hotter tomorrow so they're not outside much. I suspect part of his barging into Ginny's space is poor eyesight, and we have trouble spotting her sometimes - perhaps we need a different colour bed so she's more visible (though part of it is bad manners)

 

I'm glad you have a pool for him and that he uses it to cool down. Mine don't like pools. It hit 34C here today. Senior dog kept demanding a game of fetch, followed by flopping in the long grass to cool off. It's supposed to hit 35 here tomorrow. I watered the grass this evening in hopes the moisture will keep the grass slightly cooler.

 

We'd be so happy if it were only 35C here! It has been between 110 and 114F here lately. (in the vicinity of 45C)
Walking my dog means getting out the door as soon as it is light enough to see the ground well enough to spot snakes or toads, and if for some reason we can't get out and back before the sun is fully up we can't do a walk at all.
At this time of year a kind of cabin fever sets in, only due to heat instead of cold. I like the climate here, am well adapted to heat, but I feel bad for my dogs some days (and those walks are important to me too).

A kiddie pool isn't even an option here because the water would be too hot. There's no such thing as cold tap or hose water here at this time of year.

 

No Ginny doesn't like water either, but she's got a much thinner coat. We're quite lucky being surrounded by trees here so there's always some shade somewhere, and it rarely reaches 40C, though it has done. They're just getting one walk about 7.30am which is all I can cope with, never mind them! I think we have the interaction all cracked now. Mickey gets fed in his crate, and if Ginny's slow she gets fed in her crate as well. If they get a chew we'll push the door up on Ginny's crate as she invariably takes it there and Mickey will try to get in if he finishes first. Much more settled now though and they touch noses and waggy tails in the mornings. Our first shopping expedition was fine - Mickey in his crate and Ginny loose, no problems at all. He sleeps a lot though!
I wholeheartedly recommend a senior dog. He's a happy little soul and doesn't deserve to be in a shelter for his later years.
He does love rolling in smelly things though!

 

Sorry if I'm boring, but its 10 days in and we had a game of chase around the settee today with zoomies out into the garden - a 15 year old! The first lick of my arm today as well. It's such a change to go from hyperactive puppies to a senior dog having zoomies followed by instant sleep. He played with the squeaky duck last week, but that lasted about 30 seconds before the attention deserted him. He had a toad (really! just a small one) in his crate this morning. I don't think he could really see it but knew it was there, but I rescued it and put it outside. I'm dreading mouse season! We get a lot of mice in the house over winter, and he really is a terrier - cue destroyed kitchen! It's sad and funny, if there's a hole in the ground, he sticks his nose in it and snorts just like Raffles used to. I miss Raffles so much but so glad to have Mickey as well.