2nd Dog?

What a cutie!

Ok. Our first dog was 21/2 when we adopted BooBoo who was, roughly 7 or 8 months old.
 We wanted a playmate for her (in part so we could have some peace). Our trainer
said because she is part pit (and partlab) that we should get a male and a lab mix because she would probably be the dominant dog. Well, BooBoo is a lab/border collie
mix and he's always pushing the envelope with her and she lets him get away with it!
But it's great to watch them play and play and play all around the house. And it the
back yard, they have someone to run with and play tug of war with.  We don't crate
or confine them anymore when we're gone and who knows what goes on but  I do occasionaly find the throw pillows on the floor which generally means they've been
playing on the couch.
One of the nice things with the training is that sometimes the newer, younger dog will
"get it" from the older one. When you let them out to do their business, the puppy should catch on from the older one what to do. When they sit for a treat, he can see
that's what he should do, and so on.  Sorry to ramble so, but I just think if you 've got the room, it's great to have two dogs.  When we go out of town we have a dog sitter
and she only charges us $10 more (we pay $30 for an overnight stay) for the extra dog.

Good luck, hope I've helped.
p.s I was the one who wanted the other dog too and now my husband just loves
BooBoo as well as Mocha Jean.
Pam

What about an adult dog instead of a puppy? That way you won't have to worry about all the puppy stuff in the midst of adjusting to life in a multi-dog household, cuz that is hard enough.
 
We just got our second dog back in April and I have to say that it is more work than I expected. Both myself and DH have full-time jobs and by this point, we've fallen into a routine and gotten used to it, but at first it was kind of rough. For us, having two dogs is actually three times as much work as having one dog. Before we just had Conrad to deal with. Now we have Conrad, and we have Marlowe, and then we have the creature known as Conradandmarlowe. All seperate entities, believe me!
 
We totally won the lottery with both dogs as they are both fantastic and get along great together, but no dog is without issues. Conrad's issues are quite different from Marlowe's issues, and managing all the issues at the same time was tough until we found systems that worked. When you have one dog, that dog's issues if they are minor tend to fade into the background pretty quick and you forget about them most of the time. When you've got two or more, the management of that amount of canine issues gets to seem like a full-time job sometimes.
 
It's (obviously) twice as expensive. When we just had one dog, we'd often take him places with us like if we'd go on vacation or to visit family. Now that we have two, I just don't feel like I can show up at the inlaw's house (they don't have any dogs and like our dogs but aren't "dog people") with two large dogs. So one gets boarded and one comes with, and we rotate who gets to come with and who has to stay. Situations where before we wouldn't need to worry about boarding costs, now we do. And if we ever have to board both of them, that's pricey.
 
Would I do it again? Probably not, or at least not until I retire. Do I love both my dogs and would I ever ever ever ever give either of them up? No, you'd have to pry their leashes from my cold dead hands. I love them completely and ridiculously. But I was definately taken a bit by surprise at how much work multi-dogs is. I thought it would be a little bit more work becuase hey, I'm already feeding and walking one dog, what's one more? But it is a lot more work. As I say, I'm used to it now and we've ironed out most of the kinks, but at first it was quite the shock!
 
I can't imagine doing the puppy thing in addition to being a new multi-dog house. I think that might have just sent me to the rest home early. But I'm sure there are those out there with more fortitude than I.

Go for it! It sounds like you've thought about it. I *would* talk to the inlaws first and MENTION it- if they're not okay, well, budget in a new petsitter. After the initial adjustment is over, it can be wonderful to have two- most dogs really do seem to enjoy company. (Indy the grump non-with-standing, he's jsut pissed I didn't get another corgi and had the nerve to get a BOY, LOL.)

I *would* say wait until after christmas unless you're absolutely in love with the boy you already met- when the christmas shiny wears off, there will be many, many pups in the shelter (If you've got your heart set on a puppy). Even better would be waiting until summer- it's a PITA to housebreak when it's cold. (I don't know where you are, though. )

Weve always had mulitple dogs, three at our highest[] I prefer to have two, one I believe is lonely and I believe dogs are pack animals and need that as part of their life, I just really believe there happier, my opinion. I say if you can afford the added food bills, vet bills, and all that comes with it, go for it!!! I say you'' wonder why you didn't get a 2nd sooner!!!!

Two is the perfect number - no question about going for it.  We've always gotten ours as puppies and we work - and no problem.

I say go for it as well...but, I've got six german shepherds so *might* be somewhat mentally unbalanced......

I love having multiple dogs.  Yeah, it's a lot more work, but it's also a lot of fun.  My dogs really enjoy each others' company.  You seem to have thought about this a lot, and if you think you're ready, I say more power to you!
 
We started out with a 1 year old sheltie, then added another one year old sheltie.  Then we added a papillon puppy 8 years later.  And I have to say adding puppies seemed much easier to handle in our house.  Nikki likes puppies and is very mothering to babies, andthe boys learned to not mess with her as pups.  We just added a new puppy to the household, 2 years after the last one, and it's going great.  So we're now a happy doggy household of 4.  You start out with one and it's nice, then two is great, three dogs is even better, and four is just right.  Or at least that's how it worked in our household.  Each of those numbers had been set as a 'maximum' at one point or another.  Adding a new dog is work, but the added joys much outweigh the cost imo.
 

Our multi-dog clan.