Bringing in a second...or third...or

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

Bringing in another dog into a home that already has a dog, was easy for me. The older one "taught" the new one where to do business, what the routine was, what was OK and not. There was very little training on my part and no housebreaking. It was great. I'll never have one dog again.

What were your experiences?

[Libby, Rufus & Jacoby]

I agree, bringing home my second doodle was amazingly simple. The older one leads by example, it has all been so easy. I have been warned however that three dogs in a household really changes the dynamics and not to do it. Is this true????

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

Three did change many things, but I'm still glad we did it. My girl is definately pack leader around here. The other's are boys and play and fight just like human brothers. I was told that 2 females might be a cause for problems so I went with the male, third. Ginger will put her foot down and bark or snap if they do something she doesn't like.

The over the top feeling comes and goes. Once in awhile, epecially in the beginning, I thought "why did I do this?" But now that it has been over a year with three and our home is full of love.

[Patty Barnes]

I have never heard "three" dogs, but I have heard "five" can dogs change household dynamics. From my experience, all runs smoothly when you bring in a young puppy. Introducing an older dog can upset things, but that fades with time.

[Jacqui]

We have 4 dogs in our household and it has taken a bit of time for them all to settle down together. Our old dog, Ben, has been respected as pack leader from the beginning, which has been good. We have one girl and two boy doodles and the girl, Angel, is definitely boss over Sam and Teddy. The boys get on really well sharing bottom of the pack. We were advised by both our vet and a dog trainer to let them find ther own places in the household and that seems to have worked well. However, if we tried to introduce another female I think we might have more problems as Angel can be quite dominant where other females are concerned. Although they can be quite a handful, I love having our doggy family and love watching them play and interact with each other.

[McMillan's Rescue]

Yes, females do seem to change things. When we rescued Buddy (the doodle) it was easy for everyone except my youngest female. Gracie (golden-retriever mix) was rescued last summer and handled it well when we rescued Dusty (the lab) in January. She was easy going until Buddy came along in June. I believe she is just very jealous and pouts a lot for attention.

Our two oldest dogs (14 yr old ... german shepherd and cocker spaniel) recently passed away and Gracie loved them both, so I guess she is just having trouble adjusting to the changes.

We have always had 3-5 dogs and never had a problem unless it was over food. But yes, they do have to figure out the order of the pack!

Buddy seems to be a little rough when they play and he doesnt mean to scare/hurt them but sometimes he does. I am trying to teach him to play "easy". The other 2 are very rough with each other but Buddy is so much larger than they are he can't be as rough when playing.
Any suggestions?

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

My 90# Jack plays a little rough with my 25# Bijon and usually a "PLAY NICE" from me will slow him down. But my Bijon will give it right back at him, so to some extent they have to figure out the pack order.

[Tamara & Giada]

True......training was easy. Giada was going to the door just a week after we brought her home and fully trained in one month!!

We said we should have brought Summer home a puppy years ago...........really brought her back to life.

[AndySharon BoomerShaynaMariner]

I don't think that Mariner would be doing as well as he has if it weren't for Boomer and Shayna. When Mariner could not see he was able to follow their sound and scent. Mariner still is always looking to be with them and emulates their behavior. Boomer and Shayna also look out for him.

[Mary, Scrappy, Sully and Olive]

I also agree that the second one was a breeze, as far as training goes anyway. Grover is an absolute angel and Scrappy is such a great "dog sitter". If I ever let Grover out of my sight, which is rare so far, she'll alert me to anything out of the ordinary;) Some day's I wonder how I ended up with two doodles, but most days I can't imagine not having two. The double doodle greeting when anyone comes home......well, that sure is worth the trade off of 24/7 doodle wrestling, which takes getting used to;)

[gene]

Two was a lifesaver!! Jonah needed a buddy, so I got Miko (female rescue). All was well, then Rumor came along (male rescue) and I fell in love again. Three has had it's challenges, but worth every second of it. They are all individuals and that's what makes it so special! Talk about a wonderful thing to come home to!!

Now we have Sera, a foster for IDOG. She is a little different. She's what you would call dog stupid, so she has to be separate from the others. She isn't a fit for us, but will be perfect for someone else.

will I ever get that 4th forever doodle?? Can't say now, but the future holds many wonders for all of us.....LOL

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Two dogs was really perfect. One each for my husband and I to walk, with one person able to handle both in a pinch. Two dogs to keep each other entertained when we are gone. Two dogs up on the bed. Ned was an impulse buy and one we don't regret for a minute - well maybe for a minute, but that is puppyhood talking. I think when he matures a little - like by next summer, RVing will be great. The only problem now with camping in the RV is that our kids show up with their two dogs which makes 5. For most RV parks that is over the limit so we lie about how many we have. However since they range from a Doberman, Whippet, English Springer Spaniel, Lab mix, to Ned the mini doodle, we can't really pretend two of them are the same dog!

[Paula]

It's been so long since I've only had two I can't remember. When I'm down to two I think whew o.k. let's leave it this but in a very short time a month or so I find myself searching for my next dog to fill the thiat spot. I guess I'm crazy! Three works Naturally over the years we have had differebt combos of ages and breeds and sexes. Only recently did we have littermates; male and female Bouviers and just in Aug were left with just the 3 1/2 yr old female and our 13 yr old Old English Sheep Dog/ Terrier mix male. I find that the males have clashed , nothing major just scraps usually set off by the 13 yr od 30 lb male who is mine ; the females have tended to end up always bonding with my husband. This time I almost chose a female Bouvier but decided on a male Goldendoodle instead based on their reputation for wonderful happy go lucky disposition. That was what had gone desperately awry with the 3 1/2 yr old male Bouvier (the remaining females brother...he SUDDENLY became very "Prey Aggressive" at 3 1/2) and we had no choice but to return him to the breeder when stared breaking loose and biting joggers and passers by. Can you imagine how heart breaking that was. So until I heard all the wonderful things about the Doodles I was afraid to get a male; but I sure feel confident of my little Dandy who is growing very quickly into a big Dandy. He is very very handsome, a real gentleman and very polite and smart. That's why I named him Dandy. And it feels very RIGHT to have picked him out to be our new third dog.If I may mention that before the male Bouvier we had another male Bouvier very big boy and very laid back and gentle who died of Lymphatic ca four years after Auto Immune Disorder which he nearly killed him after a TOO STRONG DOSE of VACINATIONS and combinations. More is known about that now and they denid it all at the time that the auto immune disease was caused by over vaccinating and inncorrect combinations but the truth about all that is out now. I think that the U.S. Vets are far more cautious about this and ready to admit the connection between the two than the CDN Vets it's way too late for Boomer he was only 7 1/2 when he died needlessly not even to mention the $5000.00 it cost just intially for us to save him immediately after the vaccines at which time the Vet insisted that there was no connection. Thankfully we live in a border city and could change to a U.S.Vet once we clued in to what was going on with the over kill rabies dose here. Now after many years after thousands of needless sick pets and deaths they changed it to every three years. I know many people who will not vaccinate the dogs against rabies at all! because of al the "AUTO IMMUNE DISORDER" cases. So please be very careful and informed. Go on line to all the sight you can and learn all that you can about this Well I've certainly gone from one topic to the other but I sure can't stress enough how important this is.I've seen ,many other cases of it besides my own. Coincidently a few of them had the the same vet.