u/lunarceramics

Hi!
I was hoping to get some advice or helpful tips for introducing two adult pyrs!
My husband and I have a 2 year old pyr and we’ve had her since she was a puppy, so our only pyrenees experience has come from her. We just adopted an 7 year old male pyr from a local shelter & we can bring him home in a few days after he gets neutered. From what we know of his past, he’s coming from a hoarding/puppy mill situation :( The shelter warned us that he might have a rough adjustment period because of that and we just wanna be prepared and be able to give him the best possible welcome into our family & home!

Our girl has been around other dogs before; we had a small senior dog when we initially brought her home so she grew up with him and they had no issues. She’s been the only dog in our house now since March. She’s stayed at my FIL’s house before with his two large dogs (a lab & an anatolian shepherd mix): they all got along well and the only issue was her being a bit too high-energy for them. They’re older dogs and this was when she was about a year old, so she still had tons of crazy puppy energy. She seemed to submit to the male shepherd when he would get annoyed with her, so I’m hoping us bringing a male dog home is going to be better. She’s also been around my MIL’s female husky mix and they haven’t had any issues, and they’re both total divas. Our girl is very social with our neighbor’s female husky as well, they interact through and over our shared backyard fence. Their husky isn’t super excited by her, however, so our girl tends to get a little butt hurt but she backs off as soon as that dog growls.

The male pyr we adopted weighs slightly less than our girl, but he’s taller and wider (he wasn’t fed enough). His previous house had tons of other dogs, some his size and some smaller. He’s been around other pyrs there but the shelter didn’t have any info on if the dogs fought at all or not. He was super friendly and happy when we met with him at the shelter and didn’t seem anxious to meet us at all. He also enjoyed the shelter employees and they all had nothing but good things to say about him from what they’d experienced. He also seemed to be pretty high-energy, so we’re hoping he won’t have any issues playing with our girl in the future! I know he’s rather old for their breed, though.

Our “game plan” right now is to keep them separated for a few days-weeks while he recovers from his surgery. Their first interaction will be on neutral territory & on a walk with no face to face meeting yet. Harnessed & leashed, of course. We’ll have separate food and water bowls, separate toy bins, and food won’t be left out when it’s not feeding time. Our girl is crate trained, so we plan on trying to crate train him as well in hopes that he’ll quickly learn he has a safe spot if he gets anxious/overwhelmed. We plan on keeping both dogs leashed for at least a few days when they do eventually meet face to face and are in the house together. They’re both giant and strong, so we don’t want to risk them hurting one another (or us) until we’re both confident that they get on well.

With his past situation and us being unsure on how he’ll react to a clean, calm home, I’m planning on muzzling him while we introduce the dogs. I’ve heard the soft “cage” muzzles are good so that they can pant, open their mouths still, etc. Does anyone have any tips for muzzles? I’ve never muzzled a dog before so any input is appreciated!

We know their breed is quite stubborn and very full of personality, so we’d love some input from anyone who’s introduced two pyrs before! Slow and steady is our main mantra for this, haha.