need advice on two altered/unaltered males dogs living together

jellyfish

I have a friend who is going to be living with us for the time being, perhaps a few months or so.

Skwisgaar is a tiny 10 pound, neutered, male scottish-terrier mix puppy (5-6 months) who loves people, needs to be on someone, so dependent on people he has separation anxiety, and has a ton of never ending energy. He loves strangers and is always extremely upbeat. He is a people pleaser and only lives to make his master happy. He is very all-american.

Toki, on the other hand, is an unaltered 11 month old Japanese Akita, very stoic, laid back, hates people, needs his private space and time, very independent, and is stubborn. Toki is two feet tall and then some, and 75lbs. Very few strangers pass Toki's impossible standards of humanity. He is not a people pleaser. Never was a single fuck given from Toki.
Toki is the quintessential perfect dog in my eyes. (and is really what every dog owner wants their dog to be, in my biased opinion, ha)

Both dogs play extremely well together. They are both very respectful in their communication and they will play for hours on end. Toki handicaps to Skwisgaar all the time, and Toki seems to understand how tiny and fragile Swkizzard is by being gentle with him when wrestling. Toki *now* even lets Skwiz play with his toys. ("his" toys being both skwiz and toki's toys) (though, not bully stick/other chewies).


I have read a few threads, which have been infinitely helpful, but I still have some questions.

-They play together well, but will living together be any different? Will their doggy friendship change? Will they ever stop playing with each other for less than 4 hours at a time?
-How do people manage dogs with completely different personalities and sizes living together?
-Should I be worried about Toki correcting Swkizgaar? (ie: the size difference, I don't want Toki to accidentally hurt skwiz)
-Should I allow them to have time apart on the fact that Toki seems to enjoy his "me" time.
-How can I prevent Toki from learning bad habits from Swkizgaar (no offense to swkiz, but he poops in the house, barks a lot because of separation anxiety, gets on the couches WAY too much)
-Will there be issues because they are both male and one is altered, the other is not?

WrylyBrindle

I'll take #4- YES. In our house, even though my reactive boy 65lb Sage loves 75 lb Reilly and 29lb Juno, he has several retreats and is allowed his own time. He puts himself to bed at night, and the other dogs know to leave him alone or stay back a bit further if he needs space. But when Juno was a puppy, she didnt know that, and I didnt want to risk Sage reacting/redirecting onto her, so I would watch Sage closely and see if he began to seem in the early indications of 'crowded' and let him into the bedroom and closed the door. OR put him in the studio with a bully stick. I still keep him in the studio while I am away at work, even though Im sure they are all fine to hang out together. I think absence keeps the heart fond, and lets him recharge and have peace, as well as limits his scanning and guarding out the window and if he does get barky/guardy, it doesnt stress the girls. I think a two pronged strategy of crating the puppy at times and letting Toki have retreats and alone time will keep things from getting out of hand and listening to Toki carefully yourself will not allow it to get to a point where Toki feels no-one is listening to him and he needs to take the bull by the horns himself! Think of it like being a classroom teacher- once everyone knows what the customs and structure are- we have math, then a snack, then social studies, them music, then,lunch, then recess, then english- all is well but when a substitute arrives and structure goes out the window no one knows when they will have a snack, of if the sub knows that I like to read by myself at free choice, and anxiety builds, and its every man for himself!

jellyfish

thanks for the advice @wrylybrindle! Just as I was reading this, Toki went into his crate on his own free will, which I always take as an indicator that he wants to be in his own space and not be bothered. I am kind of worried that Skwisgaar might go into Toki's crate with or without him in it and Toki might not be too thrilled. I just don't know how territorial Toki would be over a crate, my guess is not much, but I want Toki to know that his crate is HIS; a place that he can be undisturbed if he needs some alone time. I think taking Skwiz away from Toki when he is in his crate is a good idea, and I hadn't thought about that before you mentioned it.

PoetikDragon

Crate train Skwiz and keep his crate far away from Toki's. Will be a useful tool with the separation anxiety too.

Calia

Being that Skwiz is so significantly smaller than Toki, you might be able to get away with putting up a barrier to the room that Toki's crate is it, one that's short enough for Toki to go over but just tall enough to keep Skwiz out.

Losech

I think everything really depends on the individual dogs and their personalities. If you feel that Toki needs his space, give him time away from the guest.

When I watched my neighbor's dog a couple times, I'd have to crate him every now and then or Juneau might eat him (small dogs entice her in a prey-like way) or Conker would kill him. Conker generally gets along well with other dogs if he is given his own space, which Pepper would not do, so I had to separate them or Conker would attack him after a while.
Pepper had lots of habits I didn't like. I just would either crate him when he did, or would teach him not to do that. Conker did start to pick up a few of them from Pepper but I easily trained them out of him. Giving him something else to do that I preferred helped.
I've noticed that Conker gets along a lot better with unaltered dogs that altered dogs. That doesn't mean he won't get along with dogs with no balls, but he is less quarrelsome around those that do have them. With Juneau and Sasha that doesn't matter, everything depends on the dog's personality and activity level. (And size, with Juneau.)