Double the doodles, double the fun?

[cocoincanada]

Hi all,

 

We are thrilled to be in the process of adopting our 2nd doodle. We currently have a 3.5 year old Goldendoodle, and our new pup will be a young Labradoodle.

For those of you who have two dogs, just looking to hear some feedback on the following:

• How did your 1st doodle react when you brought home the 2nd, and he realized he was there to stay?
• Did you have jealousy issues? Did you simply deal with it by giving the dogs equal attention?
• What did your 1st do if the young pup peed or pooped on the floor, while working on being  housebroken?
• Did it take a while for the two of them to get along?
• To establish who the alpha was?
• Did they become best buddies in a short period of time?
• What about crate training when the 1st dog is no longer crated?
• Toy hogging?
• Car anxiety

I presume that these are all normal concerns for someone who is adding a second dog to the mix?

 

Sunny is not an aggressive dog, but he definitely tries to be the alpha when he's around other dogs. We think he will definitely be telling the new pup who's boss, right off the bat, but I'm hoping that after a few weeks (once Sunny has gotten used to the idea), they will become the best of friends.

 

Sunny is no longer crated. He was for the first 1.5 years of his life, but since then, he's been roaming free. He's very laid back and doesn't get into any trouble while we're out of the house. The occasional sock if we leave laundry around...at most. The new pup is apparently not good in a crate at all. He gets very anxious. I would still like to expose him to a crate, and make it a positive experience for him, to help get him over his anxiety. But I'm not sure how to do that when we have an un-crated dog roaming around.

 

Same for sleeping at night. Our bedroom is the only room in the house that has carpet. Sunny sleeps in our bedroom on the floor, in a giant dog bed. With the new pup not being fully housebroken yet, I don't mind him sleeping on his own bed in the bedroom, but I fear I will end up with quite a few messes to clean up. When Sunny was young, he was crated in our bedroom, so we could hear him whine if he needed to pee in the middle of the night. But, I don't see it going well if we crate the new pup while Sunny has freedom to sleep on his bed.  I can only assume that the pup would squeal to be out and with Sunny.

 

Also, Sunny is a bit of a toy hog. When he plays with another dog and that dog has a toy, well he instantly wants THAT toy. The other dog will give up, and go find another toy. And voila -- suddenly, Sunny now wants THAT toy. He plays this game and we are constantly taking toys away from him and giving them back to the other dogs. Then we give him his own toy to play with. But...you get the picture -- he always is more interested in what the other dog has. I'm wondering how this will pan out with a new pup. I don't want the poor pup to never have anything to play with because Greedy Sunny is busy stealing his toys and eating his bones all day. And we want to teach Sunny to share. Just not sure how. Wondering if any of you have similar experiences with this, and if so...how you dealt with it?

 

The new pup is also apparently very anxious in the car. The foster mom has been working with him, and he is getting better, but he doesn't want to go in the car at all. Seems to be scared of it and puts the brakes on. I am hoping that seeing Sunny in the car will alleviate some of his fears and he'll have a "monkey see, monkey do" attitude, but I'm also expecting that this may not happen and that we may end up with one dog (Sunny) who loves the car, and another (new pup) who hates it. Have any of you encountered this when a new dog was added to your family?

 

We are VERY excited to add a second dog to our family, especially another doodle! We hope to have him home this weekend.

 

Thank you all in advance for reading my LONG post, and hearing my concerns. Looking forward to reading any feedback you might have to offer me on any of the above.

 

[cocoincanada]

Thanks everyone, for all your feedback and words of encouragement!

 

Luckily, Sunny has already met the new pup. We took him with us when we went to visit him in his foster home on Sunday, so we know they already get along. It'll just be interesting to see how things change when we bring him home and Sunny realizes he's here to stay. We definitely won't interfere in letting them determine their roles. We'll let them figure it all out for themselves. We are still the alphas in the house, so as long as we provide them with the leadership they need, I am hoping the rest will just fall into place. Hard to believe we are going back to puppyhood. Seems like it was many ages ago that we were doing all these puppy things with Sunny - housebreaking, basic obedience, crate training.....yet it was only 3 short years ago.

 

Can't wait to have the pup home. They are calling our references today, and that's the last step in the process, so we hope to be able to take him home tomorrow.

 

The pics above are so cute! I will share some of my own when we get the new pup home.

 

Adina, the new pup seems scared/anxious when getting in the car. When he realizes he's going in, he puts the brakes on and won't budge. The foster mom has been working with him, and trying to associate the car with positive experiences, like going to the park, etc. He is still very anxious. And he is also car sick. He doesn't get sick every time, but the last few times, he has vomited. She said he gets sick when the rides last longer than 5-10 mins. I have already looked at the car-sick threads on this board, so hopefully we can find a solution. Either that, or we hope he outgrows it, like many dogs do. When we go pick him up to bring him home, it's an hour's drive back to our house. We plan on bringing Sunny, but I'm thinking that I should also sit in the back with them, to praise him and give him treats perhaps, so he associates it with being fun. 

[Adina P]

Sometimes I wonder if some dogs just aren't more naturally car sick than others...and then that sickness makes them nervous and it's a vicious cycle.  I am naturally more car sick than my husband or some of my friends/family.  And when certain family members drive (NOT Clark) things are worse in stop and go traffic.  I bet on a long drive down a straight road he'd feel better than in stop-and-go city traffic.  When you take the pup places, drive like you're driving a bus full of standing toddlers...make sure none fall down =)