I'm sure most of you know by now from my annoyingly incessant posting but I have a 4 month old lab.
This question though is for planning for the future.

We regularly take her to my parents house and she gets on very well with and loves playing with their 8 year old lab and I was hoping to get her a playmate for while we are out at work.

I have read a few things that suggest waiting until she's 2 years old before introducing another dog.
Is this something you would all agree with.

We have a 200ft garden and plan to leave them with access to that while we are out (is secure with 6ft fences all the way round)

My question is (after all that waffle) should I get a dog older or younger than her
And what problems/benefits have people experienced with a second dog

I have heard that it's best not to get another dog while you still have a puppy because puppies are VERY influenced by other dogs' behaviour. If you get another puppy that needs to be trained, one dog will just set a bad example for the other dog, and neither of them will listen to you. If you are having a lot of trouble training your lab puppy (which, personally, I think is normal b/c labs are such a handful!), you may want to wait until she grows up a bit.

Um! Am not having problems training my pup.

She's as naughty as any normal pup but otherwise things are going really well with her

We've just got a new puppy - working beardie - and our cocker is just 15mths old now. To say it's chaos is putting it mildly but it is good fun :)

The only difficult thing is making sure the puppy gets plenty of time for herself and her training. She's much more dog orientated than the spaniel ever was at this age and doesn't respond as well as Holly did at this age. still, she's very greedy so most things can be overcome with some hotdog or carrot :D

We got Lara when Holly walked well on the lead, came back when she was called and behaved in the house - that way we knew that at least one of them knew what they were supposed to do. It is difficult with the two of them but it's lots of fun.

HTH a bit,

Fiona
x x x

Glad to hear her training is going really well. However, please bear in mind that at only 4 months old you haven't even begun to reach the difficult stage yet. Things might be great now, but they can get a lot worse before possibly getting back on track again some many months later.

If you want company for her now, I would suggest an older well-behaved dog, preferably over 3 yrs old, since labs stay young forever. Or if you want a puppy, then wait until your bitch is at least 2, preferably 3. Experienced people can make it work with two youngsters, as I'm sure you will have read elsewhere, but is it worth taking the risk of finding out that two puppies are too much hard work for you? It usually pays to play the waiting game, because once you have done it, there's no going back! JMO.

Monty's Mum :)

Hi Rachael,
I was going to invite you to pop round and see Murphy but when I checked, discovered that it was the wrong Rachael!:D
You're still very welcome but Battle may be a bit far for you!:)

TTFN
Ruth

Hi Ruth,
Do you live in Battle, then? My mother lives in Crowhurst, so I'm fairly often down that way!

Hi Jeangenie,

It would be great to put a face to one of the many names I've got to know on this board:)
Drop me an e-mail and when you're next down you can pop in and see Murphy!

Ruth

Great, Ruth!
I hope to be down in the next few weeks - I'll be in touch :) :)

Sorry, Rachael, didn't mean to suggest that you were having any more difficulty training your pup than the rest of us! :) I was just responding to your "incenssant posting" part -- honestly didn't mean to take a stab at you! I'm definitely not one to point fingers -- I post a new problem we're having at least once a week! :D

Dont worry I didnt take offence, realised you could have presumed that when I read my post back to myself.

Just wanted to make it clear so could get the best advice

Hi Rachael!
My puppy is 11 months, and I might be getting another pup in about a year's time, so this one will be almost 2 years old, which to me seems a good age gap - the 2 year old will have already got a lot of training in, but is still young enough to be playful. The only thing is that sometimes a new puppy will bond with the dog you already have, rather than with you, so I would separate them for a certain period each day and do plenty of things with the new puppy on his own - playing, training!
It is nice to have two, especially when you go out walking and they have a great time chasing each other and running themselves silly!
Hilda

I have read that if you get 2 pups close in age, they bond closely with each other and less with the humans. At such a young age, 4 months, it is probably unwise to go for another pup. The older pup may revert to the bahaviour of the younger, especially in the housetraining department....("if he can wee in the house , so can i!") And I wholeheartedly agree with another poster, a pup may well be a saint at 4 months, but adolescence lurks around the corner, hehehe!

Hi
I got my 2nd elkhound when my first was just over 12 months old.My first lad was very well behaved and was no problem so another pup was not a problem.
I now want a 3rd and there is a litter on the ground that I am very interested in HOWEVER my youngster(13 months) is still in the 'naughty' stage and I wouldn't want to introduce another baby into the house when Kas still needs lots of training.Don't get me wrong,in certain things he's great-he went to crufts and behaved like a pro but I don't want to split my time any more than it is at the moment so I've booked a pup for later in the year/early next year with the hope that Kas has matured by then.
Regards Archer

That sounds like a good plan to me. I wont plan on getting another dog until I can see Darcy has matured because I know it can be different for each dog.

Am not going to get another puppy but still think she would be too much for even the most placid older dog to put up with. the poor thing would never get any peace adn quiet (cos I know I dont at the moment)

There's a big age difference between my dogs (13 mnths old GSD and 9 year old BC) and they hardly interact at all.
Misty (the old one) will stay clear of Kyra and Kyra only approaches him to remind him over and over again that she's the boss now.
They never play together, the GSD in only interested in playing with us. So if you want the dogs to interact and be playmates I definately think a younger dog would be the best option.
Try to get mixed genders as they generally get along best. (although you'd have to get one of them fixed ofcourse)

Rach,

We have two labs now - the elder yellow at 2 1/2 years and the newly aquired black 7 mth old. We did wait untill the elder was at least two years old because we felt that would have give him enough time to bond with us and to be fully trained to make way for the new one.

As someone did mention two dogs are hard work and if neither are fully trained then it becomes extremly hard work. Although our elder was trained the younger did still bring back a lot of excitement and at times his training did tend to go out the window!

We are now at least 6 weeks into having the two dogs together, they have both bonded well and have established the pecking order, with both dogs still seeing us as the leaders of the pack!

This is only my experience with labradors but as many have said and i would agree that a couple of years apart would be a good start :D

Regards

Mark

I have a 11 month old patterdale terrier and was thinking of getting a second dog. I am looking for a dog who would be active enough to keep up with the patterdale. At 11 months he weighs 26lbs and was hoping to acquire a dog which would weigh around the same. I enjoy the short haired breeds but dont know of any that are of that weight (25-30lbs) and that active.
My patterdale will be entering intermediate classes soon and is well socialized. He gets along great with other dogs and enjoys the dog park. He also enjoys being around my parents parsons jack russells but they dont very much enjoy him as they are getting up there in age.
I also wanted to get same gender. Some say it is not a good idea but I really enjoy the male over the female. I have had dogs all my life and I feel strongly about getting 2 males. please let me know what I should do? About everything.

Hi P.E,

All i can say is that i had the same notion, i already had a dog in gender and i wanted another one for a companion for him. Many people advised me against getting another dog as they made me aware of fighting, dominance and competing more for our attention. I stuck with my original want and went ahead and bought another dog. There was the initial fighting/dominance thing that eventually sorted itself out (after about a couple of weeks).

The only thing i would reccomend is as much as you are excited about the new dog, ensure that you show the original dog that he is still top of the pack - great him, make a fuss of him, feed him first etc etc. That will help the newcomer understand that he really is the newcomer and that the already established dog is still above him in the pack.

I really did put a lot of effort into the above and so far i havent had any real problems with fighting etc,- they just get on as if they were brothers!!

As far as your breed goes my two are labs, they are both very energetic and enjoy playing with other dogs. They are not big dogs they find mixing with stronger and larger dogs no problem at all and they can still keep up with the biggest of dogs!

Best wishes, Mark