If your dogs appear tense, frustrated or become reactive with red or yellow signals, move apart quickly in opposing directions, calling your dog in a cheerful voice and moving behind a barrier to block your dog’s view. Calm your dog by having them sniff around in a new area or eat treats off the ground. Then, start over.

If your dogs are greeting with a combination of green and yellow signals, or are exchanging play gestures (bowing, mirroring each other, pausing with open mouths, pawing), move to a private, contained space where you can allow your dogs to play with their leashes dragging.

Make sure both dogs are enjoying the play. If you’re unsure whether your dogs are both actively engaged in play, you can gently pick up the leashes and guide the dogs apart in opposite directions. Drop the leash of the least confident dog and wait to see if they approach and engage the second dog again. If the least active dog does not approach and engage again, redirect the dogs and give them a break.

Dog to Dog Leash Introductions

During the introductory period, patience is key! It can take weeks of brief, supervised interactions after the initial introduction to get to the point of calm interactions.

1. Before the dogs meet, make sure both dogs have burned some energy through mental enrichment.
2. Begin the introduction in a neutral space such as a park or a walk in the neighborhood. Have both dogs on leash, being handled by two separate people with high-value treats.
3. Reward calm behaviors, redirect the dogs if they are fixated on each other and lure the dogs away from each other to increase the distance between the dogs.
   Important: To prevent resource guarding, don’t have treats visible and within their reach when the dogs are interacting or closer than 15 feet to each other. Don’t use treats to lure the dogs towards each other or pressure them to interact. 
4. Find a comfortable distance between both dogs, where they can observe one another without becoming reactive and aren’t pulling together to greet. This distance should be roughly 25-30 feet, but some dogs may need to start farther away.
5. Try to keep the leashes loose to prevent leash pressure that can contribute to your dog feeling restricted, stressed or frustrated. You can use treats to lure the dog to walk next to you rather than pulling ahead and redirect them if they are straining or lunging at the end of the leash.
6. Go for a walk! While still maintaining a distance, take turns letting one dog trail the other to smell their scent. Check out this video on Parallel Walks for an example. Reward the dogs for looking at each other and displaying calm behaviors and relaxed body language. Redirect them if they become fixated on the other dog. The goal is for the dogs to feel neutral about the other dog and be able to look away from the other dog. Otherwise, they are not ready to meet yet.
7. When both dogs appear relaxed and comfortable or are occupying themselves by sniffing around or looking elsewhere, you may begin to close the distance slowly, roughly 5 feet at a time.
8. Each time you close distance, wait for your dogs to “relax” again.
9. Once you can walk within 15 feet of each other, with both dogs appearing relaxed and comfortable, you may be ready to have them meet. If either of the dogs are tense or fixated on the other, redirect them away and increase the distance between them.
10. Allow the dogs to approach one another with handlers moving with the dogs in an “arc” or U-shape to avoid approaching directly or in a straight line. Important: Keep the leashes loose! In polite greetings, dogs will move in a circle, taking turns sniffing each other's rear. The handlers should follow the movements of the dogs.
11. If at any point during the on-leash greeting the dogs are face-to-face for longer than approximately two seconds, redirect them using high-pitched sounds or calling them away from each other.
12. The on-leash greeting should be brief. Once they have successfully interacted on leash without any signs of discomfort, quickly but calmly move away, creating distance once again. End the on-leash interaction before they begin feeling frustrated by not being able to play or move freely.
13. Allow both dogs to cool down from the excitement of the greeting before initiating an off-leash interaction.
14. The off-leash greeting should ideally be done in a neutral area as well. Check out Sniff Spot, a way to rent a private "dog park" to allow your dogs to enjoy exploring and playing without the risk of other dogs or people interrupting or adding unnecessary conflict.

A Note on Reactive Dogs

If one or both of the dogs have a known history of dog reactivity on leash, but greet and play appropriately off-leash, consider modifying your introduction. See our comprehensive guide on introducing dogs for more information.

Preventing Resource Guarding

Resource guarding happens when an animal is trying to protect a resource that they see as valuable. A dog that resource guards isn’t trying to be dominant, "alpha" or mean — they are just scared that something they value will be taken away.

There are ways we can help dogs feel more confident about their access to resources to prevent resource guarding in multi-dog households. For more detailed information about preventing resource guarding, see our comprehensive guide.

• Provide both dogs with their own bed, toys, food and water bowls and treats or enrichment and an equal amount of human interaction separately.
• Feed separately, ideally in other rooms or areas of the home. If using an ex-pen or gate to separate them, make sure they cannot interact through the barrier, because dogs can resource guard or "fence-fight" through barriers.
• Don’t leave food bowls, treats or enrichment out, even if they are empty.
• If your dog has something they aren't supposed to chew on or play with, instead of taking it from them, offer to trade them for their favorite toy or treat. Wait for them to drop the object and go for the trade before taking it from them.
• Provide an abundance of resources like toys, so your dogs don’t feel the need to guard resources due to scarcity.
• Supervise the dogs when they are playing with toys to ensure they don’t fight over them. Put away all the toys when you are unable to supervise them.
• Don’t use punishment, force or intimidation to attempt to stop your dogs from resource guarding. Don’t take things out of your dog’s mouth because this could result in a bite and cause future resource guarding.

Ask For Help

If your dogs are not getting along, here are your options:

1. Completely separate the dogs, for safety. Wait a few weeks before trying another introduction. Don't let them interact unsupervised.
2. If you adopted one or both of your pets from San Diego Humane Society, book your free, one-hour Post Adoption Consultation online over Zoom with a member of our Behavior & Training team.
3. Book an online Private Lesson (one hour, online over Zoom). Open to all community members, these sessions focus on environmental management, troubleshooting and training exercises.
4. Behavioral challenges can be dangerous. If your dogs are fighting, we recommend hiring a professional, certified positive reinforcement dog trainer who specializes in resource guarding or inter-household aggression. Find a trainer who can come to your home to assess the situation.
5. Consider the well-being and quality of life for everyone involved. If you decide you need to rehome a pet, we offer rehoming resources here.