Babysitting a puppy

honestly for one night I'd just make a separate area for the pup. The dog came from a place where disease is often present and they probably loaded the poor thing to the gills with vaccine. The fewer stressors for it ON TOP of the huge stress of being "a present"...might cause a low in the immune system a bug can grab onto. Many dogs from shelters also develop KC after a bit so might be best to keep it from your dogs for the same reasons...

Just one person's opinion tho.

 I'd have to agree. It's only for one night, so just keep the pup separate completely from your dogs.

Well, that was unanimous! The whole idea is kind of silly, isn't it? The two girls have met the puppy a week ago, they know they're getting a puppy, and they really should just take it home. The thinking is, the whole family is going to be at our house all night tomorrow, and the puppy would have to come with anyway rather than be alone in her new home for several hours. So, she could go straight from the shelter to our house to play with cranky mama and the live 90-lb wrecking ball.

 Now I need to convince my wife and kids that this is not all puppy-love fun and games and keep the poor tyke separated. 

Fenris

Now I need to convince my wife and kids that this is not all puppy-love fun and games and keep the poor tyke separated

Come at it from the health point of view and you should be fine. They all should understand that babies are delicate and not up to constant company and kissing from what amt to strangers...even with human infants that is the general rule in our society at least!

The health aspect is important and I agree that there is no need to introduce the pup to your dogs.  You might also think of the puppy and the stress of leaving a shelter and coming to a new place, new people and all that entails.  We tend to think of the puppy feeling so happy and grateful to be saved from the shelter but most dogs are disoriented and it takes time for them to adjust.  Best to let the pup have a quiet place at your house.  It will be making another move right away and this will entail more adjustment for the puppy.  Not saying the puppy won't be fine and adust well but I like to give them some space and time to adjust the first few days.  With kids this will be pretty tough. lol

Well, here's the puppy. Cute as a button.

Unfortunately, the staff vet at the shelter told my wife and her brother that the puppy would be fine around our dogs, so she wanted to let everyone sniff each other, over my protests. Bad idea. The bullmastiff got really tense and snappy at the puppy. No growling, puckering, or posing, just lunging hard for the puppy with her mouth. I was on top of it, so there was no danger to the puppy, but it would have gotten really  scary for her very quickly.

They're separated. The puppy has a quiet space, sleeping in the kids' room.

This aggression concerns me, though. The mastiff does not like little dogs. Known issue; she had a couple of bad encounters when she was a few months old. Does she not know the difference between a puppy and a toy breed maybe? Or, is she, being only a year old, just not mature enough yet? Does the little puppy represent competition to her? 

Without seeing what actually happened, there's no way to really know what the issue was. I will say this though, some dogs just don't care for other dogs, be they puppy or not. There's so many reasons the mastiff could have acted that way...

How much exposure has your mastiff had to other dogs and puppies outside the home? 

Ok -- I'm gonna go back a bit to the initial post here -- Don't just keep the pup separated.  MAKE SURE it potties in an area ***COMPLETELY SEPARATE*** from your dogs.

this dog hasn't had a fecal -- guaranteed they didn't give it one at the shelter either.

1.  Whips and hookworms are ZOONOTIC -- that means it's not just your dogs that can catch them -- but KIDS.  So you wipe up that poop on the kitchen floor?  It may have left hooks and whips behind and humans can pick them up in their feet.  *anyone* ever walk across the kitchen floor barefoot??

2.  Outside it's the same thing -- once you have hooks and whips in your yard **YOU HAVE THEM FOREVER**.

 Don't mistake a shelter's efforts to reassure a family and make it 'all nice' for the family to bond with this puppy into an all clear for YOUR dogs and your home to get polluted with parasites (which no one can do a thing about until a vet visit unless you happen to have a bottle of Ivomec on hand!!!)

Sorry -- we took a dog just prior to a hurricane once -- and now I will ***FOREVER*** have hooks and whips in MY yard as permanent payment for that one short good deed!!!

Today shelters are simply trying to get dogs adopted with minimum stress and to set things up to 'work well' -- they are NOT dealing from a full deck. 

I'm sure no one has time to take this pup to the VET today, but it would be the best Christmas present to give **everyone** in the family.  Getting that pup not only wormed for roundworms but a fecal to see what the heck you're spreading in your own home could save a whole lot of grief. 

I don't mean to be a downer, sorry -- I learned that lesson the HARD way and *LOST* one of my dogs as a result.  Mike was old, and those hooks and whips just tore thru him and literally in 3 weeks he was dead and I never even knew he was sick until he collapsed on me.  My other two had a really *light* infestation of hooks/whips but Mike was susceptible.  But even now -- 12 years later -- Ms. Kee has battled whips/hooks all summer long simply because those d!@#$ things are still in my yard.

3girls

How much exposure has your mastiff had to other dogs and puppies outside the home?

Lots. Until she was about 9 months, we had her in puppy classes, open-play boarding, and the dog park. You don't get a bullmastiff expecting a social butterfly, but I was determined to make sure she had positive experiences with other dogs and learned how to behave, respect boundaries, read signals, etc.

She's also grown up with her big sister, the rescued GSD mix. As tightly wound up and leash/fence reactive as the mix is, she's also an excellent talker off leash -- she is very expressive, knows exactly how to talk to other dogs, and respects cues to back off. Really good with little puppies as well. Good role model except for that whole terrotorial/fence/leash psycho bit.

At nine months, it was clear she was starting to learn she could use her weight and size to get away with rude behavior, so no more dog park or any other unstructured play. Little dogs were getting to be an issue especially. The trigger would go like this: Even though our dog park has a separate small-dog area, someone would always walk into the big-dog area carrying a tiny breed and put the shivering tyke down right in the most crowded area. My bullmastiff runs up. She's got her play invitations correct but is way too rough and doesn't respect warning signs. Little dog snarls, then barks, then snaps. My puppy is now way too agitated for the park, and I take her out. Since a couple of those incidents she's just taken to hating on little dogs.

I had expected her to know the difference between an adult, small dog and a baby, though. And I don't expect a bullmastiff to love other dogs, but I do expect her to respect my choices who and what to let into the house. The mix got it just right. She kept her distance, sniffed politely when invited, and stayed out of the way when she saw her younger sister get tense. It wasn't that we weren't clearly communicating that this animal belonged to us humans, so why was she so intent on getting her mouth on that puppy? I'm going to have to figure this out somehow, or we can't consider ever fostering, adopting, or otherwise adding to the pack later.

Fenris

She's got her play invitations correct but is way too rough and doesn't respect warning signs. Little dog snarls, then barks, then snaps. My puppy is now way too agitated for the park, and I take her out. Since a couple of those incidents she's just taken to hating on little dogs.

She's probably taken your clues that "little dog=agitated worried anxiious owner and leaving a place I like"....so there's one possibility?

YOU need to see how you are reacting...if you anticipate trouble...trouble will undoubtedly occur. The fact that you say you have TWO dogs that are in some way not acting appropriately in certain situations involving other animals/dogs...tells me that you are probably anticipating a problem...so do try to see and feel how you act in those situations.

Simply getting ready for a walk...are you tense? thinking about what you will do IN CASE you meet another dog? assessing your route or mentally "girding your loins" for combat? Many people do this without even realizing it...sometimes for good reason (after all dog snarking is scary and dog FIGHTS, are terrifying. It only needs to happen once for most folks to get gun shy)

Don't get me wrong dogs of vastly different sizes (have experience here as I own a Giant breed and a small, but not Toy, breed) ARE 100% capable of causing injury to one another...BUT you are better instilling a fallback command like "LEAVE IT" or "EASY" than constantly being tense or worried "what if". If you are relaxed in knowing your command will be followed you can truly allow your dog more freedom to interact with others.

Cleo knows "LEAVE IT" to mean..."stop immediately, look at me at least briefly and move away from whatever it is" all it is is an intensity breaker...a focus breaker...gives the other dog a momentary breather LOL. Cleo will also "SETTLE" which is...compose yourself, and lower your body position...either lay down, or sit. That one comes in handy as well.

eta: btw 9-10 months is a prime knucklehead stage...teenagerhood if you will. Behaviors often come about then...it is the onset of sexual maturity and status begins to matter more....too much really. Something to bear in mind.

You know, my wife says the same thing. I get tense. I'm working on it, I swear!

The bullmastiff is cool to walk. Medium and larger dogs as well as people, it doesn't matter how we approach, it's happy time. She just wants to greet. Smaller dogs, squirrels, blowing leaves now ... those trigger prey mode and pulling. Excitement and pulling are the issues I need to work on with her.

Both dogs have a good leave it and look at me. The bullmastiff, being at the knucklehead age as you pointed out, will leave it and then go right back at it, but she's manageable. She just needs to be reminded a few more times than her sister does.

The rest of the night went fine. The bullmastiff wasn't trying to break in or hover around the door where the puppy was, and there was no snarking between our two dogs. Over new year's I'll call the behaviorist we work with sometimes and see if we can get an eval of the situation for the future.

Keep in mind that the new puppy now has had a bad experience with a large dog.  You might suggest that the owner of the shelter pup get into a positive training class. That will go a long way toward heading off any problems that can result from a scary experience with a new dog.