We've current got a loverly 9 month old Staffie who means the world to us but we are thinking of getting another and We'd like to know when would be the best time to intergrate a new-born into his life.......

Not sure what you mean when you mention adding a new-born but really you need to wait until one dog is mature before adding another puppy, I'd say around 18 months to 2 years. This way your older dog will have the basics/ground rules in place and you can then concentrate on training your puppy, I have never tried training two pups at once, but from I have gathered from other CDers, its pretty hard work :D
Hope this helps
Emily :)

By new-born I mean one that is ready to leave it's mother (ie 8wks old)......Our little fella is 8 months old now and is imo fully trained around the house and when going for walks, even to the stage now where he does come back (when off the lead) at command.....he's also exceptionally friendly to other dogs which is why we have been thinking about another....

This is the stage when owners are lulled into a false sense of security like with children at Senior school age before they hit their teens!!!

You may get a shock and some backsliding from the young man over the next year or so as he matures. :D

I would definately wait at least another year.

Hi there,

I can understand that you're very confident that your young lad is "fully trained" but at a mere 9 months of age he has most probably got several months of pubescent nonsense lurking just around the corner - often referred to as "the Kevin stage"  ;)   When youngsters enter this particular phase (perfectly normal regardless of breed or experience of ownership) we often find that the perfect manners, recall, model behaviour etc goes out of the window - over exhuberance, a certain wilfullness and selective deafness become the norm and it can be quite a frustrating and time consuming period for the owners of a once sainted, obedient puppy :rolleyes:  Equally it is much too early to determine how friendly or otherwise he may turn out to be with other dogs as most adult dogs are very tolerant of boisterous puppy behaviour but THEY may react differently to HIM in a few months time and that is when you will best be in a position to judge HIS character - by how he copes with "the big boys"    I'm sure some experienced Staff owners will be along to advise you further.
Regards Teri :)
<LOL> typing with you Brainless ;)

With my own breed I would say two to Three Years before I am happy with their mental maturity and training enough to take one eye off them to concentrate on a new pup :D

It might also be worthwhile having a look at the following link:

http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/board/topic_show.pl?pid=491222#pid491222

Although an age gap of around 2 years + is probably the ideal minimum for most breeds, the details on that thread may change your perspective about multiple ownership if your domestic arrangements don't allow for you keeping them safely apart when not supervised.

HTH, Teri :)