Getting A Second Dog

[Nevafollo]

Aslong as its another pointer I see no problems ...I have one pointee and a visiting pointee and two is way better than one my girl is abit of a whinger but whinges less now she has someone to talk to!!!

[percyk]

ok...it is not always the solution to get another dog as a companion

sometimes you have a breed or a particular dogs that just craves human company and nothing else will do

we have a fellow just like that here...

we have lots of dogs but this boy fretted for us for quite a few months...he finally stopped but i dont think he did cos of the canine company cos there were already dogs here

i think he just learned that we were coming back some time and that was it...he learned to wait and i know he doesnt howl now cos it is all quiet when we leave and quiet when we arrive...until we let himout the back when he really likes to tell us how much he missed us

he would like to be an only dog...he has whispered this me on a number of occasions lol but his plight is such that he is a member of a big doggy tribe and thats the way it is going to be

we once bought a cocker to keep our goldie amused ///he was digging holes right through china///( i think cos we bought him on anzac day and he thought he mustve been a digger lol)

so we thought in our naiivety that the problem was solved when we introduced the lil cocker girl..but no...wed find them digging happily side by side...all the way to china...every afternoon...for many months

so i guess the message is...if your dog appears to enjoy the company of others then go for it..get the right dog though, hey

[Gayle.]

We got Dusty just a month before Bensons first birthday and it was brilliant from day one. They get such a lot of pleasure from each others company, and it makes going to work each day a lot easier knowing they probably aren't going to miss me at all.

Now they are 3 and 2 and we have just added our third Aussie, a cute little boy and the big dogs just adore him. He's currently too small to be out with them through the day while I'm at work but he's growing so fast it won't be long.

[skip]

I wanted a dog that was said to have seperation anxiety and was only allowed to go to a home with another dog. I was getting another dog so thought that was fine. As you could maybe see I didn't know much about dogs.

I always wanted 2 dogs as like my horses they are a pack/herd animal and while we cannot be with them 24/7, another canine animal will fulfill that need. Maybe getting 2 dogs with behavioural problems ( the 2nd dog spent her first 6 months locked up) wasn't so bright and I did need a dog behaviourist the first week I had them.

BUt with trainingand work it all worked out fine. Like another poster said - I feel happier leaving them home as I know they have each other. The dog with SA is managed now and it is only in rare certain circumstances that he goes back to his old SA behaviour. But I did learn SA has nothing to do with another dog! It is all about him and his needs.

So IMO if you want another anyway, go for it and it might be wild. Althou if you were somebody who didn't really want a second dog, I would say no.

2 young pointers - what fun

Edited June 15, 2010 by skip

[tez]

I think you should only consider getting a second dog if YOU want another dog.

We had Jane for 14 months before we welcomed Gus into the family and knew by this time that Jane was a pretty social girl with dogs but that she really wouldn't cope well with an overly dominant dog. We also knew that she was a full-on highly excitable dog by then and so while we wanted her to enjoy having a doggie companion, we also needed a dog that did not match her exurberance but would enjoy and not be overwhelmed by her.

Gus is everything that Jane is not in that he is quiet, calm, gentle and placid and yet they get on together sooo well! She loves him to death but he is much more focussed on people than she is and in some ways needs us more than she does. Gus isn't here to 'fix' Jane as we do love her for who she is. He is here because we needed him with us, he needed a home and the added bonus is that they enjoy each others company.