NFT: Adding second dog advice

and I have similar questions.

I don't think it'd be smart to bring your current dog to look at a new one...not sure how that would help.

I have read it's best to introduce the two in a neutral location (outside, a park...) rather than in your home so the current dog won't feel as threatened.

I was also wondering how they share toys? Will they fight? How do they have separate food bowls and not mess with each other's food?

I know tons of people have multiple dogs, but it all seems so uncertain to me...I've only ever had one at a time

The two dogs as advised. Multiple times if possible. This is more important than the breed or sex of the dogs IMO. Unless you’re talking pure bred and my experience is only with rescues which occasionally we get a pure bred (we volunteer with a local rescue organization) but usually mixes.

We have a 11 year old corgi mix and got a 12 week old Rottweiler Shepherd mix. 3 years ago. We had the dogs (and all family members) meet the dog multiple times to make sure the dogs were compatible.

They were and it’s awesome good luck.

an 11-month-old Berne-doodle. We were concerned that the old dog wouldn't accept the puppy, but she has. Both females FWIW. I think once the old dog sees that the new dog is a family member, acceptance follows. At least that's been our experience. We've always gotten a new dog once the other gets to a certain age. It seems to rejuvenate the old dog too.

All females. When we've added a dog, we definitely did introductions at the park to see if there was any ingrained dislike, and in one instance there was and we didn't go through with the adoption.

With feeding, we've been lucky that none of ours have been particularly food protective. What's seemed to work best for them was having three bowls and locating them in different areas of the house. All three of them are grazers - they'll eat a little bit, then walk away for a bit. Any of them will eat from any bowl.

They have gotten into a bit of a scrap once or twice but nothing serious. The main concern is that, when they're wrestling and roughhousing, two of them tend to gang up on the third. Something to keep any eye one. We don't leave Willow's collar on in the house because the youngest, Pumpkin, tends to grab her by the collar to pull her down.

I have no experience with the dog types that you mention.
I do believe that anything that you do should be dog-specific.

Success in adding a dog to the family depends on the dog's personality and how well the dogs are trained.

I have had dogs for over 40 years. They were Akitas and Boerboels.
I do not recommend two dogs of the same sex unless you are an experienced owner.
All dogs compete for dominance so it is critical that there is a clear pecking order and you are at the top.

Never had an issue with introducing a female or male into the family. The younger the second dog the better as they are more pliable. It is desirable to introduce the dogs in a manner that is threatening to your first dog.

The most important recommendation I have is to make certain that your first dog is well-trained. The second dog will learn both good and bad traits from the first dog.

Training the second dog should be easy as it will follow the lead of your first dog.

If your first dog is not well-trained I would recommend against a second dog.

So all still young and energetic. Peanut, the three year old, is a redbone coonhound mix. She's the biggest but generally the laziest, doesn't play as much as the others. Willow is not quite 3, a lab/beagle mix. She tends to be a bit nervous, but she can be assertive with the other two sometimes as well. She likes being chased and will agitate the others until they oblige her. Pumpkin is just leaving the puppy stage. She's a Carolina dog, which is a rare breed that is a domesticated wild dog, so her behaviors are a bit unusual. She's kind of bonded with Peanut as her surrogate mom.

At the 5 year mark, always alternating genders. I get puppies, they're easier to train that way. A young dog that's fully grown comes with it's own habits, for better or worse. You don't want your current dog picking up bad habits.

The breeder was in PA for the girl, so we got to visit twice before taking Willow home. But the breeder moved down to FL after that and came up north to get us the boy, so we didn't get to meet Linus before we brought him home.

We were also advised to go with the opposite gender, although tyhat was specifically because Willow was a girl, and apparently two girls will butt heads (my brother has a girl dog, and Willow and their dog will butt heads when together). Don't think it's the same with two boys.

When we got home with Linus, everyone went inside to see Willow, except my wife and Linus. And after a few minutes of her getting excited we were home, my wife brought Linus in. Willow went up to her, sniffed her out, and that was that. Linus was pretty well accepted.

We had two of them together for 11 years with no problems. This go round, Willow and Peanut have been together for two and a half years with no problems, and we added Pumpkin the better part of a year ago.

So having all females hasn't caused us any issues.

and never had any kind of problem. Usually, I have had opposite sexes but when I didn't it hasn't been a problem. That said, I have had hunting breeds (mainly GSPs) and they tend to be dogs that want to cooperate with each other as a matter of their breeding. I can imagine that guard dog type breeds might be more complex.

It is important to know what a breed was bred to do in knowing their likely personalities, since they weren't just bred for their looks. Personality is highly linked to function.

but we've always had female dogs, and just one at a time

I'm seeing here and elsewhere the suggestion to get the opposite gender when adding a dog, so my question is...

do the dogs try to mate with each other? does that happen? I don't want to see that

Its really no more work than 1 dog, and I feel like they like having another dog around too. They keep each other entertained a little, and I feel better leaving them at home alone because they are together.

In comment 16503492 PatersonPlank said:

Quote:

They keep each other entertained a little, and I feel better leaving them at home alone because they are together.

Absolutely. Ours is a real pack - they do not like being separated from each other at all.

A 1 year old female (spayed) to go along with out existing 3 year old intact male. First intro (neutral place), the male wanted to kill the female. He lunged at her and bared his teeth. They are both Shikoku Ken (rare primitive japanese spitz breed). We kept one upstairs and the other downstairs for a few days. What we did was feed one on one side of a gate and the other on the opposite side. After doing that for two days (pack eating where they can see, smell and hear eachother eat) they became inseparable. They are the best of friends. My male dog can be territorial and aggressive to dogs so we are happy that they got along after a few days. The pack eating helped tremendously

let me know. We had a litter of 8 and have 2 females left. They turn 8 weeks old next week.

Also we have had multiple dogs (Havanese) for over 20 years now.
Never had a problem introducing them to one another. We usually start by have the existing dogs stay outside for a bit then bring them in one by one to meet the new arrival. It takes a few days for them all to adapt but we never had an issue.

And very helpful.

We adopted a 4-month old male Lab and 6-month old female Plott Hound a few days apart. They hit it off from the moment they met, have become BFFs and get separation anxiety whenever one is away.

My old dog and new dog are already getting along well, but still figuring each other out.