Hello there!

My wife and I have got a Great Dane bitch (8 months old) and she is very, very lovely.... very relaxed and calm. She gets on with other dogs really well and we thought it would be a good idea to have a second Great Dane (so that both can play nicely together). We would prefer a second bitch due to our good experience with her. Now, as I am browsing through this board, I read that some people experience problems with two or more bitches. And this particularly when they are in season. Now I wonder whether having two bitches actually is such a good idea after all.

a) Would you recommend a 'dog' instead of a second 'bitch' in order to avoid the fightings when they are in season. Is it really a problem?
b) Do you think we should wait a little bit longer for a second dog/bitch until our puppy is fully matured?

Thank you very much for your help!

Cheers,

Fred

Right- I'm going to give you my advice- not that it's worth much because I'm neither experienced nor have this problem. Putting all that is on the other thread to one side- I think you should wait a little longer because I've always heard that if you can handle two puppies get two at the same time the only thing is they'll be more attached to each other than you. My friend has two Rotties and the oldest was 15 months when she got another (both bitches), all the training etc that she'd put in with the oldest one went to pot when she got the youngest! I know she did post a message on here and all the advise given was that she should have waited until the oldest was about 2 or 3 years old. My friend who is here at the moment playing with my dog says it wouldn't have made a difference if she'd have got a dog rather than a bitch for the second- it was the fact that she introduced another dog full stop. I would say that point 'A' you made doesn't really matter and point 'b' I'd wait:) Like I say though I don't know really- I can only say as I've saw it happen with my friends dog:) I do think most dogs will fight anyway at a point in order to establish 'pack ranking' but others will be able to advise you of this better than I can;)

Stacey x x x

Fred, I'm one of the people who had a problem with two bitches of the same age who took a spite. It was so bad that I had to rehome one, although I still own her. BUT that is the first time anything of the sort has happened to me in many years of keeping a mixed pack of mostly entire bitches with some entire males and some dogs of both sexes neutered for medical reasons, all of them of assorted ages.

The problem only affected these two, and while we had them, the dog numbers here were between 8 and 11 at various times, but there was no trouble between either of the fighting bitches and any of the others, or with strange dogs. Many friends have mixed packs like mine, as did my mum and granny, and while two dogs will usually 'sort it out, and a dog and bitch are usually fine, very occassionally two females do take such an extreme dislike that one has to be rehomed But going on my own experience, and that of the others, true 'bitch spites' are very much the exception rather than the rule. (None of which is to say that if you have two dogs you won't have the odd spat - you probably will, regardless of sex, age difference or anything else - but such spats are not usually serious, serious damage is rare, and the combatants go back to being best of friends as soon as they cool off)

I accept what Stacey says about the dogs' relationships with each other maybe lessening their relationship with humans, but can't comment on it from personal experience, as I've always lived in a multi-dog home, often with a pup or litter coming along when another puppy is less than a year old. I suppose it depends on what you want. If I wanted absolute, total devotion from my dog, I'd probably only have one. But for me, while my relationship with each dog is all that I could want, I acccept that they are dogs, and as such they also enjoy the company of their own kind, and that doggy company is going to be important to them.