Am I crazy? 1 dog versus 2?

[IFG]

I am probably coming to the wrong group as I suspect that you are all enablers. So here goes. I have allergies. My entire family has allergies. We can only live with poodles, and since they are on a farm, we have Standard Poodles. We lost our rescue Standard to cancer at the end of September. We could not find another young healthy rescue (and trust me I looked), so we bought a puppy from a reputable breeder at the end of November. I love him, but he is totally different from our rescue. Where our rescue was respectful, the puppy is brash. I know he is a puppy, and he is wonderful, but he is really full of himself. And I think that he is a little lonely. He is only alone about 4.5 hours a day, but still.

So I am sick, I have been checking petfinder. Lo and behold, a litter of poodles that were raised in a barn have been turned into the local shelter. They are just a year old. I have an app in, and we need to go meet him with the puppy and make a decision. Am I crazy?

To keep this horse-related. My horse lives at home, and the puppy is terrible about barking at him. One hope is that the older dog will settle the puppy around the horse since he was raised in a stall.

[avezan]

I think getting 2 dogs is a great idea. I'm in a similar predicament. I just adopted one dog from a shelter, but I'm going to wait before getting another. Here is why. I want to have this dog's undivided attention to train. It would be too hard for me to train 2 dogs at once. I personally just don't have enough time. How long have you had your puppy? The new dog will definitely require training and it may be hard to train both at the same time. Doable, but hard. I am in favor of getting 2 dogs, though, so if this dog that you will meet seems like a good match, go for it. Just keep in mind it will be harder to train 2 at a time.

[IFG]

Yeah, given my experience with trying to find a rescue Standard Poodle in the past, I think that it is now or never.

Kobe (the fierce puppy in my profile pic) is almost 7 months old. We finished puppy class and are in graduate puppy.

The shelter dog comes with an obedience class all paid for. One of my daughters has said that she will work with him. We have four of us, me, my husband, and 17 year old twin daughters. I figure, by the time that they leave for college ina year and a half, both dogs will be settled down.

[Ridinwyoming]

We also adopted dogs but we like the Akita breed. We tried first with just one dog - an adult male and he was pretty unhappy being left home alone all day. We found a young female rescue (with the Akitas you can't have two of the same sex or they will fight). Do poodles of the same sex get along? Having two dogs is the best thing we ever did. These two get along great and run and play with each other.

[avezan]

Definitely go for it then. I was picturing very young puppy. :)

[IFG]

We are going to do a meet and greet with the whole family and the puppy.

So far, Kobe (our puppy) gets along with everyone. Both of them are neutered.

[county]

We have 3 dogs two of which sleep in the barn. Any number of well trained dogs is much better then 1 poorly trained one.

[Riley0522]

Do it! We had one dog and she drove us INSANE because she was lonely (think Kong being dropped on your face at 3am). We got her a buddy (actually 2 now...) and life is good.

[rizzodm]

This was our experience. We purchased a GSD who drove us crazy for the first year. We did lots of walk obedience classes everything your suppose to do. He was very mouthy and in to everything! He did have to spend 8 hr. by himself while we are at work. He was fine during this time but ready to go go go when we got home. So when he turned a year old (after much talk and thought) we decided a second dog would help calm Max down. We found a 9 mo female pitbull that was submissive to the dogs she was kept with and was already crate trained. We took her home and now our GSD is a completly different dog. He stopped mouthing us from the start (the pit gets it all now) doens't get into things quite so much and has even become more obedient to us. My husband has fallen in love with the pit she is everything oppostie of Max but she loves to play rough with Max. For us it was the right thing to do we are all much happier now.

Dawn

[IFG]

Thanks all. Went and met him and he was a delight. My puppy, however, just woofed and woofed at him to play, and the pound puppy was pretty confused. We will talk about it tonight, but given the small house, it may not work.

I appreciate the insights, feel free to offer more, especially on dealing with integrating the new dog.

[pintopiaffe]

feel free to offer more, especially on dealing with integrating the new dog

Enabler here. Always had one dog growing up, until about HS when there was no longer someone ALWAYS at home.

Had one dog for awhile when I first was up here... but he came EVERYWHERE with me. Crate in back of the Isuzu Trooper, doors open, windows open. He adored it. People whined about it. :mad: He'd come to freelance gigs with me, I'd walk him at lunch break. SUPER socialized.

Then my life changed. No more home at supper break. No more ability to bring him to work. Got a 2nd dog... she was HIS dog, no doubt.

With my current lifestyle I'll never not have two. Two or none... and I can't imagine having none, quite frankly. Not when you live in the middle of nowhere--you need early warning, burglar alarm, and warm body on cold nights. ;)

Get the second. Since it's a rescue, they should allow time to make sure it all works, no? A 'trial' period?

Tangent... I'm madly in loff with a labradoodle at one of my jobs. He's the Public Safety Building mascot. Looks almost like an airedale. I LOFF his temperament, his funny smile... I know people scoff, but it's a great cross for the allergy folks.

[CB/TB]

Ifg, are they the poodles at the RI spca? They are adorable. That was quite a story . I guess they need obedience training starting from the very beginning. I'm in the same boat. We always had 2 dogs and have had only one for the past year. The crazy GSP will be 2 in May and needs a pal. She's only left to her own devices one day a week and does really well with her cat . They have called a truce and co exist very nicely. We're looking for an older GSP and the hunt continues. Has to like or at least tolerate/ignore the cat. In GSPs , that's a hard trait to find and we're lucky with this girl, espeially since she comes from hunting stock. It's been suggested that , once you adopt, give it a good 2-3 weeks, NO chew toys, etc, that could cause a "discussion"- not even one to each. Feed in separate areas and try to establish YOU are the head honcho . Good luck- go on, you know you want to!

[lcw579]

Thanks all. Went and met him and he was a delight. My puppy, however, just woofed and woofed at him to play, and the pound puppy was pretty confused. We will talk about it tonight, but given the small house, it may not work.

I appreciate the insights, feel free to offer more, especially on dealing with integrating the new dog.

Well, you know that's how standards ask others to play! Pound puppy will catch on once he becomes your spoiled house dog. Go get him, you know you want him! Our house is small too and once they live together the barking will stop.

If you are going to get another male I would do it now before your puppy gets too old. My mother got a second male standard to keep hers company when his mutt died and when the puppy started getting older they had issues over dominance. She ended up having to rehome the puppy after the fights started getting too serious.

We got our standard a rescue mutt and sometimes I wish I'd waited for another standard to come through. So, if you take this one and it doesn't work out let me know! :lol: Hubby said he'd leave if I brought yet another animal home but I don't think he really means it.

Your boy is adorable, by the way! He reminds me of the first standard we had when I was a girl. He was a great barn dog.

[CatOnLap]

High, My name is COL and I am a petaholic.

My two pups, rottie/lab/boxer crosses had their first birthday yesterday and I swear someone bought them brains for their birthday. They are suddenly, almost overnight, respectful and much more obedient. They have even stopped bouncing up around the horses. Give puppies time. Two is great, especially if they are both past the housetraining stage.

[IFG]

Thanks all for your advice. Having serious discussions. Two think that the house is too small for another Standard, and two of us are smitten. I'll let you know how it turns out.

The two dogs were much better together when we walked them outside.

And yes, this is one of the RSPCA dogs. Weird thing. The women posted them on Craig's List in Feb. I responded to her, and she never got back to me. Then I searched on her location and found, sure enough, a litter of red Standards (with one white) that matched the birth date. Then she was asking $600 each.

It makes me furious that people breed for profit, then stick the poor puppies in a barn and don't take care of them. Apparently, the poor dogs were completely matted. He is very scared too. My dog and the potential adoptee were side by side, and I raised my hand as the "sit" command for Kobe, and poor Egon cowered. I felt awful. He is lovely, the only question is whether it is the right time for us to take him. And whether our house is too small for two Standards. They assured me that there were lots of others interested, so I don't feel too awful if we don't go for him.

[Thomas_1]

My wife says dogs are sociable pack animals so you can't keep one solitary.

Then she says if you have 2 then you may as well have another and make it 3 because that's no harder to look after.

Then she says when you have 3 you have a lot so may as well get some more.

There's a logic somewhere. She's got similar theories about shoes and handbags!

[clm08]

OK, I am totally biased, but here is my advice: go get your rescue std! I have had 3 mini poodles for more than 12 years. My oldest one passed away last summer. By late fall I started thinking of getting another puppy, because my second oldest one is now 15 and in declining health. I didn't want my youngest mini to all of a sudden be by herself.

I found a rescue mini poodle 4 hours away, got a lot of info from the foster family before heading out to meet him. I took my 2 along, they barked at each other and were not friendly at all to the poor new puppy. We brought him home, had to break a couple of fights over toys or chewies, but it has been almost 6 months and they all get along great now.

My previous poodles were raised by us since puppies, so getting a 8-month old rescue was an entirely different experience. He too was very shy and terrified of strangers, especially men. He is very loving and affectionate, has become more confident and less shy with strangers, even men. I don't regret a second having made the decision to bring him home, despite the initial difficulties integrating him into our pack. My dogs spend up to 8h alone at home and they do enjoy each others' company, are not crated, and are not destructive.

I thought the transition was going to be harder but it was not. The plus is that he came house trained!

Good luck!

[Rhyadawn]

I'm an enabler. But in this case I'm going to advise that you to really think about it.

Puppies take a lot of time and individual attention before they are ready for another dog in the house. Getting the pack structure figured out is very important especially with an independant minded breed. Personally I would try to wait till we had good established rules and routines.

[IFG]

I really want to thank you all for your advice. It was very helpful. I think that we could make it work, but my husband and one DD are not confident given that the rescue is very shy and fearful. I saw progress over the two days that I met him, but they saw a scared dog being woofed at by our puppy with no place to escape in our small house. So the upshot is that we will pass with the caveat that if the dog is in danger of being euthanized we will try it (they have already adopted the other 3 of 4, so there is little danger of that).

And it seems that the shelter has a new volunteer if they'll have her because the other DD really wants to help the homeless animals.

We will wait for our puppy to grow up a bit more and do lots more dog park trips in addition to puppy class to help him chill.

Thanks all so much for your help and advice! The COTH really is a great community.

[lizathenag]

dogs deserve to have their own species for company.

one dog works. two dogs is my preference.

[LSM1212]

I didn't notice much change going from 1 dog to 2 dogs. But when I added number 3? Big herd/dynamic changes. Will stick to 2 dogs in the future (once one of these is gone). :) I have always felt that all house animals need a "friend". :D

[spurgirl]

I'm also thinking of getting a companion for our 1 1/2 YO Boxer...She loves other dogs, and I think she'd be happier with a friend. A co-workers' BIL was going to get rid of their Boxer, but right now they're giving him another try, and using a trainer, so far I've heard it's working out. I happened to see an ad this AM from a AC Shelter in RI about a young Boxer, so I called, and was actually able to go see him today. He's probably only 1/2 or 3/4 Boxer, with a dash of GSD, he's gorgeous! Fawn, with a black mask and white chest, docked tail, about 9 months old, super wiggly and friendly....Dumped off in a local Management area, with a terrible case of Kennel Cough, and severely underweight. He's on antibiotics, and has gained 5 lbs., should be about 70 lbs. when at normal weight. Needs to be neutered of course...No worms or heartworm problems though. Going to have hubby go see him, he's at the shelter until he's through with his meds, and gains a few more pounds. I'm also going to get my girl her KC vaccine if we take him, just to be safe. I don't usually do that because we don't kennel, but will to be covered if we get this guy...Gotta love these people who dump dogs:mad:-Why oh why don't they admit they can't support them/don't want them-and just bring them to a shelter?? That way, maybe a nice young dog like this would not get so sick and debilitated...Grrrr:mad:

[IFG]

Spurgirl, you should have stopped by. That is the shelter that I was at.

I am sad that we did not take Egon, but I think that my puppy needs to settle down a bit before we welcome another dog. Egon would prefer and deserves some peace after the ordeal he's been through. Apparently, he and his three brothers were kept in a stall in a barn and were terribly matted and filthy. Though, I did say that we would take him if they couldn't find a better situation.

[CB/TB]

I have happy news, too! We're adopting a GSP froma shelter here in RI. We're ( me and the #1 dog) are going for a "meet and greet " on Tuesday and plan to bring the new girl home Thursday. Hopefully, things will work out. Our girl is almost 2 and the newbie is 8-10, but still pretty peppy for an old girl. Mr CB/TB and I went to see her on Saturday and got the wheels rolling for adoption. She, too was dumped and was found wandering the streets, wearing a prong collar of all things. We tried a bit of heel and sit with her and she did well, so it'll be interesting to see what else she knows. She might have been somebody's hunting dog and got too old. A little stiff in the back end, but still bouncy . I can't wait to get her home! Good luck with your boxer pup!

[vacation1]

So nice to see OP decided in the best interests of the individual dog! I know the temptation is great once you start the wheel turning, so it takes strength of character to resist:lol: One comment - a 1-year-old dog is still a puppy! I know just what you mean about brash puppies, but in my limited experience, the adopted dog has to be at least 3-4 before it really has that maturity to appreciate their new lifestyle. My first dog was 5 when I got her from a shelter, and you could always tell she was grateful. The next two were 1.5 years and 8 months when I acquired them; their story was that I should be grateful to have them;)

[IFG]

So nice to see OP decided in the best interests of the individual dog! I know the temptation is great once you start the wheel turning, so it takes strength of character to resist:lol: One comment - a 1-year-old dog is still a puppy! I know just what you mean about brash puppies, but in my limited experience, the adopted dog has to be at least 3-4 before it really has that maturity to appreciate their new lifestyle. My first dog was 5 when I got her from a shelter, and you could always tell she was grateful. The next two were 1.5 years and 8 months when I acquired them; their story was that I should be grateful to have them;)

Thanks. I will have to keep repeating that to myself, because I am still mooning over Egon.

[lcw579]

I looked at the pictures and am nosey - which one was Egon? There was one I really liked and if we lived closer.....

[IFG]

For those who are unfamiliar with the story, these four poodles were found in a barn:

http://rispcanews.blogspot.com/2009/03/standard-poodles-rescued.html

Egon is the apricot with the shaved face (on petfinder, they were all completely matted and filthy when found). He was very sweet, but completely unsocialized, so he needed lots of patience and time. It was hard enough for him to process things without a puppy barking at him nonstop to play. They are learning to do things as basic as walking through doors and recognizing that glass is solid. Poor Ray, the guy with the bandana on petfinder, kept walking into the glass doors.

Fortunately, Kobe, my puppy had plenty of dogs at the dog park who did respond to his invite to play today.

Which one did you like?

p.s., I should note that even though Egon was over-whelmed, he never snapped at my puppy. If he had, Kobe would have left him alone. Egon was just too kind and sweet and unskilled socially to teach Kobe the lesson to quiet down.