Today's episode is all about safely introducing your new puppy to other pets in your home,

whether that's another dog, a cat, or something else entirely.

Welcome to the puppy training podcast. I'm Amy Jensen, founder of Baxter and Bella,

the online puppy school. Here, we are all about helping you create the best possible experience raising a puppy,

from training tips to practical tricks, all aimed at fostering a happy, well-behaved dog who

truly feels like part of the family. So, if you are ready to enjoy the journey and strengthen

the bond with your dog. Let's get started.

Hi everybody. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you being here. So it was National Dog Day the other day. Did you and your dog celebrate? I hope so. Baxter and Bella, they love to

get outside. They like to play Frisbee. They like to do go sniff walks. If you never tried a go sniff

walk with your dog, I highly recommend it. You put them on a longer leash. I like 10 foot

leashes and they just get to sniff and be a dog. And they check in and I give him a reward.

And then we move along and they think it's the best thing in the world. So if you haven't tried it,

go do it. Okay, today we are talking

about pet introductions. These early meetings matter. So when they're done right, they lay the

foundation for lifelong harmony in your house. Done poorly, they can lead to stress or even

aggression. So let's walk through a calm, controlled process of introducing a new puppy to your family and pets at home.

Now, before your puppy even meets the other pet, let's think about space and some supervision.

You can use things like baby gates, crates, or leashes, just to give each animal their own space.

We want to also make sure that they have room to retreat

if they want to, and we never force face-to-face meetings right away. So what this might look like is

you have a baby gate set up and the puppy's on one side of the baby gate and your other dogs in the other

room. They can come to the baby gate sniff one, two, three, and then I lure them away from each other, and then they can come back and sniff one, two, three, and then I lure them away from

...