Does Sophie need a friend?

[Valarie]

My husband and I have started discussing the idea of getting a friend for Sophie.  There are so many issues to consider such as cost, space, transportation . . . but most importantly Sophie's response.

 

How do we know if it's the right thing for her?  She is home alone 8 hours/day, 4 days/week.  I worried about this with our previous dog.  But we debated it for so long that we thought maybe he was too used to being the only dog in the house. So we were just a one dog family. 

 

How do we know if this would be good for her?  If we decide to do this, how do we go about it?  We want to make sure it is a friend that she will love and enjoy spending time with. 

 

I have heard that if you have two dogs they often will bond together and not with the peeps. Is this likely? 

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences!!

[Valarie]

Thank you all so much. You have given me such wonderfully thoughtful responses. We need to think about it a little longer. I had applied to an Airedale rescue before we stumbled on Sophie. They contacted us for a home visit just after I brought Sophie home. So we declined another dog at that time but they asked about fostering one of their dogs. So we may go forward with that. Fostering seems like such a great opportunity to help prepare a dog to find a loving family. I think I mentioned in one of my posts that we are foster parents to an 11 year old boy. This has been such a rewarding and extremely challenging experience maybe some of those lessons can transfer to fostering dogs. Again, thanks for your encouragement and wisdom.