Puppy advice

ak_in_ak

I am considering adding a second dog to my family. I currently have one rescue and my boyfriend and I adore, but I can’t help but think she wants a friend. We play with her as much as possible but she doesn't seem to get as much enjoyment out of it compared to when she plays with other dogs. My hesitation is that she can be a bit aggressive to other dogs at times, hence the reason she was at the pound (we think). There are about 4 dogs she is around regularly and for the most part everything is okay until the food is brought out. One of the dogs liked to get in her crate and she would get very upset when this happens. Another female she won’t even let in the house, but I would bring them down to the trails and they loved to play! We have dog sat several dogs, one for 2 months and there were a couple fights with the female. We also watched a border collie puppy for a few weeks and she was VERY patient with her when it came to playing. We always fed them separately to avoid any aggression. The two male dogs she has been around she seems to get along better with but is still the alpha. Based on our past experience we wanted to get a male puppy so she did not feel threatened and she would show it who is boss when it is young. For those multi dog owners out there, do you think this is a dream or is it something reasonable.

My other question is Lilly and I run for about an hour a day during the summer. If we were to get a puppy should I walk them together, then crate him, while Lilly and I do the more intense stuff? This is what I did when we puppy sat, but I am looking for suggestions on how others have done this.

EmCarroll1990

We got a new puppy on boxing day. We already had an 11 year old Jack Russell Terrier. They get along, but do fight sometimes - but they'll work it out. We take our puppy out for runs with us and he keeps up a lot better than our dog does.

Introducing them was fine, we just kept the puppy in a puppy gated area when we couldn't be right by his side, I think our dog realized he was little and he needed to be careful, now not so much.

hbrittingham

There are a lot of things to consider.

She may like being an only dog and bringing in a second one could make her life less enjoyable. You think she wants a friend, but her behavior has shown otherwise, in my opinion.

There is absolutely no guarantee that if you bring in a puppy and she gets along fine with the puppy while it's a puppy that she will still get along with the puppy once the puppy grows up. I've had it happen and ended up with dog fights for 7 years. Bad ones at that.

It sounds to me like she was unsocialized to other dogs when she was younger and that's where her issues are coming from, not because she's an alpha. The majority of aggression issues stem from either resource guarding (food, toys, people) or fear aggression.

I've fostered over 50 dogs/puppies over the past 9 years. The breed I foster is the golden retriever and golden retriever mixes. The vast majority got along with my dogs, but that's part of the breed trait.

giggles1973

We had a similar situation. My husband had a female pitbull who was SO dog aggressive towards females. So we got a boy puppy. Everything seemed fine until the next morning when he went near her food and he was in her mouth with food and blood and pee flying around everywhere. So from that point on we just put them in different rooms to eat. Never could give them bones or toys or anything as it would probably cause death. It was really hard and although I LOVED the puppy it would have been sooo much easier with the one dog. I now have 2 labs who eat together and I my kids can literally stick their faces in their food bowls ( not that I let them lol) and they are fine.
I think if there is even a little bit of dog aggression, keep just one dog. But that's just my opinion good luck

ak_in_ak

She is pitt and beagle which may be responsible for the aggrassion, She shows none towards people, just other dogs, sometimes. She loves to play with them, which is where this idea started. When I dog sat my parents dog for two months they would run and run and run together, we did keep raw hides out for a while and they would take each others and hide them. If there was a fight we just took them away. She showed no agrassion towards the puppy we watched, even now she is really good about letting her jump on her and stuff, I have always though it was due to them spending so much time together when they where puppies.

giggles1973

Well you know your dog best. Maybe just have play dates lol there is such a difference between having 2 and having 1. Even now with my 2 labs, 2 kids and a husband... So much work lol