Dog Math...The #s Don't Always Add UP!

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Dog math is simple:

When dogs are involved, the numbers do not always add up the way people think they will.

One dog is a lot of work. Two dogs are not just twice the work. And adding another dog does not automatically make life easier for the dog you already have.

In this episode, I break down some of the most common ways dog owners get the math wrong.

More Dogs = More Work

Adding another dog means more:

• Training
• Socialization
• Veterinary care
• Food
• Grooming
• Daycare or dog-walker expenses
• Individual attention
• Management

More dogs can absolutely work, but you need to be realistic about the amount of time, money, and mental bandwidth you are adding to the household.

A Second Dog Will Not Fix the First Dog

If your current dog is out of control, under-exercised, poorly trained, or struggling with problem behaviors, bringing home another dog usually does not solve the problem.

It can multiply it.

A much better approach is to get the first dog stable, trained, and working within good routines before bringing another dog into the family.

Two Puppies Are Not Easier Than One

Taking home two puppies at the same time can create another set of challenges.

They can become more focused on each other than on you, which can make training, socialization, and independence much harder.

If somebody chooses to raise two puppies together, they need separate training time, separate socialization, separate crate work, and plenty of opportunities to learn how to function independently.

The Financial Math Matters Too

Two dogs mean twice the veterinary visits, twice the preventatives, twice the food, and potentially twice the daycare, grooming, boarding, and training expenses.

The same goes for time.

You still have to teach each dog how to potty outside, walk on leash, respond to cues, socialize appropriately, and function in the real world.

Before adding another dog, I strongly recommend talking to a trainer first.

Look at your schedule, lifestyle, finances, current dog, the breed or genetics of the dog you are considering, and what that dog is actually going to need from you.

The best version of dog math is not “more dogs must be better.”

It is making sure the numbers actually work before you bring another dog home.

And there is one last piece of dog math that does work:

If you can keep taking three steps forward and only two steps back, you are still moving in the right direction.

K.I.S.S. Dog Training
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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome to another Kiss Dog Training Podcast episode with professionally certified dog trainer Mike Dee. You have dog training questions? Mike has dog training answers. Mike is coming up with all the info. Stay tuned.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Hey guys, welcome back. It's Mike with Kiss Dog Training, and today we're gonna tackle dog math. And what do I mean by dog math? Well, what I really mean is when you deal with math and you're dealing with dogs, and dogs are involved in the equation, math doesn't always equal out to 2 plus 2 equals 4. In some cases, people will use some of the topics we're gonna talk about today as reasons to do something. And in some cases, like what I'm gonna talk about today, I might try to convince you that the dog math says don't do it that way. So if you're good and completely confused, just hang on because we're gonna talk more about dog math in just a little bit. All right, before we actually get started with the conversation of dog math, this is the point in the conversation where everybody who helps me with the podcast, the YouTube channel, the videos, however you're getting this information, always yells at me because I don't do enough self-promotion. So this is the point in time where if you enjoy these conversations, please go out and subscribe, like, support us through um Buzz Sprout, anything you can do. And now that we've got that out of the way, let's get back to why you're here, which is talking about dogs. And this this round, we're gonna talk about dog math. And these are just some of the simple topics that always come up in dog training that people look at from one or two sides. Okay, so let's take the first one. Well, I've got one dog, why don't I go ahead and get two dogs? Or I've got two dogs, why don't I go get a third? Or I've got three already, why not go ahead and adopt that fourth dog? Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of those examples, but you have to be realistic with it and understand how much more work adding a dog to the pack is. And you're talking to a guy with right now three dogs, and my my youngest son's living with me with his dog, so we got four dogs in the house. Um, 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 dogs is 81 times the amount of work. Okay, it's an exponential growth pattern, it's just not adding one more. Okay, it doesn't get easier the more dogs that you own. There's nothing wrong with having a whole pack of dogs, but you need to ask yourself I mean, me as a dog trainer, you know, I work Monday through Friday. I don't work the weekends, so I have time to spend with my dogs on the weekends. I see between three and four clients a day, and I can leave and come back and let them out and play with them and feed them and do all this stuff, and I'm in and out of the house three or four times a day seeing them. If you're the kind of person that works eight to ten hours a day, 20 or 30 minutes away from your house, and you don't want to spend money on, let's say, doggy daycare and a dog walker, maybe a neighbor checking on the dog here and there, or you don't have the ability to do those things, or God forbid you don't live in a house, maybe you live in an apartment, having multiple dogs is gonna be a way bigger challenge, okay? So it's one of those things, and you hear me harp all the time in these talks about why don't you hire a dog trainer before you get a dog, before you add another dog to the pack? Why don't you get the opinion of, hey, how much work am I adding here? What am I getting into? You know, even you know, we've had conversations of, you know, know the genetics of the dog. You know, if you're if you're picking a working uh breed, you know, let's say a cattle dog, a Belgian Malinois, something like that, and you live in an apartment and you think it's gonna be a good fit, that's where a dog trainer could help you. If you live 30 minutes away from home and you can't afford doggy daycare and you want to add that second or third dog, the dog trainer is going to be able to have an educated conversation with you. So, I guess the first conversation about dog math is adding more dogs doesn't make it easier. In most cases, it makes it harder. Okay. All right. Dog math number two. I've got a dog, and it is just out of control, it has too much energy, I can't get out to walk it. I need to do something to help this dog I've got. So, my solution is I'm gonna go out and get a second dog, and that's gonna make the first dog better. Okay. That's not a good idea. Okay. Now, could it be done correctly? Absolutely. Let me give you the example of what correct look like. I get a puppy, I train it, I do the socialization, then the dog hits the teenage period, about six months, and we make it through that with doggy daycare and dog walkers and me doing the work with the dog. And there at about two, two and a half, I have a really well-behaved dog, and now I'm considering getting another puppy as a friend for my dog. My well-behaved dog that knows the rules, the routines, everything else in the world that we've already worked on is going to be a good canine brother or sister to this new little puppy and help them figure it out. That's how it should work, okay? But a lot of people will just assume hey, since my dog is a pain in the butt and isn't getting the things they need out of their environment, out of me as an owner, whatever is going on, adding another puppy or another dog is probably not going to help. It's gonna make it worse. It's the old, you know, the old adage of you never want two kids and diapers at the same time. You wait till one's potty trained and have another one so that you don't have to do double duty. Um, think of if you've ever known identical twins. And we're gonna talk about this a little bit later in another math equation. But if your dogs end up being bonded together versus bonded to you, who are they gonna listen to? So again, we think by adding a dog to the equation, now, maybe not from the altruistic, I just want to bring in another shelter dog and I want to help the world, but my dog's a pain in the butt, he needs a friend, and that's gonna fix everything. This is your second example of how dog math can sometimes bite you in the rear end. Okay, so now we move on to, let's say, the third example of dog math.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

If you love the topics you've been listening to, remember that Mike has written tons of books on dump training, and all are available on Amazon.com. Please, you can also find them on audible.com and the audiobooks. And you can even get them in print on Mike's website, kissdumptraining.com. Just search the web for KissDumb Training or Mike Dave, D E A T H E. Before we get to Mike, allow us to take a quick pledge break. Bus Brand hosts our podcast, and you can find us at any of your favorite podcast providers by simply searching for Kiss Dog Training or Mike Dief. 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. Mike is back now to help answer even more training questions.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Here's Mike. Okay, the third example in dog math. We just kind of hinted at it a minute ago when I brought up the idea of identical twins. And this is something where when we buy a dog, either from a breeder or rescue it from a rescue, or however you get the dog, there just happen to be two there. Two puppies. And we come up with the idea of I'm just gonna go ahead and take them both. Okay, I'm not gonna get into he said she said over whether sibling syndrome is a thing or not. All I'm gonna tell you is do me a favor, pause this video right now and go Google sibling syndrome with puppies or dogs, and just read it and come back. Okay. What you're gonna find is sibling syndrome is having two puppies at the same time, and they've already, you know, been litter mates, they went through nursing or bottle feeding, they were at a foster's house together, and now you are going to take both of them home. You're already starting so far behind the eight ball from a standpoint of that dog needing you more than they did, vice versa. The dogs end up being bonded together more than they need humans, and then you got a separate little pack running around your house. It makes socialization harder, it makes training harder. Um, in some cases, it makes all aspects of training more difficult. Have I, as a dog trainer, helped people who have brought two dogs in? Yeah, yeah, I have. But immediately what we do is we start like a the minute they're vaccinated, we start that doggy daycare routine where one of them's at daycare, one of them's at home, and you're working with that dog at home. Then you take that dog to doggy daycare the next day and work with the second dog. Um, we have the crates in separate rooms. We have them maybe on different feeding schedules, we have them on different training schedules, or we'll have one in the crate with a clone working on just being in a crate while I'm working obedience over here with the other one. But I will tell you again, the idea of two is easier than one. This is just another example that I'm just gonna go ahead and take two of them. And the problem is a lot of times people pick their favorite one and relinquish the other one back to the shelter. Or if they're they don't want to take it back to the shelter, they'll just put it on Facebook or TikTok or Instagram and they'll find a person who take who will take the dog. And that's not fair because then that one dog is behind the A-ball. Um, so we've talked about dog math, and and a lot of these examples of dog math are simply we think by taking more it makes it easier. Just remember, more is more, it's going to require more mental bandwidth, more financial. Whoops, I just went into dog math number four. Okay, so just remember more requires more. But now let's talk about the fourth example of dog math. See, I keep ruining all of the next topics because you can see how all these things are interchanged. But dog math number four is really well, I'm already paying for one dog. Adding another dog won't make it that much more. I already got a bag of food, I'll just feed them both. It won't be that much more expensive. Oh Lord almighty, yes it is. Okay, you get two dogs, or three, or four, whatever number we're dealing with, it's double the number of vet visits, vaccination visits, grooming visits. It is going to be twice the amount of daycare, twice the amount of dog walker, twice the amount of work. I gotta be able to walk them, potty train them, obedience train them, socialize them. And if you're trying to socialize them both at the same time and you're out in public working, the dogs are paying more attention to each other than they are to what they're trying to learn. So, in other words, we have to take one out for a socialization visit, take it home, take out the other one for socialization visit, and so on and so forth. We always think, and you know, as I'm as I'm harping about all these things in dog training, everybody needs to realize they all come from a good place. We're trying to adopt more dogs, we're trying to rescue more dogs, we're trying to, you know, help a breeder out who's got the last two puppies. Um, I've heard them all. And I don't argue that we're trying to come from a good spot, but over 15 years, I've seen so many dogs return because people got out over their skis or got in too deep a water and did not know what they were getting into, and they just weren't prepared. They don't, they're not ready. So, you know, the one aspect of dog math that I would say is valid is before you get a dog, do the math, pay a trainer first, talk about what you want, what kind of dog, how big, um, what working class is it a working dog, a sporting dog, a lap dog, a guard dog, you know, is it a complete and total genetic hodgepodge, Heinz 57, you know. Um, talk to the trainer about how long potty training normally lasts, how long is the socialization period? How quickly do I have to get all of these things done? You know, if you go to my website and look, I've got a puppy socialization checklist that's 163 items that I tell people I want repeated twice before the dog's 20 weeks old. And the problem is, right around 20 to 30 weeks, we flip from being that cute, adorable puppy. Now we are a teenager, and we're gonna stay in that teenage phase from about six months to about two years, maybe a little longer, maybe a little less. And then we got to deal with that. And then when they hit about three, if we've done it right, we have that awesome dog we always always wanted. That's for one dog. Now imagine you got a puppy when it was a year old, you got another puppy, and when that one was about two years old, now we brought in a third puppy, and now we got three dogs who are not trained because we weren't ready. The dog math did not add up. So this is gonna be a little shorter talk than normal, but with all of the different videos I've seen out there about boy math and girl math and this math and that math, I thought I would take a shot at doing dog math. Um, hopefully, this um strikes a chord with some people, and you're thinking, Well, I want you to cover this conversation. I want you, if you want me to do something more in tail, just email us, find us through social media, reply to the podcast or the YouTube video. There's easy ways to get hold of us. You can even get hold of us via the phone, 913-269-7595. We're located in the Kansas City metro area. Um, and let's go ahead and let's um rethink our version of dog math and make sure that we're setting ourselves up for success, not failure. And I'll leave you with one last, I guess it could be considered dog math. There's two ways to do dog training. You can take two steps forward and three steps back and get stuck in the mud and never make any progress. Or you can learn to take three steps forward and two steps back and constantly be creeping in the right direction. And what you find is that's the way to train a dog. Okay, it's Mike with Kiss Dog Training. I appreciate you listening to me rant a little bit and come back next time with