{"id":7042777,"date":"2026-08-20T12:23:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T12:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/meet-luka-introducing-a-new-puppy-to-our-moody-older-dog\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T12:23:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T12:23:01","slug":"meet-luka-introducing-a-new-puppy-to-our-moody-older-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7042777","title":{"rendered":"Meet Luka! Introducing a New Puppy to Our Moody Older Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Well, we finally did it. After (only) a couple of years of thinking about it, we got another dog! Meet Luka, our beautiful Australian Shepherd x border collie puppy. She is 12 weeks old today and has turned our house and lives upside down\u2026 in a mostly good way. She loves belly rubs, going to the beach, scampering away with one of your shoes when you\u2019re in a rush to get out the door and falling asleep in the most encumbering spot on the kitchen floor she can think of.<\/p>\n

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Those big puppy paws!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Something I have discovered is that getting a pet rouses the same sort of opinions in some people that having children does. When you are considering a puppy people will tell you their frank thoughts: that you are insane, your timing is off, you won\u2019t be able to travel (well\u2026) your age gap is too small\/too big, your breed choice is terrible, one is enough, two is enough, two is too many, three is perfect, etc etc. I am an overthinker as it is \u2013 sometimes hearing other opinions just makes my own more anxious.<\/p>\n

There were also my own thoughts to wade through. Parents with older kids will laugh at my naivete here; but I was clinging onto the idea that life might \u2018get a bit more simple\u2019 with Miss Nerd about to start kindergarten at the end of a very long summer. While the start of school for your youngest child can feel bittersweet, and I totally get that; we had also all looked forward to Miss Nerd\u2019s first day of kindergarten for a long time, she included. COVID had put a limit on the amount of daycare we could access; it was expensive, not enough for my workload and we had been on a waitlist for more daycare for more than a year. I hoped kindy would help. But when we decided to get a dog, we were almost at the very end of what had been one of Perth\u2019s hottest summers on record. Summer holidays in Perth can feel arduous and long; many parents await its end with longing; and I am no exception!<\/p>\n

So we\u2019d just emerged from a brain-sapping, torturously hot summer, we were looking forward to the kids starting school, I was looking forward to getting stuck back into a lot more work; who on earth introduces a puppy into the mix right as things are meant to slow down? I was conflicted. I unloaded to a few people \u2013 including a few internet friends! Isn\u2019t it funny \u2013 and lovely \u2013 that sometimes the people you think you would get along the best with in real life, you have never actually met in person. You just chat with them over the internet. You feel like you know them but you have never shaken their hand.<\/p>\n

A kind-hearted Instagram friend and fellow dog person in Brisbane, known to her followers as The Kmart Forecast<\/a>, completely understood my worries about getting another puppy when Nala was my \u2018soul dog\u2019. She told me something very kind and truthful that turned out to be spot on: that just because I\u2019d already been lucky to have a one in a million dog in my life, didn\u2019t mean that I couldn\u2019t love another dog dearly, and worrying about Nala\u2019s feelings to a puppy situation meant we had her first and foremost in our minds.<\/p>\n

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Baby Nala! With the colouring, enthusiasm and tubular body of a young killer whale.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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And it was a fellow blogger friend all the way in Canada, Val of\u00a0<\/span>Zen Shmen<\/a> blog (and another dog person) who also helped me make up my mind. She sent me a really lovely email when I told her about a less-than-kind comment I had received; and part of her lovely message included this: <\/span>\u201cThe favourite thing I learned through all the uncertainty and upheaval of the pandy is, when it comes to big decisions, choose the bigger life. You will never regret it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, we definitely chose the bigger life option here.<\/p>\n

One energetic, intelligent Aussie shepherd x border collie girl.<\/p>\n

In the end, I think getting a second dog was one of those decisions where we decided to just plunge in. The reason I say this is because firstly, we knew a new dog would be a lot of work, when we do already have a fair amount on our plates, and secondly, we already have Nala, who does NOT like other dogs.<\/p>\n

She never has. I remember going down to a dairy farm in Harvey to pick her up; my first pick from a lovely litter of Border collie Labrador mixes, and the owner handed her to me. \u201cYou should know that she doesn\u2019t really\u2026 LIKE the other puppies,\u201d she said, apprehensively. \u201cShe\u2019s not very keen on other dogs.\u201d I looked at the ball of white fluff in my arms and almost snorted with mirth. \u201cHow can an eight week old puppy not like the other dogs?\u201d I thought. I would socialise her heaps and take her to puppy school and she would be fine, I thought.<\/p>\n

Well. Her first owners were right. Nala soon made it quite clear that she does not like other dogs. She would never attack them, but wherever she went she was always content to just ignore them disdainfully, as if they did not exist, and be utterly, one hundred percent fixated on us; her owners. Nala is a people dog for sure.<\/p>\n

She is NOT a dog-dog. She has played nicely with probably four dogs in her life. She is jealous and possessive, completely obsessed with Mr Nerd and I (she merely tolerates the kids) and a spoilt, only fur child who walks into the lounge room, stands in front of the TV and sighs dramatically if you are not going to bed at the time she wants to go down. She sounds delightful, I hear you say, why wouldn\u2019t you bring a puppy home to that?<\/p>\n

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Bringing another dog into the house did not seem like an option. You might laugh, but we didn\u2019t want to upset Nala. We didn\u2019t want her to feel like she was being replaced. We were always happy with our big, hairy spoilt girl, her quirks and all. But the thing you need to know about Nala is that she is super smart. I know everyone thinks their dog is super smart. But although Nala has moments of complete idiocy like all dogs, and her share of moments that make us want to scream \u2018what are you doing\u2019, she is still one of the most intelligent, astute dogs I have encountered. As an eight week old puppy she was completely house trained in two days. She went on one walk as an eight week old puppy, and the next day coaxed me to come follow her, watching to see if I was, then walked up to her lead hanging on the wall on the laundry, looking at it, then looking at me and back again, to see if I would get the hint to \u2018let\u2019s do this again\u2019. She learned multiple tricks in only five days. You could always speak to her in sentences and she would understand, respond with a small bark for \u2018yes\u2019, remember things you promised, sulk if you forgot something you had told her you would do, like taking her to the beach the next day. She was the first really smart I had and I was grateful for it.<\/p>\n

We got Nala to be my \u2018personal protection\u2019 dog. This is because I am profoundly hearing impaired, and at the time I was living on my own here.<\/p>\n

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I rely on hearing aids all the time \u2013 but they come out when I am sleeping or showering. Without my hearing aids, I can hear, but only if something is really LOUD. I needed someone to be my ears, especially at night. We got incredibly lucky that Nala took to her role so seriously. I had owned this tiny, round eight week old puppy for three days and already she was barking and growling at the front door if someone set foot on our property.<\/p>\n

It was almost like she knew my hearing was nowhere near as good as hers. I had had her for just a couple of weeks and one night, she woke me up in the middle of the night, barking in my face and jumping on my chest with her front paws. It turned out to be just teenagers sitting on the verge after a party (who hasn\u2019t had those late night verge chats about everything and anything?) but to Nala it was a potential danger.<\/p>\n

It was almost like she knew my hearing was nowhere near as good as hers. She learned to differentiate between \u2018bad\u2019 and \u2018passers-by\u2019 and \u2018people we know\u2019 and \u2018the postman\u2019. She also alerted me if my phone rang. I could be having a shower, and sometimes Nala would just poke her head around the door, fix me with a look, walk away and I knew it meant the postman had dropped something off or my Nokia had played its jangling tune (shush, we didn\u2019t have iPhones then).<\/p>\n

One night, Nala was going nuts all night long barking at the front door. She was driving me nuts too. \u00a0Eventually, fed up, I let her out the front garden to let her burn off some steam and get it out of her system. She took off next door straight away and ran up to their wall where there was a gate, growling and barking. I couldn\u2019t see anything unusual, and finally coaxed her back home. She woke me up barking multiple times that night.<\/p>\n

The next morning, I found out that next door and a whole line of houses on our street had all been broken into. Except ours.<\/p>\n

Once the Sunday Times were doing a story about how houses with dogs tend to be broken into less frequently than houses without dogs, and they came here and took a really nice photo of me with Nala. Years later, when I was pregnant and ginormous, wanting it over with already, I would don my husband\u2019s ugg boots (the only shoes in the house that fit my turgid legs. It was the middle winter, but Mr Nerd did not dare ever ask for them) and I would waddle angry, stompy laps of the local park in the evenings, trying to get each baby to hurry up. As I walked my laps Nala would circle me protectively, her hackles twitching upwards at anyone who came near. I felt very safe. We called her my direwolf.<\/p>\n

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When we brought each baby home, she encompassed them in her protective ring too, despite us knowing she has never really been fond of kids \u2013 even ours. One night, I was at home alone with the kids \u2013 Little Nerd was three, Miss Nerd was three months. Murphy\u2019s Law, of course, meant that Mr Nerd was on a work trip at that time. Nala woke me up barking and growling loudly, her hackles raised. It was 2 o\u2019clock in the morning. I just knew instantly from the fast, furious way that Nala reacted that someone was trying to get into the house.<\/p>\n

There was a man at the front door. He started banging on the front door and trying to open it. \u201cWho is it?\u201d I yelled. \u201cOpen the ******* door,\u201d the man yelled. \u201cI know you\u2019re in there. Open the door or I\u2019ll ******* break it open.\u201d Nala was ready to rip.<\/p>\n

(By complete coincidence, that SAME DAY Mr Nerd had said to me, \u201cI was thinking we should get security cameras for our house?\u201d Let me tell you, that sped it along).<\/p>\n

I went to the back of the house and called the police. The policewoman on the phone was very nice. \u201cHello, I\u2019m not sure if this is really an emergency,\u201d I whispered, feeling surreal, \u201cbut there\u2019s a man at my door and he\u2019s trying to get in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you home alone?\u201d
\u201cWell, my husband is away, but I have my dog,\u201d I said. \u201cAnd a baby and a toddler.\u201d She said she wanted me to take the kids and get the dog and lock ourselves in a room. A whole bunch of police were there in minutes. Nala barked again furiously. The man had disappeared. \u201cReckon your dog would have scared him away for sure with that bark,\u201d said one of the officers. \u201cGive us a call if it ever happens again.\u201d
Nala got a LOT of treats and cuddles the next day and was very pleased with herself.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I\u2019ve gone on a lot there, but I do have a point\u2026 I swear I am coming to it! My point is that we have a dog who protects her family so hard and so furiously, and who is also so smart and intuitive, that when she dies, I want her to trust that we \u2013 her little pack \u2013 are still being looked after. I know that will make some people scoff, or giggle, because it might sound absurd to you that a dog would think like that. But as she gets older, she KNOWS she is winding down and while she is still incredibly protective and fierce, she is 12 now. That\u2019s a good run, but she can\u2019t protect us forever.<\/p>\n

Some people say dogs know when they are going to die. When it\u2019s Nala\u2019s time, we want her to go peacefully without \u2018worrying\u2019 about the pack she is leaving behind. She knows I need my ears. And I want my ears too.<\/p>\n

Most people tend to get a puppy after their old dog has died \u2013 and I completely understand why \u2013 but the thought of not having a dog around also, more selfishly, makes me realise I would now feel uneasy. On the rare occasions I\u2019ve spent the night alone \u2013 apart from both Nala and my husband \u2013 I\u2019ve realised how unsafe I feel without my dog keeping an ear out; and how much harder it is to fall asleep without that comforting heaviness of her chin across my ankle. She is like my adult stuffy. And so after a lot of thinking, that is what led us to getting another puppy while we still have an old, grumpy, jealous dog.<\/p>\n

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\"\"And you know what? Amazingly, Nala has now adjusted SO WELL to the new puppy. Her first reaction was a tail wag, she was happy and friendly and interested. But when she realised the new puppy was coming into her home and didn\u2019t look to be leaving, she changed. Jealous, growling, angry. The kids were hyper-excited and running everywhere, the puppy was weeing on the floor constantly, Nala was growling, I was home by myself with them all. I KNEW Nala would be growly.<\/p>\n

I had been hopeful she would eventually be accepting. But somehow my resolve just completely crumbled and it somehow just hit me; what if she NEVER gets better? What if it is like this permanently? By 8pm that day, I thought oh my god what have we done?! What have we committed to. This could not work. I am a dramatic person; when I\u2019m stressed, everything feels dramatic. Luka could not live with us. I would have to call her owners and let them know it wasn\u2019t going to work out. What sort of life would it be for this sweet innocent puppy, with this horrific fat hellhound terrifying her at every corner? I pictured my home for the next two years with baby gates in every room to keep them separated and never being able to fully relax.<\/p>\n

We had told Luka\u2019s lovely breeders, a vet family, in our \u2018interview stage\u2019 that we had an older, grumpy dog. They were unperturbed. \u201cNala will be good for the puppy,\u201d they said, and I was unconvinced, but they turned out to be right.<\/p>\n

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We made sure to keep things \u2018the same\u2019 for Nala, the same way we did when we brought babies home. I think our experience of wrangling a reactive dog around two toddlers over the years had actually prepped us well for bringing a puppy home. We didn\u2019t make a big deal of things changing. We still make a big fuss of her and make sure she knows she is our number one. We always feed her first. We still let her sleep on our bed, the same way she has since forever.<\/p>\n

And overall, although I was expecting it to take months for her to adjust, or even up to a year, Nala has done so well \u2013 for Nala! The next day after her savage growling fits, Nala was better, the day after even better. When they played chasey in the garden it feels like my heart is going to jump out of my chest. When they have their little happy doggy moments together it\u2019s so gorgeous.<\/p>\n

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I write this with a new puppy sleeping at my feet and my old dog lying next to me on the sofa. Sometimes Mr Nerd and I have said to each other, I can\u2019t believe we have two dogs. I just think, how lucky am I. Maybe I want three dogs? There is something about having dogs around that just makes everything better. You go to a party and there\u2019s a dog there; instantly it\u2019s a better party. The other morning we said to each other we kind of wish now we had gotten a second dog earlier. Despite the fresh holes in our lawn, the new holes in my shoes and the chewed-up skirting boards in the kitchen, everything feels a little bit more full and rounded and complete now.<\/p>\n

Maya x<\/p>\n

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