How Many Dogs?

[Panzer Attack]

We have 3, my dogs and my housemate's dog, plus the cat that thinks she's a dog! Mine are 1 (Cav) and 2 (Papillon) and hers is a 17 year old Toy Poodle.

I definitely have my hands full, but one of mine is special needs, so takes up the majority of my time. Luckily the other one is soooo chill and is happy just to be alive, and the poodle just sleeps or hangs out with you. I could have 10 dogs like Ru and Elwood! But one Scootie is enough :D

[Maddy]

I think it depends very much on the personalities of the dogs in question. I could have several very large dogs in the house and only notice them when I have to step over one to get through a doorway but one or two dogs combined with the hellhound puppy.. and it's chaos. He has an amazing ability to turn other dogs (even the old girl) into hallway-galloping loons.

[huski]

I think it depends on the dogs you have too. I have always wanted more dogs. I currently have three but my Mal is more than enough just on her own and I can't imagine having anymore. I also don't WANT anymore right now. I couldn't imagine before only wanting one dog and being happy to only have one, but I would easily have just my mal. The other two are easy dogs so are no trouble but Wiz just takes up so much time, I can't imagine having another dog or pup like her to work with too. I will eventually, but that is a long way away. (Famous last words lol)

And without making it sound unfair to my other dogs, I love Wiz so much and she is everything I want in a dog it is hard to explain but I no longer have any desire to get any more dogs because she is all I want/ need (still love my other dogs to pieces too of course). :)

[cali]

I have 8 in my house, but 2 are not mine and exept to feed I have nothing to do with them. mine are

12.5 year old BC

10.5 year old BC

7 year old Toller

10 year old JRT x

1.5 year old GSD x Heeler

1.5 year old GSD x Heeler

and also in my house

13 year old terrier mutt

11 year old schipperke x boston terrier

[Dog_Horse_Girl]

I currently have four, and Zoe is only a very recent addition. They're aged 13, 12, 10 and 4.

Lilly and Ruby (the two elder dogs) won't be here much longer. I've already decided that Lilly needs to have her wings this month as she's just not enjoying life much. Her appetite is down, she's losing weight, her incontinence is no longer treatable, she has trouble standing up and keeps getting eye infections. I'm dreading the day because in her good moments, she's the goofy greyhound I adopted all those years ago. But those good moments are fewer and further between now.

[WoofnHoof]

I'm down to two after losing my chi last year, I was going to keep it at two for a while but there is a chi size hole in my life

[CaseyKay]

We have 4 girls which I know is a terrifying number to "non-doggy" people such as my collegues. Two are my senior citizen BCs: Maddie 13 and KC 11 years. They are pretty easy going these days, happy for long morning walk, some quality time each etc. Then my young BC 3 years old, who competes in working trials (tracking etc) and agility, and I just adore her, she is my perfect dog (like Huski said, with no offence to the others!). And my husband's young Brittany 14 months who he takes hunting and trains for field trials and I have recently started training her for agility. Quite often on the weekend Gael and I are at agility and Simon and Scout are at gundog training or hunting and the 2 oldies get some peace and quiet at home!If Simon is at home for the weekend I will take KC away with me as well.

I did tell my husband for me personally 2 dogs is a good number and he said two BC for you and 2 Brittanys for me, sounds good so don't like the chances of getting below 4 for long periods.. I work 9-5 and he works 3:30-11:30pm so they aren't alone much. I walk all 4 offlead in the morning for at least an hour, Scout also gets walked/training early afternoon and Gael gets training for working trals most nights I don't have agility training (Mon: Scout, Thurs: Gael).

When we don't have the (very fit and healthy!) oldies anymore we can fight over who gets next puppy but that will be a few years down the track. Young dogs are a lot of hard work :)

[tdierikx]

4 permanent residents is my magic number... and I foster pups for rescue, so the numbers here can fluctuate wildly at times. The last time I had 14 foster pups (8 in 1 litter, and 6 in the other)... it's doable if you are a "mad dog lady"... *grin*

T.

[smisch]

Really depends on how many people there are, what you want out of the dogs, resources and council regs.

I would always prefer to have two. I can walk two comfortably on my own if needs be, or missus and I can walk one each together. Two large dogs fit nicely in the back of the wagon, and there is plenty of love and affection to go around.

Coco would try to steal Jasper’s food, so I we had to feed them apart. They could have become tiresome with too many dogs. I reckon we could have handled 3 (and almost did at one time) but I think beyond that it becomes challenging to give sufficient care and attention. Of course if you can devote yourself to dogs fulltime, then you could probably handle more.

Many metropolitan councils limit the number of dogs you can own.

funny enough numerous times we have had discussion with the council about our dog numbers as we don't want problems... everytime we get a different answer and so keep doing the right thing and registering our dogs so we don't have problems... so far there are 6 dogs known to this address, one who no longer lives here though...

[juice]

I have 3 of my own after stopping fostering to give mine some more time.

I have had 6 then.

It depends on the dogs, i have had really easy combinations, and hard ones too.

I actually would like to go down to 2, however no idea how i will do that as there are 3 breeds ( at least)i would always like to own :laugh:

[huski]

For people who have large numbers especially younger dogs how do you give them all the attention they require? Do you ever find it hard to give them one on one time? I looked after six recently (half young working dogs) and I couldn't fathom how I would manage it full time. Even if your dogs are lower drive etc how do you share cuddle time? Etc

Having said that non dog people seem to think having three is a lot :laugh:

[DeltaCharlie]

Well, Tailwag is currently on the lounge with Brooks, Jaz, Dash and Sweep curled up on there with her.

I am on the other lounge with Charlie and Delta.

A very pregnant Link is crated beside me as she is rather hormonal at the moment, Rush is crated beside Tailwag munching on a nylabone and Whip is in a pen playing with a toy. The 3 who are crated/penned have just returned from a long walk.

As far as one on one time goes, we do lots of trick training, short agility drills, etc with them. The younger dogs get more one-on-one sport specific training and the older dogs get more trick training, but everyone gets their time with us. The older dogs tend to get more snuggle time on the lounge etc as the younger ones prefer to play with toys in the loungeroom and entertain themselves. We try to give everyone fairly equal time out with us. The older ones are out during the night, the 3 youngest (for a variety of reasons) are crated at night.

[julesluvscavs]

I've always had 2 dogs at a time. This is the first time Ive had 3 apart from a very short term foster dog.

Ive never found it hard with 2 dogs as they usually been past the puppy stage when ive gotten them. Now we have a puppy and I must say its harder work than i thought (Im not getting any younger ! lol ) Cavaliers are usually easy and laid back to have around tho.

I personally find 2 is nice number, and when Renae goes, we wont be getting another dog.

[BC Crazy]

For me ,I have a 4 year old boy & a 2 year old girl. 2 dogs are my limit. Having said that my girl is a very time consuming, special girl who emotionally & phsyically zaps every inch of me most days. I could quite comfortablely take care of another couple if they had temps like my boy. He is just so easy, calm & settled. So I think it really depends on the nature of the beast, so to speak for me. My 2 don't want for anything. Some Non dog lovers have said I am completely mad ... The lengths I go to to ensure their every need is meet.

But when I see them happy & content, it is just so very worth it.... :)

Edited March 2, 2013 by BC Crazy

[Guest muttrus]

FIVE of our own .Qld bull arab male age unknown (poundie) great dane x female age unknown (ex foster) pug x male age 2 ,mini foxy male age 1 .chihuahua x female age 1 .

AND

THREE foster pups arriving tonight

but I have had 13 here at once .I think the dogs here are so well behaved because they here me going off at the kids :D

No seriously there have been so out bursts usually the pups get too over the top jumping in bigger older dogs faces they squeal and carry on long after the fact but theres only ever been one dog with a small cut on his ear .I guess the saying their bark is worst than their bite can be true alot of the time :)

HOWEVER with any larger amount of dogs we always take care and practise complete safety

[Karrine]

ooh very interesting -

I have 2 - my (4 year old on the 10th )lhasa apso and my 1 year old dachshund x maltese. We had just one dog for 2 or so years then got Suerti - and they get on well and eat and play together. We looked into getting a 3rd but council says QLD is only allowed 2 dogs per household unless on acerage or breeding... So we've stuck it at 2.

I do home based dog sitting and I honestly thing if we did have a 3rd - they wouldnt get the attention they deserve in my household. Plus we are moving overseas in a couple of years so no point expanding our pack right now :laugh:

[hippo]

2 of my own dogs here. One is my 11ish year old greyhound and the other is a 4 year old mutt. Also fostering a year old bull arab type, and can't imagine owning any more than that! I suppose it is a bit more difficult as they have such different needs - my grey would prefer 10 minute walks at a sedate pace, whereas the other two could go much further, much faster. Also the foster and my mutty could always use more obedience training, which I do in small increments every day. I am in awe of those who have a heap of working dogs!

[Alkhe]

Two of my own (aged 11.5 and 5) and one foster.

I think 2 is the perfect number for us at the moment, but our little foster dog is no trouble at all, he sleeps most of the time and it's still easy to take my girls out for a long walk or run at the park, and leave him at home. He doesn't even notice ;)

I agree with those that say it depends on the dogs in question though. If it were dogs like my foster dog, I could have 700 of them and it would be fine. :D

[Alkhe]

I've had anywhere for 5 - 15 and it doesn't worry me, if you ahve one you may as well have ten.

I've currently got 6

totally disagree! Maybe that works for you, but for me, one or two dogs is fine, three is ok.. 10 is a completely different story. Four would be a completely different story.

[OSoSwift]

We currently have 3.

We always say we will have 2 but over the years we always seem to have three, personally I want a fourth :)

Currently we have the two Whippets 5 & 4 and the feral child working BC pup who has loads of beans and is going through the I chew EVERYTHING stage yesterday was the truck seat and the kids blow up pool toy, before that the tree , forgotten the rest :) he is always herding, the other dogs, the cats, the kids, kites, birds, bugs anything that moves gets herded.

One Whippet is retired after TPLO surgery as she didn't come back as sound as I thought/would have liked so I don't train her any more. Lewis is the only one I am training a lot, I do little bits with the BC but his main job is sheep herding which I don't do.

I think the facilities you have makes a difference also. I have yards and runs and crates which can be used to seperate dogs if and when required or they all bunk in on the lounge.

I currently have 16 in the kennels and due to how things are set up that is easy managed as well.

Edited March 2, 2013 by OSoSwift