I heard...

I am glad you asked this question.  We were thinking of introducing Shadow to a puppy before he got sick and I was very concerned about doing that at the age of 4 years.   He was very well behaved and I thought by example he would be a great big brother .  When he got sick we concentrated on his care for his last days with us.   I always  wondered when would be a good time.   It seemed like before he was 2 he was in the "Teen" of his life, lol, I thought well we will wait til he is a little more mature, once he turned 3 we had such a routine that included him with everything.  I was then concerned of jealousy.  Well as it turned out by the time he was 4 he was sick.  

Now we have a puppy again, I can appreciate not needing 2 puppies in the house at the same time, lol, we would go crazy as "No" seems to be back in our vocabulary again.

When you guys refer to having two puppies, what ages do you consider to be a puppy?  Under 2?  I have no desire to do the 10-week old puppy thing again, definitely want one over a year old from a rescue.

i dont know about breed related issues. but i have 2 dogs at 3 months apart (maybe less) and i never had a problem with them. AND i live in an apartment... the problem is really with others. if it's hard getting a place to rent with one dog, it's ten times harder with 2....

hmm, i think that was of no help at all... nevermind... lol

I don't really think there's a set time and age, actually. Or even gender. True, some things are generally true, but I don't know all the specifics According to a lot of people's posts, we've done everything wrong, lol! Let's see... I have one very elderly female sheltie we almost lost this January. She's 12. Then we have a slightly more spry 11 year old male sheltie. We got him when Nikki was about a year. Then we have a three year old intact papillon male, that really shook up the household balance, but they all learned to cope. Then our next dog is a two year old female papillon and is his half sister we got less than a year ago. Those two are close as can be. Then this week we added a four year old female papillon (rose's half sister) into the mix. All's going well. So I'd just really think about your capability to care for another dog and to be honest. Make sure the dogs get along and then I'd go for it!

I would consider a dog under 18 months to be a puppy. Under 2 is still really young.

 

Emma is 4 1/2. I brought home another dog (who was not a puppy) when she was 2. She'd been with other dogs all along, and still is, very consistently. It didn't work at all, so we did crate and rotate until Teenie went to the Bridge. Now, I'm considering a puppy. I know without a doubt, that Emma is trained and socialized enough to handle me taking something of a break from training her to raise a puppy (I'll still work her, but it won't be near as much or near as intense). I think that's the question you have to ask yourself, as a pet owner. Is dog #1 trained and socialized enough that you can put her training on the back burner to deal with a new dog's needs for a little while? 

I'll give MY experience from the other end.  I have a friend who got disillusioned with breeding so she kept her dam's last litter.  She just lost the dam and now has four 12 year old labs all in varying degrees of severe health difficulties.  They were all wild at the same time, and got 'old' at the same time.

I like keeping several years between my dogs' ages -- I don't like more than one *real* geriatric dog at a time because they take more time, patience AND vet bills.  Currently Luna is 4, Billy is 8-9 and Kee is ... well, Lord only knows how OLD she is but at least 12-14 and maybe as old as 16+.  (frankly her teeth were in such bad shape it was virtually impossible to age her that way)

Actually I love senior dogs and it's hard for me not to want to take a bunch of them ... but they are more care, more money, more needs ... so be careful what you set up now that you may 'reap' in 12-15 years!

yeah. good point, callie...

ok... so if i'm not making a decent amount of money in 10 years, i'm marrying a rich guy. for the dogs, of course!