Hi, I'm a new member - I've spent months trawling rescue centres and standard websites to find a dog but I'm so disillusioned by the number of disreputable adverts.  My question is this - I have a 9 year old Bedlington Terrier (spayed female) who was raised with our Tibetan Terrier, also female, who was 11 when we bought the pup.  The idea was to inject new life into our TT and it worked well.  Our TT died 4 years ago, at 16, making the Bedlington 9 now.  I just can't make up my mind what would be the fairest thing to have, puppy or older dog, male or female?!  Or nothing! She can be aggressive to other dogs when we're out, usually but not always in response to unfriendliness in the other dog,  but most of the time she is quite reserved.  I wasn't keen initially on a puppy as in 5 or 6 years we'll be back in the same position, but then a dog close in age is going to give us 2 geriatrics!  She is energetic and playful and in good health, which is why I think she would benefit from and enjoy some dog company. The other thing to consider is that we have an elderly cat (and chickens, but we have trained puppies to ignore them!)  I'm thinking some knowledge and experience from champ dog members will give me some impartial advise.  Thanks for reading.

Personally, and there are never any guarantees that any two dogs will work out, I'd go for a puppy provided you are there and prepared to step in if the puppy won't take no for an answer from her.    And a male puppy at that because I honestly think a mature bitch (or even a puppy bitch once mature) may well not work and fact is unless they do get along on some level, once two bitches take against each other, they may well be no way back other than to return the 'last in'.  And that wouldn't be fair to her/him.   Fact is you may find that by now, your girl is quite happy to be receiving all the attention for herself.

If you do go for an older dog, or bitch it would be a good idea to have them meet of her property - much as all may go really well - but not so much once under 'her' roof.

Overall my answer would be a puppy - a male puppy.    Perhaps a Whippet male puppy - there are always any number of male Whippets looking for homes, more so than bitches.

I think one of the big questions you need to ask yourself is if you are considering another dog because you want another dog or if you want that dog to be a companion to your current dog?

Personally I would only ever have another dog if I wanted that dog purely because I myself wanted another dog and not because I thought my current dog would benefit from a companion. There are no guarantees that they would play together anyway. I currently have three dogs - two of which play with and amuse each other. My third dog very rarely interacts with these dogs although he is much younger than they are. Although I have three dogs one of them went with my daughter when she moved into a home of her own - but he comes back here on a regular basis.

The two dogs who live with me permanently are one of the dogs who enjoys the company of other dogs and is quite happy to play with them - the other dog is the one who has no interest in the others at all.  My resident playful dog is quite happy, my non playful dog is quite happy - they just rarely interact with each other. I wouldn't get another dog just because my playful one no longer has a resident playmate.

That's a good question, and I think to be honest it's because I want another dog and I'm using her as an excuse! A lot of things went haywire around the time we lost our Tibetan terrier which put the whole question on the back burner, now I feel I'm ready again but I want to make the odds as good as possible that the 2 will get on.

Thanks, I was coming to much the same conclusion - i.e. a male puppy, perhaps not Whippet with a cat and chickens!  We are going to meet a 2 year old female TT on her ground at the weekend, maybe that will provide me with the answer.  I really hope so as the last thing I would want to do is rehome a dog that doesn't work out.

> perhaps not Whippet with a cat and chickens!

Haha - if you get a puppy Whippet, he 'should' be okay with a cat - my previous neighbour had Whippets and 3 cats much as one puppy she bought caught and killed a feral kitten soon after she got him.   She was horrified, but he never as much as challenged their 3 cats.   Chickens - well if your Bedlington can live with them, so should a Whippet if you had him as a puppy, and set the boundaries?    Still you know your situation and it's your decision after all!

Our whippet came to us aged about 4 months and went straight into a home with cats (I used to breed them).  When he was 2 my daughter (who owned the whippet) and I went out separate ways.  Then 6 years later we were back again and no problems whatsoever.  Fortunately 2 of my cats were the same ones the whippet had already met and I'm certain they remembered each other.  The other cats were new to the whippet but they had also been brought up with my own toy dogs.  I think our whippet would probably chase someone else's cat though if it dared to enter our garden but none do because the geriatric cat here wouldn't allow it.

Well we met the 2 year old and she completely freaked my dog out with her liveliness, although I think she was a dog that hadn't been walked /given enough attention.  So we're back to training a pup or rehoming a dog of a similar age.  Still looking.