going from 1 dog to 2, tips or advice please

[BulletTJ]

I would take them to do a met and greet before you pick up the other dog. Do this away from your house. That way your current dog does not feel their space is being invaded. Allow the dogs time to get to know each other. IF that goes well you should have no problem. There could be a few little scuffles and growls. This is normal. They are setting the pecking order in the pack. Many people don't look at things from a pack mentality. We tend to look at things as a family. That is NOT how the dogs see things. They see your family as a pack. They just have to figure out where they fit in. The chain of command is important for happiness. Do not try and interfere with this process. Often it will get settled and you won't even notice it. Hope this helps.

[mean_dean]

We had 3 females, had to put one down due to age, they had a ball together. The 2 left had to put one of those down about 6 years ago, the last one was lonely without her sister so we adopted a male just over two and a half years ago and they are now best buddies. All have been spayed/neutered. My wife had never had a male before so she wasn't aware of the "red rocket", quite the surprise for her!

Plus we have a kennel/doggy daycare place that has open play theme, dogs only go in the kennels during nap time and at night, rest of the day they are all outside together separated by size, small, medium, large. This also helps with socialization so my dogs are not at all aggressive when encountering others during walks.

[Sleepy111]

We have a 6yr old female boxer, her brother was a 13yr boxer and when he crossed the bridge a few years ago, we could see she was coming bored and wanted attention all the time due to being the only dog in the house and the way they use to play nonstop. We waited a couple months and got an 8 week old male golden doodle, when he came home he was tiny. Roxie our female boxer took up to him like she was mom. That was 3 yrs ago and he is a spoiled turd now. Having her when we brought him home helped him with the housebreaking and it honestly only took 2-2.5 months and he was broke. They play together nonstop and are always looking out for each other when outside playing. They are both spoiled worse then you ever think they could be.

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[rboren]

No big deal! We have three 80 pound Boxers in our house right now. I always have two but have a 7 month old male now. Having an older dog I try to keep a younger dog with it. It really seems to help keep the older one in better shape physically and mentally. An additional bonus is that the young puppies seem to learn off the older dog. House breaking, commands and such. We were always used to having a pack of kids running around the house. We have 3 and usually had someone else’s kids to go with ours. 3 Boxers are less destructive!

[LewStulePH.D.]

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[1stindoor]

We have two Border Collies. Brothers from the same litter. They keep each other company, and keep lookout for one another while trashing my yard by digging holes.

[wicknilly]

We have two. A 6yo male border collie and a 1.5yo female collie/beagle mix. They're best friends.

Nash (the border collie) was super helpful in training Birdie (the mix). Made our lives mush easier.

My advice... if you can swing it, two is definitely better than one

[Bub]

We have had two dogs for the last 24 years, when the oldest one passes on, we get a puppy... then the dog that was previously the younger one, becomes the older one.
It's interesting to watch them make friends, become best buds, and then watch the older one "train" the younger one, teach them the secrets to getting lots of treats, etc.

[jb882]

We have 2 that are 4 years apart, both are lab mix rescues. One female and one male. Best thing we ever did for our older dog. We take our dogs everywhere so she as never alone but she just loves having another dog around. At first when he was a puppy she kept him at a little distance but now almost 2 years later they are truly best friends and they do not like to be apart. We tell people all the time that we got our dog a dog.....

Here is the two of mine, hanging out with my wife when we were camping last summer.

[jb882]

I would take them to do a met and greet before you pick up the other dog. Do this away from your house. That way your current dog does not feel their space is being invaded. Allow the dogs time to get to know each other. IF that goes well you should have no problem. There could be a few little scuffles and growls. This is normal. They are setting the pecking order in the pack. Many people don't look at things from a pack mentality. We tend to look at things as a family. That is NOT how the dogs see things. They see your family as a pack. They just have to figure out where they fit in. The chain of command is important for happiness. Do not try and interfere with this process. Often it will get settled and you won't even notice it. Hope this helps.

We tried that with ours and our older dog just wanted to sniff around the yard where we met the puppy. She could not have cared less about him, sniffed him once and walked away.

[BulletTJ]

Then it went well. No fight.

[jb882]

Then it went well. No fight.

I would not expect there to be one between a 4 year old dog and an 8 week old puppy.

[BulletTJ]

Me either. Didn't know you were talking about a young pup. I was talking about adult dogs. The older dog should not feel threatened by a puppy unless it is jealous of the attention.

[JTN]

so big one with little one is ok too?

When my mother passed away 3 years ago her 10 lb Yorkie (Jingles)moved out to the farm and lives with us and our 80lb yellow lab...The Yorkie is now the boss dog of everybody and everything on the farm...and answers to name Spike or Grizzly.lol

[dryhorn2]

I wouldn't do it and I would give the other away as well.

[1Twofish]

We have 5 dogs. 4 males and one female. The males are all fixed, but the little girl isn’t. She has been in heat lately and it has been a madhouse.