How to introduce my 4 year old to 11 week old pup

Well today I had my home visit off rspca, ziva will be coming to join me and bruno on Friday. Any advice on how to introduce the two of them please. Thank you x

As calmly as possible... Nah that isn't gonna happen is it

For the first meeting try and be on neutral ground or in the garden with both on lead and control the encounter with loose leads. If they are both fine and not too playful try them off lead but supervised and see what happens.

Let them play and get to know each other Pauline but be mindful that Ziva is only 11 weeks so will get tired quiet quickly. Give Ziva some time to recover and don't let your 4 year old bother her whilst resting.

I'm sure others will give more helpful tips

I would have Bruno on a long lead and Ziva off lead, with the lead being there as a safety net only. In my experience, older dogs know that a puppy is a puppy and moderate their behaviour accordingly but if you have Bruno on a line you can step in quickly if for any reason it goes wrong. I'm assuming you've had a couple of meets including off lead, though, so I can't see that there will be a problem.

Supervise a lot for the first few days and keep any eye out for Bruno getting annoyed or anything, but don't worry if play is rough. That's what staffies do best! You'll probably find that the worst of it comes from Ziva though.

I would then let them bond - let them play together and sleep together. Give them time out if you need to but otherwise let them be together.

The only really clear demarkation line we set down when Millie joined us (also RSPCA, similar age to Ziva) was when it comes to feeding. None of our dogs are food proud but I didn't want either of the big ones shoving Millie out of the way, so from the beginning she had her bowl put down well away from the others, and I stood between them. Just as well as she's quite a dainty eater still and Chaos will readily guzzle hers too.

Make sure Bruno still gets plenty of attention so his nose doesn't get out of joint. And brace yourselfs, your lives are just about to get turned upside down!