Labradoodle & Goldendoodle Forum
LOGISTICS!! Lots of questions - would love advice :)
So I have the second doodle bug going BAD... and am trying to figure out if it is good idea for us or not. Sammy is a wonderful, almost 1.5 year old ALD who is medium sized and the most laid back, loveable dog I have ever met (and I grew up with dogs and my parents always had 2 or 3 at a time -- many different breeds).
But I do feel like Sam doesn't get enough play time and would love to have a buddy and for some reason -- I am up for a little more craziness in my household (I am mom to 4 boys -- ages 3 thru 12). The boys adore Sam and are totally on board for another dog... my husband is less so (but he wasn't on board for Sam either and those two are great together). He has not said anything to suggest I can't go forward with it (he isn't really like that anyhow) but does look at me with that "are you sure you want to do that?" look.
I love the idea of a girl dog given I am the only female in this house full of guys! And maybe even a slightly smaller dog (though honestly, I think Sammy is the perfect size -- just don't think we'd want to go any bigger). BUT... I have an opportunity to take on a pup that needs a guardian home -- he is already 1 year old, he is a HE, and of course the breeder is local (hence the guardian home thing) so we would sign a contract that gives them breeding rights and then the pup would be ours to keep forever after. It is a nice situation in that we don't have to pay for the puppy up front and he is older and trained (I think if I wanted a new 8 week old puppy my husband really would put his foot down... but I know better than to go that route). The breeder seems lovely via e-mail (and my hubby spoke to her on the phone).
My worries are... introducing a male pup who is not fixed to Sammy... right away I am assuming the new dog will be alpha as Sammy is a really submissive dog... and I don't know if that is a bad or good thing -- may be fine but I see lots of discussion on here about female-female pairings or how getting 1 of each gender works way better. So I still prefer a female... BUT, maybe I am wrong about that stuff. I also don't think I want to be a guardian for a female as then we have to deal with watching for signs her her going into heat and when she goes to have puppies she will be away for much longer and I think Sam would not like the long absences assuming they grow to be good buddies. So for a female, I would need to consider just finding an older pup that is fixed that needs a home.
Sam still sleeps in his crate at night -- he seems content so we have just never changed that around. I am wondering if the new pup sleeps in a crate and do we just put the crates next to each other? I also crate him when I go run errands and I don't yet trust him all over the house because he still really likes to chew on things... so I guess they both get crated until I figure it out -- I wouldn't allow the new pup more freedom than Sam as that doesn't seem fair -- even if the new pup is better about not eating things he shouldn't.
What about meals? Do they get fed together? Is it pretty easy to train them to leave each others' food alone? Same goes for toys... do they just share them all? I imagine if they are being too crazy in the house, I can just send them outside or put them in time outs in their crates... hmmm. The more I write the less complicated it seems. Just treating the new one like we do Sam.
I am talking to the breeder tomorrow and maybe making a trip this week to see her dogs. Wish me luck!
Jen
But I do feel like Sam doesn't get enough play time and would love to have a buddy and for some reason -- I am up for a little more craziness in my household (I am mom to 4 boys -- ages 3 thru 12). The boys adore Sam and are totally on board for another dog... my husband is less so (but he wasn't on board for Sam either and those two are great together). He has not said anything to suggest I can't go forward with it (he isn't really like that anyhow) but does look at me with that "are you sure you want to do that?" look.
I love the idea of a girl dog given I am the only female in this house full of guys! And maybe even a slightly smaller dog (though honestly, I think Sammy is the perfect size -- just don't think we'd want to go any bigger). BUT... I have an opportunity to take on a pup that needs a guardian home -- he is already 1 year old, he is a HE, and of course the breeder is local (hence the guardian home thing) so we would sign a contract that gives them breeding rights and then the pup would be ours to keep forever after. It is a nice situation in that we don't have to pay for the puppy up front and he is older and trained (I think if I wanted a new 8 week old puppy my husband really would put his foot down... but I know better than to go that route). The breeder seems lovely via e-mail (and my hubby spoke to her on the phone).
My worries are... introducing a male pup who is not fixed to Sammy... right away I am assuming the new dog will be alpha as Sammy is a really submissive dog... and I don't know if that is a bad or good thing -- may be fine but I see lots of discussion on here about female-female pairings or how getting 1 of each gender works way better. So I still prefer a female... BUT, maybe I am wrong about that stuff. I also don't think I want to be a guardian for a female as then we have to deal with watching for signs her her going into heat and when she goes to have puppies she will be away for much longer and I think Sam would not like the long absences assuming they grow to be good buddies. So for a female, I would need to consider just finding an older pup that is fixed that needs a home.
Sam still sleeps in his crate at night -- he seems content so we have just never changed that around. I am wondering if the new pup sleeps in a crate and do we just put the crates next to each other? I also crate him when I go run errands and I don't yet trust him all over the house because he still really likes to chew on things... so I guess they both get crated until I figure it out -- I wouldn't allow the new pup more freedom than Sam as that doesn't seem fair -- even if the new pup is better about not eating things he shouldn't.
What about meals? Do they get fed together? Is it pretty easy to train them to leave each others' food alone? Same goes for toys... do they just share them all? I imagine if they are being too crazy in the house, I can just send them outside or put them in time outs in their crates... hmmm. The more I write the less complicated it seems. Just treating the new one like we do Sam.
I am talking to the breeder tomorrow and maybe making a trip this week to see her dogs. Wish me luck!
Jen
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jeanne, Tura and Dolly on
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I have 2 females so can't comment on the marking. I was surprised that Tura (oldest) started peeing in the house after we got Dolly but eventually that stopped.
The first day we introduced them in the back yard, Dolly (#2) hid under a chair while Tura was nipping at her and barking, very excited, LETS PLAY!!! Poor thing was pretty scared. We were worried that maybe we had made a mistake etc etc. Over the course of the next few hours, Dolly got braver and eventually started to play and bark back and got more dominant as time went on and pretty soon it was clear she was the alpha.
I also live in the NW (mud city these days) about an hour SW of Seattle. If I leave them both out too long, they dig like crazy. Also, they have chewed on the siding of the house. I have tried leaving them in various places in the house, but they have chewed rugs, floor boards and jumped barriers. So they go into the side by side crates when I go. Puppies, gotta love them! Hopefully you will have time to take the new pup lots of places to socialize him and eventually you can walk them together. (it's my own dream anyway)
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Goaring on
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So do you walk them together at all now? I guess I figured we'd get to that pretty quickly -- but maybe I am being overly optimistic.
I do thing the crate thing may have to happen for awhile -- I think the two is better than one thing may work both ways and two may get into things in the house that 1 would not think to do. (I should know I have twin boys... humans, no dogs! but same idea when they were toddlers/preschoolers).
We have this like wroght iron fence around our garden out back to keep Sam from digging and he is definitely big enough and tall enough to jump it but the thought has never occurred to him so the garden has remained safe. Who wants to bet that new dog #2 will figure that out right away and then have Sammy in there with him in no time come this summer?! :) -
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Permalink Reply by Lynda Kamrath on
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Female breeding dogs are more of a problem than males. We had considered going this route for a while but it just seemed to be problematic. I think that having an intact dog of either sex is more of a problem than neutered/spayed pets. Think about it. We had an intact male poodle that was constantly getting out (digging under fences, jumping fences, mateing on the lawn at the local junior high school), and we have had no intact dogs since then. We are not interested in breeding dogs or the problems that go along with that. The poodle even got a breeding labrador pregnant and we paid for the abortion (little did we know back then that labradoodles would be such a big thing). So...consider the implications of having an intact dog in a home with four boys.
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