Is it safe to introduce a MALE bernese mountain pup into a home with an 11 year old FEMALE dog?
We`re gonna be getting a male berner next month (when he is 8 weeks). We`ll get him spayed @ 5-6 months.
Sammy, our female dog, is 11, and has arthritis (and she`s spayed).
We also have 2 cats.
The male pup won`t jump on Sammy because she is a girl, will she?? Will it sense that Sam is elderly and fixed? My parents say it`ll be fine. I`m just wondering 
lol.
Thanks. Personal stories are welcome!
~britt
That depends on the dogs, really. If you notice the pup playing too roughly with your female, distract him by giving him one of his toys and playing with him.
Also, unless your male is a hermaphrodite, he won’t get spayed. He’ll get neutered. At 8 weeks old, he won’t have the urges to mount your female except in play.
You mean neutered haha. It depends on the pup.
Bernese Mountain Dogs are very calm-natured. Your female will probably show the puppy where he belongs in the pack, but she won’t care if he jumps up on her. He won’t hump her if that’s what you mean, as long as you get him NEUTERED as soon as you can, which is around 12 weeks.
And you can train the puppy not to jump up on Sammy. Whenever you see him doing it, correct him as you would for any other misbehavior. He’ll try to get Sammy to play with him, I promise you that, and she either will or she won’t.
Just let her do her thing. She knows how to make him go away if she wants him to.
The pup is a puppy its play full you have an older dog with arthritis if the pup does Jump at the older dog the dog might seriously hurt the puppy .
Do you want to spend all your time keeping an eye on them or separated.
Is the dog with arthritis on pain medication .
personally i would not get a puppy i would be looking at an older dog if i was you .
You might end up needing to keep them separate if the puppy is too hard on the old dog. That’s what happened to me. It got bad enough that I thought the old female rottie was going to seriously harm my pup. He just would NOT leave her alone. The other issue that comes into play in these situations is that the puppy can become more attached to the other dog than to the people. This will interfere a lot with all his training. You will have a hard time getting and keeping his attention for housebreaking and all the other training dogs need. It is not uncommon at all.
You will just have to wait and see what happens, and adjust things according to what is necessary. I felt really sorry for our older dog because the puppy completely upset her life. We kept them separate for quite a while (it wasnt hard, the old girl spends most of her time sleeping on her bed in a bedroom, so we could just close the door. The puppy had a crate.) Now they are together sometimes, and the pup is a little older, so it seems to be working out all right. He still wants her to play, and when he gets too rowdy, I just put one of them away. Hope this helps, and good luck! Puppies are so much fun!
I really hope you do not get him sterilized at 5-6 months. He is going to be a very large dog and he needs good, strong bones toi support his adult weight. If you insist on neutering him then you should wait until he is fully grown and has completed his bone development, which is close to two years old. Any reputable Bernie breeder will urge you to delay neutering.
You will not introduce a puppy into the home and just let him have free, unsupervised access. You will have him crated at night and in an exercise pen or behind a baby gate during the day when you are not right there to watch him. Puppies do not know doggy manners and he will charge the old lady and she may well bite him. Introduce them with him on a leash. Let her know that you are willing to control the whippersnapper and she is safe.