Outdoor-Indoor Transitioning...

I got Baxter when he was 3 months old. He was contained in a crate in the house when I wasn't home. The crate had a gate around it and I left puppy pads down for him . My oldest Lab, who is now 15, stayed outdoors in an insulated dog house which was enclosed in a chain link fenced in area. She lived there for the first 2 years of her life and then I brought her in (when my 16 year old terrier died). She's lived in the house ever since. I bought a new dog house and lined the pen with cedar chips and flag stone and put Baxter out there when I'm not home, along with lots of toys. He's in the house when I'm home including overnight. When it gets towards winter and it's cold out. I will buy him a crate and he will stay indoors, along with BJ our other Lab mix, and his good buddy, who has his own crate. That would only be when I'm not home. The 15 year old has free run of the house. I think he'll get used to it as he now sleeps in a crate at night. Dogs are really very adaptable, more so than we think. We just fenced in a large portion of our yard and the dogs are having a ball running and playing when we're home. :lol:

Thank you for all the input! LOL Fred's Mom! Thankfully, we potty trained Lucy when she was very small and somehow she still clings to that rule; she's quite the smarty-paws... What I'm mostly concerned about is keeping two dogs in the house. I've found that on the occasion when Lucy does come into the house, Matilda (and our last indoor dog who was tragically ran over at a year old ) follows her around, practically leaning on her physically, fretting over Lucy's every move, making sure she follows the rules, and whatnot! Lol, it's funny watching her at first, but Lucy ends up snapping at her within minutes... Matilda happens to LOVE that and sees another dog's hostility as an initiation to a game . Matilda is quite silly, she's always been that way, the sweetest little thing... she doesn't even know meanness, but it'll take some time to train her out of her annoyingness, I know. She just gets excited at the change, I guess.

That's basically my only worry, besides Lucy's inclination to watch my guinea pigs for hours on end until she works herself into a fit.... I can fix that, too, I've done it. Matilda grew up around arouind guinea pigs and pays them hardly any attention, unless the guinea pigs want to play with her.. and sometimes they actually do!

ANYWAY... thanks for your stories, I think we cand do this; but what are some ways to keep the indoor dog-indoor dog relationship in check? How do you keep things neutral with multiple dogs in the house?? Do you think Matilda get over the excitement of having Lucy in the house?
~K~<3