Should I Get Another Dog?

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Should you get another dog?

What breed should you choose? Male or female? Puppy or adult? Does your current dog even need a canine companion?

The frustrating answer is that there really is not one hard-and-fast rule.

In this episode, I tackle a question from a former client who was trying to plan ahead as an older dog in the household was reaching the end of life. What started as “What kind of dog should I get?” quickly became a much bigger conversation.

Stop Looking for Simple Rules

Instead of assuming certain breeds automatically work together, look at what those dogs were genetically bred to do and, more importantly, look at the individual dogs standing in front of you.

The same goes for sex and age.

You will hear that males and females get along better, that two females can be difficult, or that dogs should be a certain number of years apart.

Those may be useful generalizations, but they are not guarantees.

Look at the Dog You Already Have

Ask yourself:

• Does your dog actually enjoy other dogs?
• Has your dog lived successfully in a multi-dog household?
• Does your dog enjoy daycare, boarding, or group play?
• What is the age and energy level of your current dog?
• Are there health or pain issues that could affect tolerance?
• Do you have the time, finances, and routines to manage another dog?

Sometimes the best answer is that your current dog is perfectly happy without another dog.

More Dogs Mean More Work

I always joke that one dog is a lot of work, two dogs are three times the work, three are nine times the work, and four are eighty-one times the work.

Dogs are not potato chips. You do not have to keep adding another one.

Think about training, daycare, veterinary expenses, exercise, management, and the amount of time you realistically have available.

A Resource Worth Reading

Meet Your Dog — Kim Brophey
https://meetyourdogbook.com/

The book does a great job of looking beyond simple breed labels and helping owners understand genetics, breed groups, natural behavior, and what different dogs were originally bred to do.

Before bringing home another dog, talk with a trainer, your veterinarian, and the rescue or breeder. Then take some time to digest what everybody tells you.

The goal is not to follow somebody else’s canned rule.

The goal is to make the best decision for the dogs and humans who actually live in your house.

K.I.S.S. Dog Training
Dog Training Ain’t Cheap... Experience Counts.
https://kissdogtraining.com/

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome to another Kiss Dog Training Podcast episode with professionally certified dog trainer Mike Deeth. Are you thinking about adding a dog to the family but not sure where to begin? Mike has got you covered. Hang around, Mike is coming up with all the info.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Hey all, welcome back. It's Mike with Kiss Dog Training, and we are going to talk more about dogs and dog training today. And we're going to be discussing an email I got from a previous client with a question that uh when I started uh talking to her on the phone, I kind of realized that this is going to be a really good topic to just kind of get out there and talk about because the answers are a little weird. Okay. So let me just kind of um give you a brief description of what her question was to me. Uh, she was curious about what kind of breeds of dog do well together. She was also curious whether should I get a male or a female dog? Then we started talking, and the question became well, does this dog really need another dog? And the scenario that we're talking about is we have an older geriatric dog who is um winding down their life cycle and they're thinking, how do we prep and get ready for the next dog in the pack? And the question is, well, do we really need another dog in the pack? Does the dog that they will have um by themselves need another dog? Um will the walking and exercise that they do with that particular younger dog now be sufficient? Okay. Um, and then she just wanted to kind of, you know, get my opinion on it. And, you know, it's there are definitely answers to each and every one of these questions that she asks, okay? And we're gonna go over each and every one of them. But the biggest thing I want you to understand is they are at best rules of thumb or generalizations or you know, kind of, you know, uh wives' tales. Because in some cases they'll work, in some cases they won't. So, you know, let's let's let's take, you know, the first question what breeds of dogs go better together? Now, obviously, you I wouldn't recommend putting a Great Dane and a teacup chihuahua together, they're just too big, and if the Great Dane got um too rambunctious, uh the Great Dane could hurt the Chihuahua. Um, but as far as breeds go, I I think what everybody needs to realize is you know, everybody wants to put every breed in a bucket and say that's what this breed is. But you gotta realize that breed is a spectrum. So, like I'm a great Pyrenees nut, so I'm just going to use them as an example. You could have a Great Pyrenees that is very far on the end of the spectrum that their guarding instinct, their flock protecting instinct is very high. You could have a dog on the other end of that spectrum, a very lazy Great Pyrenees, which would do great in an apartment or something like that. Um, you could have one who is shy, you could have one that's outgoing. So to say that Great Pyrenees in general are this, I think does any breed a disservice. And to say that Great Pyrenees don't get along, I mean, you know, in my house alone, I have a three-legged little pit bull, I have almost a purebred Great Pyrenees, and I have a German Shepherd mix. Plus, my son's dog, who is, if you can imagine this, have Great Pyrenees and have Chinese crested. Um, you know, that's about as you know big a combination of breeds that you could throw all together, and all of my dogs are females, and we'll get to that here in a minute. Um, now I do think it's important and intelligent on this particular client to be asking these questions because then a dog trainer can sit down and go, okay, look, I think better than looking at what breeds go together, it might be what the breeds were bred to do. Can I see a um a lazy lap dog, um, King Charles cab King um King Charles um Spaniel? Um and a high drive herding dog like a blue healer. Could I see those two dogs getting into arguments over things because they just they don't their personalities don't necessarily mesh? Sure, you know. So I think you know, when we look at breed, let's not look at the breeds, let's look at what the breeds were bred to do. So, like, you know, if um a great book, um, we'll we'll add a link to it is Meet Your Dog by Kim Brophy. She does a great job of breaking down kind of the AKC breed groups or the um categories of dogs from a dog show. She does make a couple of little adjustments there, but then she talks about what you can expect from each one of these. Um, you know, to me, the other way to look at this is well, what if I just got, you know, mixes, mutts, mongrels, all mixed up? Well, chances are those dogs are gonna get along. Um but we got to look at other things, you know. The the dog that you have now, does it get along? Does it do doggy daycare? Can it be boarded? Is it okay with a group of other dogs? Is it have you seen any issues with male, female? And that's another one we'll talk about here in a little bit. Um you know, what's the history of the dog? And in this particular case, we got a pretty high drive, high play want to have a good time dog. Okay. So um I guess the breed thing, let's let's look more at what is a dog genetically bred to do and what is the new dog's breed genetically bred to do, and think outside the box. And would those two make a good match? Um, you know, but then again, I like I started this conversation saying that it's a generalization, it's an old wives' tale, it's you know, whatever you want to call it, but they'll say opposites attract. So that would go completely against what I'm talking about. And that's the important part of this. I think sometimes folks will look at these generalizations as hard and fast rules, and they're just not, okay. Um, the second one, the sex of the dogs. Um, in most cases, people are gonna say in a male and a female will probably get along better than two males or two females. Um, I have always had female dogs. I hate to speak poorly of my sex, but I think female dogs are smarter than boy dogs. Um, and in that case, I know not to have a younger and an older female by themselves. You know, for me, over the years, I have found that the age span of about two years. So if I have a two-year-old, a four-year-old, a six-year-old, an eight-year-old, if I had four dogs, well, the six and the eight-year-old are gonna kind of buddy up, and the two and the four-year-old are gonna kind of buddy up, and the four and the six are kind of close enough to get along, and I have to do a good job in my household of making sure that the two and the eight-year-old can get along. And that's to say my eight-year-old might be having pain issues with hips or something like this. But if it's a high-energy, healthy, good hips, no pain scenario with the older dog, they're gonna have pretty much patience. But um I think you also need to be aware that when you're when you're looking at these kinds of questions, is well, how much management do you as an owner do?

SPEAKER_00 8:05

If you love the topics you've been listening to, remember that Mike has written tons of books on dog training, and all are available on Amazon.com. Plus, you can also find them all on audible.com as audiobooks, and you can even get them in print on Mike's website, kissdogtraining.com. Just search the web for KISS Dog Training or Mike Deeth, D-E-A-T-H-E. Before we get to Mike, allow us to take a quick pledge break. Buzz Sprout hosts our podcast, and you can find us at any of your favorite podcast providers by simply searching for Kiss Dog Training or Mike Death. You can also find a direct link to our podcast on our website, KissDogtraining.com, by looking in the About tab and just clicking on the word podcast. It's at that link where you'll find a subscription link where you can donate as little as $3 a month to help us provide monthly podcasts and information on positive, science-based training methods for dogs and their owners, and we would appreciate that help so much. Choosing a second dog is more than just picking a cute face. There is a lot to consider. Mike is back now to help answer all those questions and more. Here's Mike.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Um, I always tell my clients that one dog is a lot of work, two dogs is three times as much work, three dogs is nine times as much work, and four is eighty-one. It's an exponential growth of work and responsibility and routine that you have to be good at before you can have them. Dogs are not like potato chips. You don't need to have, you know, an entire bag of them. Now, you know, we we want to save all the dogs, we want to do everything, but we also have to know what we're capable of. And me as a professional dog trainer, um, three dogs is about my comfort level. My my uh 21-year-old son has moved home and brought home one of my old dogs that he stole from me. So when I say I brought in a fourth dog to this pack, it was a dog who was already used to this scenario. So could we generalize that and say that boys do better with a girl and girls do better, and you gotta make sure that they're all the same age or all different ages. I mean, we could make arguments on all of these things. Um, as far as the sexes go, I think it's just important to look at the personality of the dogs. Um, I think it's important for dogs to meet and to get to know each other. I love fostering. A lot of times when I bring another dog into the pack, it's because it's a foster dog that I've had, and I see that they get along with my pack, and I've had them for four or six weeks, and I'm like, I've gotten I foster fail a lot, let's just put it that way. Um, but I don't know that you can be again hard and fast that females and males, males and females, two females, two males. Um, I have heard kind of the funny argument that when two male dogs get into a fight, once you break it up, they're it's over and it's done with. And when two females get in a fight, um, it can be for life, they can just decide they don't like each other. Um, I will tell you, I do in my past experience think that when two female dogs get in a fight, it can be um a lot uglier fight sometimes. Um, but again, it's a generalization. I've seen two females just snip at each other and be done, and I've seen two males that just flat decide they don't like each other anymore, and it's dangerous to have them together. Um what about if we talk about the age of the dogs? You know, should we bring a puppy in with an older dog? Should we bring a dog the same age? Again, it's the personality of the individuals you have in your pack, not these regurgitated rules that we've heard about for years and years and years. Um I think it really would also be smart to do what my client did. She had worked with me before, she called me, we talked about it, and I think it would be a good idea that you you're dealing with a rescue who is good and reputable and not just interested in you know rushing dogs out the door, um, but is interested in making sure that we get a good match between dogs, you know. Um this is also where we kind of gotta talk about the experience of the dog. I mean, ask yourself questions like, well, okay, has my dog done well? Did it come from a pack? Or is this a dog who's lived by themselves for three or four years? And because I want a dog, I'm gonna bring one into the house. That would be a very different scenario than me having two years between dogs and four dogs, and my older dog passing and me bringing a puppy into a situation where the other three dogs were used to always being the members of a pack. Um, do you do doggy daycare? Can you go to the dog park? Um, does your dog enjoy being around other dogs? You know, and we've all met those dogs who flat just don't like being around other dogs. They'd rather be around people. Um, and if your dog is perfectly happy in the scenario they're in, is it fair to force the change of another dog on them? Um, these are all things we gotta think about, but I think we need to get away from these generalizations that this breed is bad, this grouping of dogs won't work. Um, you know, we we get to where we want to have a quick little anecdote, and dog trainers are as guilty as anybody else of just a quick canned answer about a question. And I guess what I really want to get across with this entire podcast or video, or however you're consuming the content, is these are all generalizations. It's you can't make a blanket statement one way or the other. So um, one dog might do great, another dog might not. It might be two females that love each other to death. You might have a male and a female that get along great, you might have two males that just flat don't like each other. Um, I would also always, you know, you hear me say this a lot, but get your vet involved in the discussion too. But don't be scared to bring up the idea of okay, yeah, those are generalizations, but are there exceptions? And it's kind of like learning the English language. The one rule above all rules with the English language is there's always an exception, and there's always an exception here. Um, opposites attract, you need to be the same, you need to do this. So talk to multiple people, hire a dog trainer, pay them for an hour's worth of their time to figure out what's your house like, what are your logistics like, what's the history of you know, your pack, you know, what's going on. And we can give you an opinion. Then go talk to the veterinarian and get their opinion, and then go to the rescue or the breeder or however you're getting the dog and talk to them, and then be smart enough to then take a week to just digest everything and make the decision that's best for you and your family. Um, and sometimes, hey, I've seen I've seen households with four, five, six dogs that get along great. I've also seen people who get in over their head and have too many dogs and work too many hours, and it's never a good idea. Um, I've seen people where if they would just take their dog to doggy daycare three times a week and let them wear out, it would, it would massively improve the their quality of life and the dog's quality of life, but they can't afford it. And you gotta look at what you can afford. And I mean, I guess from that standpoint, one final little thought. You know, if you've got four or five dogs, think about the vet bills. You gotta be able to think about all of this at once. Don't try to put it all inside one box. You gotta look at it from all angles, and you gotta make the best decision for you and your dogs. So this is Mike with Kiss Dog Training. Keep those questions coming, keep um sending us emails. Um, don't forget you can support the podcast there on Buzz Sprout for as little as I think two or three dollars a month. And it helps us with all the production costs and all the people involved that you don't get to see um besides my ugly manga on the video. So I appreciate it. It's Mike with Kiss Dog Training. Come back next month and we'll have a new topic for you.