Advice for weathering the storm of adding a 2nd Doodle?

[Matt & 2 Doodles]

My wife and I have a 4-year-old Goldendoodle named Duncan.On Saturday, we will be bringing home our 2nd Goldendoodle -- an 8-week-old puppy pictured in the middle here:

I've had dogs all my life but never more than one at a time, so this coupled with the fact that our 2nd will be a puppy (and 4-year-old Duncan is still a puppy 75% of the time anyway) means we will have our hands full.

Any tips for first-time owners of 2 dogs at once? My biggest concerns are:

1) Walking both dogs at once. This will be a bigger concern when the puppy reaches full size (approx. 45-55 lbs.). Duncan is almost 70 lbs. While the puppy is still young, we'll most likely walk them separately. We don't have a fenced-in yard, so everything will be on leash. I'm a bit concerned though about my wife's ability to walk them together when they're both full grown. Any tips for this? We'll certainly be taking the puppy to regular puppy training classes, but should we consider more intermediate/advanced classes down the road that will teach the dogs to walk well together?

2) Taking the puppy out to pee every two hours -- specifically during the night -- without getting the older guy all excited. He's an early riser, so I'm worried that our late night trips outside w/ the puppy will get Duncan all riled up.

3) Duncan was crate trained but we put the crate away a couple of years ago and he hasn't used it/needed it since. The new puppy will be crate trained by us. Should we be careful to make it clear to Duncan that the crate is the puppy's own space and to keep Duncan out of it at all times? And should we probably feed them separately?

Any other tips/suggestions/advice for managing the transition to a 2-Doodle household are welcome and much appreciated!

[Cindy and Olive (Ollie)]

Ohh this sounds so exciting, and they are both adorable! Sorry no experiences to share, but just wondered why you plan on waking a puppy every two hours to pee? Ours has slept through the night since our first night at 8-1/2 wks old (well, from 10pm-5am) and we were told not to wake a sleeping pup. I hope you will be as lucky! Have fun!!

[Matt & 2 Doodles]

You're right -- I don't plan to get him up throughout the night but I expect he'll have me up at least 1x each night for the first few weeks. That's how our first Doodle was, anyway.

[Sheree Small]

What a handsome boy Duncan is and cute, cute puppy. It will be fun, and crazy! For walking I recommend the easy walk. That's what we trained our puppy on and with it she walks like a charm, with a regular colar she will still pull. If you have to do both, you will definitely want the control of the front harness (easy walk).
We have two other dogs and when we crate trained our puppy, she was the only one that went out. Left the other two sleeping and tried to be as quiet as possible. It was a 4 am pee for a long time then she finally started sleeping longer. Our other two have no interest in the crate, so don't know what to tell you, but my gut says it should be the puppy's space.
We fed ours in separate spaces so that there would,be no food issues.
At 9 months we started doggie day care 1-2 times per week. It lets our puppy burn energy and gives the other two dogs a break from her for a little bit. And classes/socialization so very important! That's my two cents. Have fun and keep us posted!

[Matt & 2 Doodles]

Thanks Sheree. We used Easy Walk (and still do) for Duncan and will plan to do the same w/ the puppy. It's a great idea.

Are your dogs home alone during the day? If so, did your younger dog mind being in the crate while the other dogs were free to roam? I wonder what this dynamic will be like for our 2 as our older dog has free reign while we're gone and the pup will be in his crate for much of the day.

[Sheree Small]

Matt, when the puppy was little we put the crate in an area the other two dogs would be, so they were all in the same room. We have a screened in porch so the older dogs could go outside, but they would hang out on the couch, and gave the puppy a kong. I think it helped that they had to stay near her. Given the option, they probably would have separated themselves from her, and she would have had a harder time. We really didn't leave them for long periods of time. Luckily we both are home a lot in the day. Now at ten months, Zoey is still not allowed free rein in the house. She has the dog porch and a huge yard. We are in southern CA so weather pretty good most of the time. When we are home she has full run of the house and yard. The doggy day care is great though because she still has way more energy than our 9 yo lab and 3 little white Coton.

[Melanie, Wookie and Dr. Watson]

We're going through this right now! We've found a hands free leash for the older dog to be a huge help when walking with the addition of a brand new puppy who rarely walks in a straight line.  Much easier to untangle the leashes when you're only really handling one. 

In general though, walking the two together has been easier than we thought it would be because the puppy follows the older dog.  Our older dog seems to have instinctively understood that she's mentoring him in a way and she's actually matured around him.  This is true across the board actually.  Even guests have noticed how she's changed almost overnight to be this model of a calm, well-behaved adult dog rather than an overgrown puppy.

In the middle of the night, if she needs to go she might stand up to join when we go to take him out, but she's been pretty good about understanding that it's not play time.  In general she barely lifts her head when we go to take him out a night after only a couple weeks of the new routine.

We didn't keep her away from his crate.  In fact, we encouraged her to go in it when she showed some curiosity in the beginning so the puppy would see that's what cool older dogs do.  After the first couple days she just ignored it.  We've noticed crate training is harder on the puppy when he sees the older dog is freely roaming around.  Not much to do about that.

We fed them separately in the beginning, but then after they overruled us a couple times and everything worked out fine, we just started feeding them together.  It helps to keep the puppy focused on food instead of playing with her when she's eating too.

A couple other things that are easier when you have an older dog around to help raise a puppy:

Whining in the crate: our older dog growls at the puppy till he settles down if he's too fussy in his crate and she'll often go and sleep next to him if he's just feeling a little lonely.

Bite inhibition: the older dog is teaching him bite inhibition faster than we can alone

Puppy energy: playing with one another wears both of them out so efficiently and it doesn't involve walking outside in bad winter weather!

As great as our older dog has been, she wouldn't even look at him on the first day and was a little aggressive towards him in the first few.  The transition to model older sister has been so fast though.  It's been incredible to watch actually.

Have fun!  Looking forward to your stories!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

How reliable is Duncan on leash?  Before we got Murphy I had Guinness (the older Dood) well trained when walking on a leash.  Then I worked separately with Murphy on "heel" training but there were times when I had to walk them together even at the beginning.  We don't have a fenced yard either so I had to leash walk them even to potty.  I know it would have been really difficult if Guinness wasn't already a well trained "walker".  Now I walk both dogs together all of the time....with training it really is "doable".  When we took our puppy out in the night to pee I would just quietly leash him and lead him out...if Guinness tried to follow I'd walk him back to his bed and tell him to stay.  It really was never a problem...Guinness learned after a couple nights and didn't even bother to get up.  Guinness was also out of the crate when we brought Murphy home and he never showed any interest in going back....he was never really a fan of the crate anyway.  Congratulations and good luck...two are so much fun.

[Matt & 2 Doodles]

Duncan is a pretty good walker until and unless we get near other dogs at which point he reverts to puppy instincts and wants to play. I'm able to control him without too much trouble but I know my wife will have her hands full in these situations with a second pup. We'll have to continue to work with him on this.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Luckily, Lucy was/is still using a crate for those times when we are out of the house so crate training Oscar was very easy. The crates were/are next to one another so Oscar took his cue from Lucy. For Oscar's crate training, Lucy was happy to be crated along with Oscar, in her own crate, of course. Oscar is a super, super mellow doodle so all things were very easy. Lucy was a great help in training him. From the beginning, once Oscar got the go ahead to walk outside, I walked the 2 dogs together. I had put in 3 yrs of leash training Lucy so Oscar just fell in line. To this day they walk perfectly together. The Easy Walk was a good tool for Oscar's training, as he responded very well with it. It didn't work for the high-strung Lucy as a puppy, but Oscar, yes. Neither dog ever had any desire to raid the other's crate, but if they had we'd have enforced some restrictions, as they consider their crate their sanctuaries.

As for late night potty trips, and having a new dog in the house in general, Lucy adjusted after a transition period. She had a nasty bout of gastric distress after the first 2 weeks of Oscar's arrival and I really do think it was due to stress, even though she adored having a new puppy in the house. She's a very sensitive dog. After that though, she was perfectly fine.

The 2 dogs have always eaten next to one another and at the same time. Oscar responded well to corrections, so it only took a few times of a sharp, "ah-ah" to keep him focused on his own food and away from Lucy's. The same for his own water bowl.

In my experience, training the 2nd dog with the help of a first, was so much easier than training one dog alone. The older dog does much of the training of established house rules, and the puppy takes it's cue from the first. For one small example, the first time we tried brushing Oscar's teeth, he wanted nothing to do with it, but after watching Lucy get her teeth brushed, he wanted his done too. It was that easy!

Duncan and the new puppy are both adorable! You are in for a real treat! Take lots of photos and videos of the 2 together, because they'll be priceless!

[Matt & 2 Doodles]

Thanks for your feedback. Interesting that your dogs are able to eat together and not try to get into each other's food. Sounds like you guys are good trainers!

Your suggestion to take lots of photos and, especially, video is a great one. I do wish we had more video of Duncan when he was a puppy.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Actually, it didn't take much training at all to get Oscar, as a puppy, to eat alongside Lucy. And by 'alongside', I mean within 4 ft. of her. I'm imagining you might be thinking their food bowls were side by side, which isn't/wasn't the case. Just as soon as Oscar made a move towards Lucy's dish he got a correction, which he responded to, and returned back to his own dish. We only had to do that a few times. Oscar would finish his meal within seconds, Lucy took several minutes. So Oscar was always done long before Lucy. He quickly learned that as long as Lucy was at her bowl, he was to stay away.  We never needed to correct Lucy, who wasn't interested in Oscar's food anyway.  I think the real trick is to start the training (a simple voice correction) the very first time the dogs eat together. And supervise every time until the 2 dogs understand the rules. You don't want any bad habits to ever begin.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

I want to add, too, that the hard part for us was Oscar's potty training. The 2 dogs loved playing together, which was great, but I couldn't supervise them every minute, so Oscar would often run to another room real quick and pee. It took a while for me to get the clue and realize if I couldn't be there every minute to watch him, then he was going to continue to have accidents. So, I started tethering Oscar to me, or crating him, which didn't make Lucy or Oscar happy to be kept separate. But it was necessary, and potty training really started then. We made great progress after that.

Also, rereading your post I see you have concerns about your wife handling 2 big dogs on leash at the same time. The only times I've had challenges with 2 dogs is when we encounter other dogs while walking. Lucy jumps straight up like a pogo stick and Oscar powers towards the other dog. Not immediately, but when we're within 5 ft or so. They both just want to sniff and say hi (or in Lucy's case, play). I've found the Canny Collar (a sturdy brand of head halter) works wonders for those times. I imagine it could be trained out, but I have yet to find any training to work.