When did you get a second dog?

[terrywoodenpic]

Please share your stories! I have a 9 month old Golden and recently moved out of a house that had another dog. Noodle is extremely social and I can tell he misses having someone to lay in bed with while we are away. I have read multiple different times that you should wait until your puppy is 18 months old before adding another puppy. Is this the magic number, or have you had better success earlier or later?

What was your financial situation like when you decided to get the second dog? What should I watch out for? Anything to be prepared for? Noodle had health complications (check my posts, it was a doozy) so I know that having vet savings is crucial.

Successes or failures, I would love to hear your thoughts. I rely -heavily- on this sub and want to make the right decision! Thank you!

puppy tax

 

[xsmbthu3hoa]

@terrywoodenpic I only have one dog still so take my advice with a grain of salt lol!

I think you'd want to wait until you're really happy with Noodle's training (LOVE that name btw), and basically just doing maintenance + fun training with him. A puppy will learn from older dogs, but also older dogs can learn some new tricks from a puppy as well. So it's good to have a really solid foundation so you aren't outnumbered by mischief makers.

I think a second dog is usually about double the price - you might save a little in bundles on daycare, dog walkers, boarding and pet insurance (maybe?) but mostly it will be double the food budget, double the treat budget, double the vet bills.

It takes a bit of practice and some training but it's totally possible to train 1 on 1 with each dog and also train both dogs at the same time. More spinning plates but once you get the routine down it's great. Kikopup has some great videos on working with multiple dogs, including making sure they wait their turn for treats and lay calmly while you work with the other dog.

Having two dogs in the house is amazing. I don't have two (yet) but I foster sometimes and it's always a blast. If your dog is social, he will be sooooooooo over the moon to have a friend. Watching them play and tire each other out is just heaven. Once they're both trained and they get along well, it's less work to have two than one because they will play and play.

 

[terrywoodenpic]

@xsmbthu3hoa I didn’t even think about fostering, that’s such a great idea. Noodle still has some training to do (proper greetings are terrible right now and he’s the worst counter surfer) so he will definitely have to wait for a buddy. Thank you so much for your thorough response, I have taken it all to heart!

 

[danny2023]

@terrywoodenpic Our Ruby just turned 1 a few weeks ago and we are possibly ( pretty possibly) bringing home a new puppy on Friday! I started wanting a 2nd in December. I was applying at rescues, stalking petfinder lol finally when I thought “you known what it just isn’t meant to be right now” boom a rescue I applied to called me with a litter of adorable puppies!!! So here I go again!!! Im excited and terrified!!

 

[meehan8381]

@terrywoodenpic We added our second dog when our first was roughly two years old. I definitely waited until he was past adolescence and solid on pet manners (recall, loose leash walking, near zero obedience latency, no door dashing or counter surfing) before even contacting breeders. Once we confirmed a pup was coming home I cracked down on all his training even more to make sure I don't have to worry about him when I'm devoting more of my attention to the puppy. It worked out wonderfully. I took them both to the vet when puppy was little, and upon coming home I had my hands full carrying puppy, keys, bag, and was able to just tell my older dog to heel and he followed me to the door off leash.

Financials wise it is more of a money sink but my second puppy is my sport prospect so she gets a lot more specialized training + classes. Vet costs do double, although she has been luckily free from complications besides a benign head cyst.

You also want to consider the restrictions that having two dogs place on you - I had to walk them separately for the first 5 months and still do occasionally because the puppy is fighting heel again now that she is in adolescence. It's harder to find sitters for two dogs. I can't place my golden into daycare bc she's not spayed yet, so unless I ask a friend I have to board them separately if needed, which is a pain. It's also harder to bring two dogs out unless they are both well behaved, which will not happen for a while- I'm still working on it.

There are also risks with adding a second dog to the house- if the new puppy resource guards against other dogs, gets sick, etc.

You can try fostering and see how you handle a two dog household, we fostered two dogs before deciding we can handle it, but it did open my eyes to the complexities of a multi dog household + adding a largely untrained dog. First foster was a huge resource guarder. Second foster also guarded but not as much, but was un-house trained and had little impulse control. It was interesting but stressful figuring out how to navigate both dogs.

 

[terrywoodenpic]

@meehan8381 Noodle is a horrific counter surfer, but as far as recall and loose leash walking goes he’s about 80% there. I definitely don’t think he’s anywhere near ready to have a puppy in the house, especially after reading your comment. Noodle resource guards treats (bully sticks especially), but it used to be all food in general so training is definitely going well. Of course adding another dog into the mix may bring up resource guarding on its own, but I would like to see him have no resource guarding before we added anyone else. My partner and I raised Noodle together but Noodle is more attached to me, so my partner wants to take the lead on the next puppy. So splitting walks I feel wouldn’t be an issue (I’ll probably eat those words when the time comes).

After reading yours and eatpraymunts replies, fostering is a must for us now. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that before! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, I am very appreciative.