Brining home a 5 year old Mastiff

[Shrek]

Hello Everyone!

If all goes as plan, we should be brining Shrek a 5 year old Mastiff into our home this weekend. Shrek is good with other dogs, has been raised with kids, and as far as we know should be a good fit for us. Shrek is being re-homed by the breeder for a family that originally bought him and due to the economy can longer afford to care for him. We are going to meet him tomorrow and if everything goes well will bring him home with us.

We have brought dogs into our home before, but usually as puppies.

So my questions is, do you have any tips on brining an older dog into your home?

Any tips or suggestions are appreciated!!

 

[stephanieb]

Welcome! What kind of Mastiff is Shrek? And do you have other animals?

 

[bahamamarg]

Hi Shrek - I may not be much help, but am a first time Mastiff owner and got Dexter at 3 1/2 yrs old. The rescue was very helpful and unfortunately things did not pan out as they were supposed to - so I would advise thT you take mall advise from the experienced owners here. We were told not to allow anyone but close family living with us around him in the first few weeks! Well you will soon find that everyone wants to meet (and pet) your new 'baby'. I think Dexter was overwhelmed and probably shell shocked - give your new dog plenty of time to adjust to a new home and new people. Dexter may always have been wary of strange people, i dont know, but I don't think having him around a bunch of strangers helped - he is fearful of new people resulting in some aggression which we are now trying to remedy. If you start off slowly in the first place you may not experience this.

 

[NeoBull]

Congrats! What type of Mastiff is he? Did the breeder tell you about any behaviour concerns?

 

[Shrek]

Thanks for the posts everyone. He is an Old English Mastiff. He has papers, and is absolutely beautiful. The breeder said the only bad behavior she has seen in him is he did mark (once or twice) when brought into a new house but she has males she uses for breeding and thought that was the cause. She also said he will go after cats, but we do not have cats and have a big fenced in yard.

She said Shrek does just fine with the other dogs, is not aggression and is submissive. She said he is VERY friendly, and overall is a great dog!

We have two other dogs, so Shrek will be the 3rd. We have a 6 year old Lab, who is like a teddy bear we feed and let out to go potty. We also have a two year old rescue mutt. Both do great with other dogs, and we have never had a problem, with them being around other animals. My In Laws have a farm with dogs, cattle, horses, ect....and we have never had a problem.

My biggest concern is we have a 4 year old and a 1 year old. They both LOVE dogs, just want to make sure I introduce them properly and do not overwhelm Shrek!

 

[NeoBull]

Sounds like a good guy, like you said, I'd just try to introduce everyone slowly so he doesn't get too overwhelmed. The breeder said he'd been around small children before? I have an almost 4 year old and a 15 month old. Our 10 month old Mastiff Branka is great with them (we've had her since 11 weeks though), the only problem is she's not super "spacialy aware" and will knock the 15 month old over some times, she's getting a lot better about it though, and my son is pretty steady on his feet so he's getting better about getting out of the way and not falling over with every little bump.

 

[Shrek]

Hey Everybody- here is an update and a question:

We did end up bring Shrek home with us. He is a sweet boy and for the most part, everything is going well.

One thing we do not like is Shrek has been trying to mount and hump our 6 year old Lab. I am guessing it is a dominance this, but we are worried that Shrek could really hurt our lab. Any suggestions on correcting this behavior?