Hi all, I am looking for some general advice. We currently have a 5yo female lab/boxer mix who we've had since she was a puppy. We recently started this 2-week "adoption trial" for a rescued 9mo female old bully mix who was found as a stray. We're four days into this trial, so I know that it hasn't been enough time to really get these dogs settled into life together.
The 5yo dog has never really shown much interest in other dogs. She tolerates them very well, but has always been more of a people kind of dog. The younger dog is the opposite. She is extremely fearful of humans based on her previous experience as a stray, but loves other dogs.
Nothing bad has happened yet, but I'm noticing some behaviors and I'm not sure if these are something that we should be concerned about or if it's normal. For instance, the older dog has always had free reign of the house and enjoys sleeping on the furniture. The younger dog will often come up on the furniture and sit next to the older one. More often than not, the older one will immediately get up and move to a different room. To me, it feels as if the older dog is uncomfortable with the younger dog, and is doing her best to keep her distance most of the time. There are times where the younger dog wants to play and gets in the face of the older dog, but the older dog has never taken her up on the offer to play and will growl if she gets too pushy (I know this is normal).
My fear is that their different personalities are going to clash and cause issues in the future. I have a baby gate up to give the older dog some space from the younger one when we're not home, but I have read conflicting advice on whether or not separating them is good vs. it will eventually make the dogs aggressive towards each other because they are separated. It's also hard to have these dogs do activities together; the older dog loves to catch a Frisbee with us in a field for 30 minutes each day. The younger dog is so fearful that it's difficult to even get her to go on a walk to get some exercise in. We live in a large apartment but don't have a yard, so it's crucial that the dogs get some form of exercise.
I'm not sure what to do. They have such different personalities and while they haven't had a "bad" interaction yet, I worry that we are setting them up for failure. We built our lifestyle around the 5yo (going to the park every day to burn off energy, going down to visit our families once a week, etc.), so it's incredibly difficult to get the dogs to bond since the younger one needs a different lifestyle entirely.
Is there anything that sounds like a red flag or should we just let it ride? Is there something we should be doing differently? Is there a chance that the older dog is just tolerating this for now and this will cause issues in the future?
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