How to add another dog to your pack

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

Sorry, wanted to post this here as well as on the multiple dogs forum :

We are getting yogi's brother/sister in early July. (Due date is this weekend). I had asked our trainer about getting a second dog, she said its important to keep them separate a fair amount of time.
So I'm wondering if you guys did this, how did you accomplish it? I'm trying to think how a day might go if I have them separated some during the day. Would puppy be in a separate room in his crate instead of out with Yogi? Would yogi be partitioned off when we play with new pup? Right now Yogi has run of the house, so just now sure how to approach this.

Any thoughts or experiences would be helpful

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

Janie, thanks! Sounds like I could do it either way. I'll just wait and see what the dogs seem to need

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Our huge mistake is that while we separated the dogs some etc., we were more concerned with socializing Ned so we took him by himself a lot and left the others home.  We should also have been concerned about leaving him home alone and taking the others without him, so that he learned to be by himself. You never know when you might be in a position where you must leave one home alone and it would be good to know that the one left isn't in a panic. When our grand dog visits overnight we just let them all hang out and only separate or correct if it gets too crazy.

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

Nancy, are you saying Ned didn't learn to stay home alone at first?

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Yup! We wanted to make sure that Ned, and then Clancy, would be fine if we took them places alone and to learn to rely on themselves for support in new and strange places with new and strange distractions.  Neither Ned nor Clancy have any anxiety issues, but since we never left either home alone they do NOT like it and get a bit worried. We suspect that Clancy WAS an only dog but after having him for 4 years, you would never know it.  So, were I to get another dog, I would leave it home alone periodically while taking the others out.    We have had multiple dogs for the past 16 years and this didn't occur to us before.  Our two oldest dogs in the multiple dog family (both now deceased) never had a problem being left alone, but our current oldest dog has pretty severe anxiety issues, so we have become aware that, if possible, we should train/desensitize a dog for this.

[Sabrina and Bentley]

I just posted about this not seeing your post. We just added our second goldendoodle last week along with our 3yr old. I was so worried how Bentley, our 1st dog would react to Grumman. If this picture says anything, I think we're gonna be ok. :-) good luck with your decision!

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

Sabrina,
Congrats! You didn't waste any time ;-)
We have a deposit down a doodle that was born May 6th. Your picture is encouraging!

[Sabrina and Bentley]

Yea, I probably should gave asked my question a couple of months ago. Haha! We weren't expecting to get one thus soon and I panicked thinking i wasn't prepared. This site helped me so much the first time, so I knew I could count on it.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

You make a good point. I never separated the dogs after Oscar came along. I don't even remember taking Lucy for walks alone while we waited for Oscar to have all his necessary shots. DH may have done that, but I know it wasn't me. I do remember the first time we intended to leave Oscar at home in his crate while we took Lucy to the vet. It wasn't going to happen! He ended up going with us then, and on every trip since. Its funny, but I can take Oscar places alone (vet, training, grooming). I just can't leave him home alone.

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

Sasha was 10 months when I got Oliver.  They stayed in their own crates during the day while I was at work but the crates were right next to each other.  I never had any issues with adding Oliver to the mix.  Oliver's breeder let me bring Sasha the few times we went there to visit and pick our puppy.  When we went to pick up Oliver we brought Sasha with us, it was a 2- 1/2 hour drive so they got time to get more acquainted.  They always got along very well and are really good together :)