Dog Community

I need your help and suggestions

Posted : 8/27/2006 3:08:20 PM

Hello everybody! I've been gone for a while and am now trying to catch up with all that's going on [

]! I started a new job and my family from Germany stayed with us for 3 weeks so life's been very busy (in a good way!)
Joey's doing great, what can I say, that dog is the love of my life!

Here's what I need your help with! We've been thinking about getting a second dog. Joey is now 13 months old and I think it would be at a good age to add another dog to our house. We do not want a puppy nor are we in a position to get a puppy so I've been looking at the local humane society and rescue groups. I think I found a dog that would be GREAT for us!
You can check her out here...
[linkhttp://www.brewbeagles.org/available-beagles.php?page_id=3®ion=mid_west]http://www.brewbeagles.org/available-beagles.php?page_id=3®ion=mid_west[/link]
Her name is Phoebe and she is approx. 1 year old. (You have to scroll down all the way to the bottom of page 3.
We met Phoebe today. The rescue group was hosting an adoption event at our local Petco and Phoebe is a REAL sweetheart! They will be at our local dogpark after the event and the Phoebe's foster mom is going to give me a call (hopefully shortly) so we can meet them there and see how Joey and Phoebe like each other!
I do have a few concerns though. Joey is crated trained. He's used to staying in his crate while we're gone. My DH used to be at home most of the day so he was only crated for up to 4 hours. Now DH is starting to work full time so Joey will be at home alone during the day. 4 hours in the morning, I come home for lunch, and then an additional 3.5 hours in the afternoon. We've been crating him in the morning and giving him free run of the apartment in the afternoons and he does great! He's not a chewer but I wanted to slowly transition him to being out the entire time and we've only been doing this for about 1 week. Phoebe is not crate trained but the foster mom said she is fine in the house (does not chew) for up to 6 hours alone.
From your experience, do you think it is possible for 2 dogs to be alone in the house together even if they don't know each other very well yet? I don't know if I could crate Joey and give Phoebe free run because I'm sure Joey would protest if there was another dog running free and he was locked up?!?!
Also, what else is there to think about????
PS: Here's a picture of Joey and my little brother taken last week. (They've gotten to be best friends!)

Debbie R

Posted : 8/27/2006 3:37:42 PM

Nadine I think it sounds like a good fit to me, just make sure you make the introductions correctly, and see how they interact while you are there, then try to get her on the weekend or whenever you have some free time, it would probably be better if you had some time alone w/ both of them for the transition, but I would feel fine leaving them both out, I did w/ my dogs. Just watch how they are w/ each other.
She is a sweetie, go get her. It's really hard the first two weeks, just hang tough I cried that long I think. You will second guess yourself, think you ruined everybody's life, but it will work out and be a blessing. Until I knew how they were w/ high valued stuff I wouldn't leave any of that down, Make sure you get her a special toy and get one for Joey too, then let them work out who gets what. My girl has everything in her bed at the end of the day, except for TY TY, that is Brando's arch enemy and best pal, but she somehow knew that,
I'm sure Brando told her.And then you have us so just pop on w/ a big HELP for Phoebe

spiritdogs

Posted : 8/27/2006 5:23:49 PM

Hounds that are social usually do fine together, but obviously you would want to make sure your dogs are completely out of the chewing stage before you allow them the run of the house :-)

)
And, in case they like to play, keep the knick knacks off the low tables LOL.

jones

Posted : 8/27/2006 7:52:06 PM

I think you could also probably crate train Phoebe.
But I read somewhere that whatever damage a dog is going to do in your absence he'll probably do in the first 20 minutes. I think Joey sounds ready to be left out of his crate while you're gone. If he is good for 4 hrs he'll most likely be good for 6 or 8hrs.

pofi_pasquale

Posted : 8/27/2006 10:40:09 PM

I think she sounds like she could be a great match and I look forward to hearing how the meeting goes (AND I was wondering where you and Joey were - glad all is well).

Pofi was just about 17 months when we lost our tenants and took over the whole house and the timing to get another dog seemed perfect. Pofi had been crate trained, but had graduated first to our bedroom confined and then the whole house by 7 months or so. Mia had been crated with her foster mom for the week she was there - we weren't sure about before that. So, for safety, she was crated the first week or so and as we became more sure of them together, she was out with him. I realize this was an accelerated schedule, but he never flinched about having her in the house - he was presenting her with his toys within minutes of her arrival.

They have only ever fought over chews or bones, so those are never left out or given unsupervised. It's been great for us - they are such great company for one another.