Adding a new dog into a 2 dog household

[TeddyTheBear]

Currently we have 2 dogs 

1 Female(Lab/Husky)

1 Male(Lab/Australian shepherd)

The female is the more dominant dog whereas the male is more neutral leaning towards submissive.

My Family wants to add a new dog into the family but which gender should it be?(It'll be a German shepherd)

 

 

 

 

[Dogsfevr]

The pack dynamics will change again .

The saying 2 is company 3 is a crowd is something all family members need to be prepared to manage .

Any issues here it was the girls .

We are a big multi pack household with land and management 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2022 by Dogsfevr

[Deeds]

I've often had 2 entire males & 1 female (obviously desexed) and they have all lived happily together.  The females always came to me as urgent rehomes so they were the last to enter the pack.  And they were usually around 5 yrs old when I got them.  Everyone got on famously.

 

I don't think I would put 2 females together from what I've heard over the years.

 

 

[Rebanne]

I've had multiple dogs together, multiple bitches together and mixed sexes together. Sometimes desexed, sometimes entire, sometimes both. All house pets. Only had one bitch that was a problem, large dog picking on a smaller bitch. She was adopted as an adult and was returned to the organisation I got her from after several months. German Shepherds and Greyhounds and one crossbreed mutt.

[Rascalmyshadow]

We have 5 dogs, 4 female and 1 male, our pack prior to that was 3 male and 1 female, I’ve lived in a pack situation for over 20 years and only twice had serious issues between dogs, both times it was between a male and female.

With the experiences I’ve had I’ve found it depends on personality more than gender, I personally will never again have more than one male at a time as the only problem I’ve encountered with more than one male (even desexed) is the competition marking territory including in the house.

Edited to add: for us 3 is our magic number and the easiest to manage. It allows a single dog to be taken out on its own and the other 2 still have each other, I’ve never had the issue of one being left out.

Edited January 9, 2022 by Rascalmyshadow

[JRG]

Interest discussion.

I have always found that three is the most unstable number of house dogs I have had.  Maybe it is because two get on as friends  and that makes one an outsider and fair game for the others.  Maybe it is because the boss feels her position threatened. ( notice I refer to the boss as female because in the spaniel world the girls are always at the top!  I don’t know anything about the Shepard  hierarchy, but you will soon find out!)

[tdierikx]

I've always had multiple dogs... upwards of 3 is my general leaning... but I'm a crazy dog lady of the highest order... *grin*

 

Be aware that they may all get on famously... or there may be problems. There is no magic "formula" to how things will pan out long term.

 

My experience is that males can tend to be more submissive to the females, but obviously others have had different experiences.

 

I do know that once 2 females decide that they don't like each other, it can escalate VERY quickly, and the best advice there is that they will need to be separated permanently once that scenario occurs - they will try to kill each other given the chance...

 

In my last group of 4, I had some pretty strict management going on, as all were female, and all had issues with at least one of the others.

 

I am now down to one dog, and am actually enjoying not having to manage issues... although I REALLY want another dog (or 3). Not gonna happen while this one is here though, as she hates all other dogs, and I'll be buggered if I'm going to have to manage issues again.

 

T.

[Deeds]

My packs of 3 were all the same breed.  I don't know if that helped the ambience or not.