6 yr old boxer and getting a puppy

[crubin]

Hubby and I have no 2 legged kids, just 6 year old male boxer Mugsy. He is very spoiled, gets all of our attention. We are getting an 8 week old female, and I worry that Mugsy will have jealousy issues and may not be able to handle the energy of a puppy. Mugsy still has good energy, but not sure he can keep up with puppy energy full time! Any advice from those who have paired a puppy boxer with an older boxer?

[Caney Creek]

Creek was 6 when we added little Caney to the mix. BF thought that Creek would enjoy having another dog around, but honestly I was not too sure about that before we brought Caney home. Creek has always been(and still pretty much is) an independent spirit; she likes to do her own thing and always finds ways to entertain herself, and she seems to prefer it that way too. Creek LOVES people but from what I had seen she really could care less about other dogs. But we wanted a puppy, the time was right, so we got Caney.

I won't lie, there was definitely a HUGE adjustment period for Creek... she acted jealous, she pouted, she sulked, and she wanted nothing to do with the puppy. Little by little she did warm up to her though, but it was VERY slow, and I swear they STILL grow to like each other a little bit more with every day. They do act like "sisters" in that Caney still spends a good bit of time pestering Creek to play with her but at the end of the day they really enjoy each others' company and find comfort in it. They have been apart several times for a week or so each and we were a bit surprised the first time that Creek even seemed to miss Caney. That pup has definitely grown on Creek!

Also, getting new puppy was JUST what Creek needed to get her up and going again... she was beginning to "slow down" a little but that changed almost immediately once we brought Caney home. Now she has someone to keep up with

I think that your dog will adjust to a new puppy in time, as long as you remember to give him plenty of love when the new pup arrives so that he knows he hasn't been forgotten. It might take a little bit of time but especially as the pup gets older I think your guy will come to appreciate the companionship. If Creek can adjust to having a "sibling" then ANY dog can

[mhendo]

Our CC was six when we brought Roxy home (at 8 weeks). CC took to the puppy without any problems. There are times when Roxy will bug CC and if CC doesn't want to play or just wants to be left alone, she just gets up and walks away.

I agree with Caney Creek that as long as you give Mugsy plenty of love and attention they will probably grow inseparable.

[BxrMommieNAZ]

We didn't have any issues with jealosy or anything like that, but that was the ONLY thing I didn't think about when getting a puppy was that when puppy was 1-2 our "senior" would be 7 or 8. My senior will not play...PERIOD. Unlike Caney it did not help my girl to stop slowing down, she has slowed down and continued to slow down regardless so I have a 2 year old Boxer who wants to play all the time and an 8-9 year old Boxer who wants to sleep her days away (literally) with the occasional rub down and pet from her humans and a bathing session with the 2 year old (she LOVES to lick his face and "bathe" him LoL), other than that she loves him that much is obvious but she just cannot play with him and be that rough and tough. So, honestly if I had it to do over again I'd probably go with one that was 3-4 years old rather than a pup. In fact, we had always wanted a German Shepherd anyway, but we were going to wait until our senior was no longer with us, well we decided to do it now because our 2 1/2 year old Boxer needed a playmate in the worst way. So we adopted a 10 month old GSD and it's been GREAT. My 2 year old Boxer is SO happy he gets to play play play all day long with a dog his size and that matches his energy level.

So, for us, if we had it to do over again we would have gotten another dog like we wanted but just gotten one 3-4 years old versus an 8 week old puppy and I really have kicked myself for a good 2 years as that was the one thing I truly never thought about was the HUGE age difference and energy level and physical condition difference once the "puppy" was 1-2 years old.