Our 1YR old Staffy bull male is getting a friend!

Well the wifey and I have been trying to decide for months if we were ready for the commitment of another pup. Our pup Marley romps and plays with all the neighborhood dogs and kids included 175lb great dane he gets along great with. He has never shown ANY signs of animal aggression, even when other dogs show aggression towards him as their nitwit handlers bring their dogs closer and closer. "He's never done this before I dont understand" Just back the F*&K away from my pup then lady LOL!

Anyways, back on topic, a co-worker of mine has a 6 month old yellow lab pup that he simply cannot care for anymore. They werent ready for the work and dont have the patience to work with the lab. Instead he's put in a cage so he wont jump on them and I think this will eventually lead to some serious issues. As soon as I heard about this and the possibility he would be getting rid of the dog I jumped all over it. Beau is a very healthy, youthful, and VERY playful 6 month old yellow lab pup. Now I know already what I am getting into, as labs are most definitely puppies for life; although I think our Staffybull can give him a run for his money.

My questions to you all are really more general. Types of things I should look out for? Things I should do when introducing the two? Tips for using Marley to help train this dog or training tips in general.

I knew in my heart of hearts that the reason my co-workers pup was acting out was bc they didnt pay him any attention & dogs just want to be involved and a part of the family; his reasoning was we keep him in the cage bc he jumps on us, I was thinking turn your back on him when he does and he will stop. Instead I said nothing bc he is a beautiful AKC registered lab and we really wanted to 'save' him LOL. Knowing that we made the decision to take him in and I just want to make this the best experience possible. Both dogs are all up to date on shots/vaccinations, ect.

We are getting him tonight, so wish us luck! Thanks again for all the help, kind comments, and advice given on this board all the time. Even though im not around often I believe this forum to be an invaluable tool for raising our stubborn staffy-bulls

My other question is:

Up until two weeks ago Marley had been on Nature's Variety Instinct dry food (one of the better ones I have found here in the US), and last week we decided to give the Darford Zero-G a try. The ingredients in that food are amazing and Marley had no problem switching over and gobbling it up.

Problem #1... since we will now have two dogs I cannot afford to blow through $70 25lb bags of dog food but their nutrition is still of UTMOST importance. What do you guys recommend as a great food they can both eat? Anything less than $70 would be great, even if its only by a few bucks. $70/bag would be fine if we were talking 40lb bags but we are talking about bags around half that size LOL. Its a great food though and I would recommend that anyone try it. Marleys coat is great, stool is consistent, and his energy level is definitely 'steady'.

I'm sorry, I can't help on any of your questions, but I am wishing you a massive good luck for later. I hope all goes amazingly well, you seem clued up and ready, I am sure all will be fine

When you get a spare second though can we please have some pics Xx

HAHA certainly! Need to take Marleys 1YR old pics anyways, weve been keeping a timeline of him since we got him last December.

Thanks for the wishes!

Just want to wish you lots of happiness with the new addition to your family and hope Marley has fun with his new playmate

Have you tried feeding raw it's much cheaper, if not we have lots of people here on the forum from the US who will be able to help you with the food

Good luck with your new addition to the family

I can't really help with the food question.

Have the dogs meet before? You should take them for a long walk together before taking them into the house. Be sure not to pay too much attention to the new dog the first couple of days. If you are going to leave them alone in the house kep them seperated just in case. Also learn about body language so you can spot a problem before it gets serious. Here is a good link.

http://staffy-bull-terrier.co.uk/dogbodylanguage.html

Good luck and congrats on the new addition and don't forget to post some pics.

Congratulations on your addition! I feed raw and the base of the feeding is chicken leg quarters. I get them from a place called Food-4-Less and it costs me less than a $1/day to keep him on this which he thrives on. I suppliment with organs and a freeze dried mixture that I give a few times a week. Other things he gets are chicken feet, wings, and sometimes sardines. In all it probably works out to about $35-40/month but that is about half of what Natures Variety Instinct is and my guess is 25lbs is gone in about 20 days. My dog thrives on the prey model raw diet and does far better than on the highest quality kibble. Every dog is different and some people can't do it for one reason or another. If you do go this route the "formula" is simple 2-3% of target adult weight per day made up of 80% meat, 10% bone and 10% organs (half of which should be liver). I do a little less liver because of the runs he can get if he gets too much... (substite for me is the freeze dried stuff). On this he has a great coat, loads of energy and nice stools and little to no gas/smell.

I am in VA and I feed Taste Of The Wild. It is a grain feed food. I have nice firm stool from my boy. I also know other people who feed this food with no problems. It is about $40-$45 for a 35lb bag. I have also heard of people having good results from a brand called Kirklands $28 for 40lb bag. It is also grain free, but it is only carried at Costco. The Costco in my area does not carry it so I have not tried it.

OK well... what a night

We went for a long walk with a lead in each hand correcting them when they tried to stop and sniff eachother out and continued on about our walk. By the time we got back to 'our' yard theywere still antsy to see eachother but much better.

We got them inside and marley (our staffy bull) sniffed and immediately pinned Beau (the lab) down and was nipping at his neck with a little bit of a growl. I seperated them and we tried again 10 minutes later. At this time I paid a little more attention to the body language as jstaff suggested and noticed both dogs were wagging their tails during this; we concluded Marley was pinning down the much bigger lab to establish dominance that this was his house.

The rest of the night was spent with them playing and running around the house like maniacs. They do very well together and hopefully, after they realize neither one is leaving, will play and sit together instead of play play play all day. Both dogs were exhausted by bedtime which I brought them up and put them in their seperate crates right next to eachother our bedroom. They tried to raise a fuss and I put a blanket over their cages and it was lights out.

I know this is a given because of the circumstances, but the previous owners did not really work with their lab at all for the first 6 months and left him crated or just by himself most of the day. He is going to take some work and training, but ive noticed neither one really wants to listen to anything I have to say when they are both together.

Does anyone have any suggestions for STARTING, late obviously, to work with this 6 month old lab pup and Marley together or would it be better done separate? Really I wish there was someone near to me in GA whom I could pay to come teach us how to work with them. Marley himself is a pretty well behaved puppy because we worked with him from a young age; I am just worried this dogs influence will rub off on Marley and or that we are not experienced enough to train this big lab this late in his 'developmental' stages.

All in all we are very excited and they both have playmates now, I think I was a little unprepared though as the lab has been taught no manners what so ever thus far.

Thanks again guys!