I have a 9-month male pup and one of my work colleagues is looking to rehome her 1yrs dog of the same sex & breed.  I was looking to get a second dog in the future.  But I have been asked if I want to take this dog on now.

Please can anyone give me any advice .i.e Will my first dog feel pushed out? Will they get on?  How should I introduce them?  Or is it best to wait!!!

Thanx

You don't say what breed you have but in general I would suggest waiting until your first dog is at least 18 months old or older before introducing a new dog into the home.  By this time hopefully the hormones will have levelled out, your training will be established and you will have the time and energy to take on another one.

By taking on a similar aged pup now you may have the same problems that those who take on two pups do; the dogs will bond more with each other than you, neither will be fully trained and it is extremely hard to train two dogs of the same age or even differing ages unless you have the time to give them both 1:1 attention; how realistic is this going to be?  Also 2 entire males may prove a somewhat explosive mixture in the next 6 - 12 months!

My advice would be wait, it may seem a good idea now but a few months down the line and you may come to think it was a big mistake and then what do you do?

Hi,

Why don't you register and give us some more details?  Whilst it is often good advice to wait until your dog is a bit older before getting another, if that 'perfect' dog comes up it MAY be a sensible move although it would require much hard work on your part.

However, particularly with two males, this will be very dependent on breed, etc. - for example only, two young male toy dogs would be a very different proposition from two young males of a Working or Gundog breed.

M.

Something else to consider is how well trained the 2 dogs are already.Have they had basic obedience training?Are they well behaved? If you are really thinking about this I would take them for a walk together first to see how they get on.
I cannot preach about having a certain age gap between dogs ...I had planned on getting a pup this year(already have 2 adults) and another dog in a year or so for my daughter.However the perfect dog came available and so we ended up collecting a 9 month old shiba and then 2 weeks later my long planned 8 week old pup. If you do take the other dog on make sure you are prepared to put in much more time and effort in order to keep a happy household.
Archer