Hi,
We have an 11 month old Bullmastiff girl and we are torn with the thought of getting another Bullmastiff dog, we would really like her to have a companion but we also don't want her to feel put out by us doing this & we don't know if Bullmastiff's prefer to be the only dog in the house or if they enjoy having a friend to live along side. The trouble is we don't have any children so she gets out full attention 24/7 and although I know none of us know exactly how the dogs are feeling but I just wondered if there is anyone out there who has made the decision to get a 2nd dog and how things went? The trouble is the Bullmastiff is renowned for being completely loyal to their master and I'm concerned if there were two dogs it might cause jealousy?! 
Any advice would be really appreciated :o)
Thanks
Shelly

It would be best to wait until she is about 2-3 before getting another dog, so that her training is established, otherwise you may have problems training the new pup and problems with her training you didn't have before.

I don't know much about Bullmastiffs, but a friend has two and got the second one when her first bitch was 8. They get on fine, although their socialsation of the second one leads a lot to be desired!

Cant say anything about the breed, but in general I would say wait until she is at least 18 months, preferably 2 years beforew getting another of any breed. Also remember the problems of keeping them apart if you decide to get a male and she isnt spayed. (Not an easy situation with bigger dogs)

Many thanks for your reply, one of the reasons for thinking about this now is because we didn't know if the longer we left it the harder it would be to introduce another dog into the house & If we were to bring another dog into the house we would be looking at getting a boy around the same age as our little girl, I'm not sure we could go through the puppy training stage again!  Thanks again for your help, much appreciated.

Bullmastiffs aregenerally fine with other dogs as my bro had a bullmastiff, and my other bro an English mastiff when they lived together so that wouldnt be a problem from what I can see as long as your girl is ok with other dogs as a rule :)
Also we have waitied till our girl is over 2 till we got another for the same reason as earlier posted! Its just better maiing sure your dog is fully trained etc ready for a friend :)

Thank you for your reply,  our little girl is in her first season now so she will be spayed later in the year. As much as the puppies are so adorable I don't think we could manage the whole puppy training stages again. It was really hard work as they are so stubborn but definitely worth it, she is absolutely brilliant now considering her age. Thanks again.

She is fantastic with other dogs, well apart from Jack Russells, runs a mile when she see one!! but certainly has never showed any aggression with any animals, including cats and ducks!!  It definitely seems that waiting another 12 months will be the best decision. Many thanks for your reply.

No worries :)
She sounds like my bros old Bullmastiff 'Buffy' lol A big softie :)
She sounds just great, wait a little longer and you will truly reap the rewards of having 2 dogs, not much longer to wait and if your anything like me, you will need that long to find another dog of your dreams! :)

She is the biggest softie, she has the most alarming bark and then runs round the house with a little pink dinosaur in her mouth!!! They really are great dogs and we can't wait to get her a friend but like you say I think it will take some time to find the right chap, we would definitely want a boy around the same age as her & obviously she will have to approve first anyway!

That sounds bout right! I love the breed as they are so loyal and loving :)
It took us over a year to find our next dog, we started with a female SBT and now have our male SBT coming in less then 3 weeks!
Youve also done well in getting a girl for your first dog, females usually rule the roost so to have a female already and then get a male is a good start as she will be more maternal and loving of the pup then a male accepting a female, from my expierance anyway that is :)

You will have to let me know when you have found your 2nd puppy! :) :)

Oh Bless, I imagine your really excited about getting your little boy, it's great to be able to share your home with them and they are soo rewarding :o) My husband didn't know we were getting our little girl, she was a complete surprise for him! He had been going on about having a pup for ages and I kept saying no, knowing full well I was already on the hunt for the special girl !! It did take a very long time to find the right one and after all the hard work I have to say I don't really get a second glance from her when Daddy is home!

I hadn't thought about it in that sense, I guess having the girl already in place is much better than the other way around. That's great advice for anyone planning on having two dogs at some stage!

Good luck with the arrival of your little boy, please let me know how you get on when he arrives and how the two of them get on together & of course I'll do the same when we find our 2nd baby!

Its a date :) :) :) :)
We can not wait!! Will let you know when he is home :-P
Good luck with your own search, Im sure your new boy will be just as special as your girl xxxx

> we would definitely want a boy around the same age as her & obviously she will have to approve first anyway!

If you are considering getting an adult bully as a companion for her then I would advise there to be a couple of years between them in age.

If you feel ready soon then why not get a nice boy of about 4 to 6 from breed Rescue, one matched to your experience and known to be sociable.

If you are going to bring one in when she is 2 - 3 years age (I always think about 3 years the best age gap) then another pup.

If you get one the same age as she is the chances are very great that they will die close together.  Then you will be dogless.  With a decent age gap you can add a second dog again when one dies, even if it is after some time and they still have company, but your not left with that no dog hole.

hi shelly, we have three bullies. in general they get on really well with other members of their dog family, though i warn you that there are exceptions who are 1 dog houshold personalities (but i believe this is the case in every breed)

if you have a bitch i'd certainly make your choice a dog, as with many bull breeds they can be a bit shifty with members of the same sex unless their is a massive age gap. you will probably find that the bitch takes up the dominant role (i've had them my whole life and its always the bitches who've been boss). As to age to get one obviously everyone is different in their views. personally i feel that you should get a new pup when you think your girl is ready for one (happy with level of training etc). we have a dog and a bitch with 9 months between them and they get on wonderfully. there is potential i suppose if you leave a dog till its much older (remember 3-4 for a bully is approaching middle age, the average age is 9 years- though my last one to go to the bridge went at 14) for it to get set in its ways and not want a pup, but again this totally depends on the individual dog.

yes though they do get jealous, this has never manifested in aggression for us, just you getting bugged more often and the occasional sulk. you've just got to make sure they both get plenty of love and cuddles. you'll probably find that they have a particular favorite person but still adore everyone else (my bf is Keepers fav, I am Tios i think, etc). They will also have very different ways of interacting with different people to get the attention they want (e.g. our eldest girl has a different way of sitting with each member of the family, she'd never sit with mum the same way she does with me)

they are a brilliant breed and i;ve generally found they do better with a companion, whenever we have had 2 and one passes away they mourn terribly.

plenty out there in rescue but if your not sure about how your girl might be with a new dog maybe bring in a pup, she can then teach him his manners etc. good luck and let us know what you decide :)

Hi,

Many thanks for your help, this was really useful. I spoke to my husband last night and we have agreed to wait for atleast another 12 months before we look for a companion for her. We would love another one as they are such fantastic dogs. I wasn't too sure how we were going to cope with one to be honest with everyone saying they are really stubborn & hard to train but it's been great, don't get me wrong her training was really hard work but we have persisted and she is now brilliant and only 11 months old. And from the advice from other members would not want to go backwards with her if we brought another one in now.

I think your definitely right in saying they are different with each member of the family, no one gets a look in when her Dad's home but if he's out then she loves her cuddles (and she knows that word!) It was just a worry that with them being soo attached to their master that if they had to share how would they be with each other but from what you have said this should be fine. Hopefully when we do get another one, I might get a bit more of a look in!!! 

We were also looking at the Bullmastiff rescue site and thought it would be a great idea to help rehome one of them but our only concern was that if we had a rescue dog we may not know it's history & how they would be with children etc, there have been such sad cases where the bitches have been used from an early age purely for breeding and haven't been used to a normal family home. And with the dogs alot of people seemed to have just kept them outside for guard dogs. Of course there are also many that people just can't cope with them anymore & we would love to rehome one of these so this will be our first port of call when the time is right.

Thanks again for your advice it really has been appreciated.

hi shelly

i have three bullys and a rottie two of my bully came to me from other homes  the male i new from 8wks as he live with someone i new and he has never been a problem (other than medical due to poor breeding not kc reg) his nature is fantastic he gets on with everyone he is not dominant but is stubborn .

one of my girls i bought last year as the owners where moving abroad (this turned out to be a lie) when we went to see her the owners told us that since advertising her she had been attacked in the park and she had lots of puncture marks on her neck i felt sorry for her i should have waled away but my heart would not let me she was fine coming in to my home with my other dogs but when we took her out for a walk we found that she went mad on seeing dogs in the street she is very dog aggressive and we are working hard on this.

i have found that a bitch will start to show dominance and attitude to other dogs at around 2 yrs old this is the time that you must work hard on training and socialization thing can be good you think you have cracked it with all the training but they can suddenly change with just one bad experience another dog that starts on them can change you bitch forever.

whether you get a dog sooner depends on who does the training classes does your husband have time to go with you one night a week take both dogs?

you dont have children so there is no babysitting problems

years ago when my rottie was a pup we took in a gsd that was four months older than her and both myself and my husband went training together we loved it and it was a night off from the kids i must add that these were not our first dogs and we have never had just one dog at a time.

Thanks for your reply, this is really interesting as we have just been through the stage where our little girl suddenly starting going mad at other dogs in the street as well as developing a bad habbit of attacking the tv! We had connected it with something to do with a visit to vets, it was the only thing we could connect it to at the time. Although it was never in an aggresive (wanting to bite) manner, she basically just wanted to pin every dog she met down on the floor but it really did get so bad that we were afraid of walking her in case someone made a complaint so we decided to get one on one training for her and it eventually worked with lots of patients! After the training we decided to put it to the test and two weeks ago we took her away for a long weekend break at the Lake District where there were many dogs being walked as well as lots of ducks!! Not once did she attempt to lunge at another dog, infact she wasn't interested at all, she loved the ducks but gave the swans a very wide birth! I'm hoping that this was her dominance/attitude stage that you mention?!

Unfortunately there are no good evening/weekend classes near to where we live apart from the classes that the RSPCA run but we tried them and despite the reason we had taken her there all Bella wanted to do was play with the other dogs! It was a waste of time and money but great for her to make friends! Anyway we decided it was best to try the one on one where there were no other distractions for her and this did the trick, the only problem was my Husband had to take her on his own as they only did the classes during the day in the week when I was at work.

When we do decide to get another dog we will definitely continue with the training, it will benefit both of them I would imagine. We certainly won't take it for granted that they will just get on perfectly well from day one, although that would be very nice!!

many thanks again for taking time out to reply, all this advice has been great!

well i'd still say a rescue is worth considering, there are many out there who's families are moving overseas etc who you will know the history of and so might suit you well. unfortunately they are a breed that is becoming popular with a certain irresponsible type of person but there are many many very good breeders out there as well as many very deserving rescues. good luck, let us know how your getting on ok? i'd be really interested to hear when you get one

I would say that your bitch was just going through a silly adolescence, and the full adult assertive stage is yet to come.

A class situation would be of benefit to keep her socialising around other dogs, as you said the classes are more useful for that than actual training, which to be honest you can do yourself now.

I would say you still need a good year to consolidate things with your girl before having another.

As the others have said breed rescue will always make every effort to make a good match, and often the dogs have awfully history, are only in rescue because of death, marriage breakdown etc.

Hi,
Thanks for your message, at least when it happens again we will know this time what it will be and we will be ready for it! So thanks again. If the situation does arise again we will definitely go for the training again, as mentioned before it was really strange as she would lunge at dogs in the street but at the classes she just wanted to play. I'm really hoping that it's not going to be soo much of a problem with her now as she's now great with other dogs and we make sure we always take her with us when we go out anywhere so she's used to other various pets. She doesn't even bother with my Mum's Yorkie and Chihuahua dogs anymore where as before it was a problem.

The rescue centre will be our first choice, it would be great to home another dog from them & like you say if they have the dogs history this shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks again for your help, I'm sure I will be back again asking more questions soon!

As she is now well mannered she is unlikely to show her dominance self assurance in anything like unacceptable behaviour like leaping all over other dogs, it is more likely that she will assert herself if another dog is rude to her, and of course she would be right, but being a big breed this needs to be curbed for social reasons, people have unfairly much higher expectations of good behaviour from larger dogs, as anything else engenders negative responses from others. 

I found this when walking with my friend and her Dobes, she was always on the look out of for situations that could cause an unpleasant confrontation, and avoided her dogs getting into bother, knowing full well that her dogs would be perceived to be the problem.

We used to walk 4 dobes and 4 Elkhounds in the country park early mornings.  One Saturday morning we were just coming to the end of our walk and ran into a Border Collie owner who stopped to chat with us and all 9 dogs were mooching about minding their own business waiting for the call for leads on.  An old couple came walking along with a Yorkshire Terrier (who the dogs ignored, the dobes being well used to my friends Mum's Yorkie who often came to stay).  The little dog was yapping and pulling on his lead wanting to take the world on.  So we three called our dogs up to put on lead.  The old couple then said that's right you shouldn't have those great beasts off the lead 8D !!!  Couldn't believe it as it was their dog spoiling for a fight, but it was beneath our dogs dignity to bother.

That last part did make me laugh, I know exactly what you mean! My Mum's Chihuahua still froths at the mouth and barks and Bella and she takes no notice what so ever, she is more interested in what treats my Mum has got in the kitchen!  like you say they are too proud to even bother!! Even when she was going through her naughty stage, she was never aggressive in wanting to bite. Peoples misconceptions about the larger breed dogs really does annoy me, there is alot of debate about big dogs but if only they would understand that's not about the size of a dog that makes it nasty, any dog can turn aggressive under certain circumstances, unfortunately it's obviously the bigger dogs that do the most damage. So many people look at us when walking her as if to say the breed shouldn't be allowed purely due to the size & it's all wrong, she is the biggest wimp, she runs away from carrier bags & birds!!! Our next door neighbour has a Jack Russell and Bella is terrified of it! But she certainly does assert herself when other dogs are being rude, my Sister has a Lab and he is permantely trying to mount her, she used to put up with it but now she's alot bigger than he is so she gives him what for!

The "watching for situations" is also something we still do even now, I think you have to. But at the same time I think this also adds to how people think about your dog. We live next to the woods so most of her walking is done there & when we call her back to us if we see someone coming I think they assume we have done that as she might attack but it's not, it's down to you not knowing how their dog is going to be with your dog! You can't win.