We have a 4 month old Cavalier boy, we would like to add to our "family" and just wanted some tips on the best time to get another dog and which sex to get?
We have been looking into several breeds as we don't intend to get another Cavalier (not that we don't adore our little boy).
We would like to wait at LEAST until he is fully litter trained (we have only had him for a month) but just wondered what everyones views were??
(We're not sure if we will get him neutered as the breeder says it will wreck his coat and become unmanagable and the vet says he is at risk of testicular cancer if we don't!!)

Thanks

The ideal age-gap between dogs is about 2 years. That way the first one is thoroughly bonded to you and trained to your satisfaction, so that you can then concentrate on doing the same with the second puppy. Puppies very close in age tend to bond more with each other (their own species) than their owners.

'They' say that to prevent disputes the second dog should be the opposite sex to the first, but that can create its own problems as at least one has to be neutered before both reach puberty. The risk of testicular cancer in an entire dog is about the same as for human males - how many of those are castrated 'just in case'? ;)

I've never had a singular dog,i prefer that they have company and a playmate of their own species. My opinion would be to wait until your boy is around 12mths old,i would get a female.
Some dogs get unmanageable coats after being neutered,others dont,i've never encountered this problem and all my dogs are spayed/neutered.It's the luck of the draw i think.

What breeds are you looking into?

Cavaliers coats definitely are the type that become unmanageable and unattractive after neutering, seems to be a spaniel thing.

Also cavaliers are generally not same sex aggressive so you could just as happily have another male, but I too would have at least two years age gap.

you could of course have a nice spayed rescue bitch of two to five years old once your have got to the the stage with your boy where you don't need to commit to him every spare minute.

The only 2 things castrating your dog can guarantee is that eventually he will be sterile & he won't develop testicular cancer, I've had a good few dogs over 40 years & none have developed testicular cancer

Castrating a male cavalier can & does often cause the coat to overboard & become thick & woolly

Getting another dog I would leave until he is at least 2 & as others have said cavaliers are not normally male to male aggressive(lol mine are all male & very very close mates;-) )so getting another male of any breed shouldn't be a problem

My next puppy will hopefully be born this year & there will be a gap of at least two years between him & my youngest dog(who is a BC dominated by the cavaliers :-D)

If you saw my sister's CKCS blenheim bitch now she's been spayed, you'd think again about neutering, it's like light red coloured fluff.   Awful.  And she is more overweight now and on far more exercise than she got pre-spaying.

Thanks for all the advice. My parents have got a female staffie and she was spayed but it didn't change her coat or weight but i guess thats because she has a short coat??
We won't make a decision on that for a while.
We are looking at Dobes, Staffies and Rhodisian Ridgebacks!!!
I know these are quite different to our Cavalier!!
We would like to eventually have a few dogs in our house, we both love animals but we haven't felt that we had enough time to give them because of working then having children until now. Alot of people tried to put us off because our children are aged 1 and 3 but it has turned out great we have set "play" time when we ALL get involved with playing with our "baby" and set sleep time which is when he goes into our kitchen for his rest from the kids!!! He seems very happy and he is doing very well and is nearly there with his toilet training!!
xx

Spaying a smooth coated bitch doesn't have the same effect as neutering a coated breed believe me, I'vee seen so many woolly castrated Cavaliers I would only castrate one of mine on health grounds(ie to save the dogs life)

I have two spayed setter bitches in the house at the moment.  One has a lovely coat but I have taken alot of care and work with her coat, regular grooming, trimming, stripping etc, bathing in a shampoo to help keep coat straight, using sprays which help keep the hair stright and smooth and protecting it from the blow drying, also using a moose which keeps coats smooth and sleek and prevents it from going dry.  The other bitch is a purely pet dog, her previous owner (who has given her back to us for rehoming due to illness) looked after the coat by brushing it etc and takin general care but this bitch still looks like a wooly sheep, hair all over the place etc.  Nothing like what it was before spaying.

I have however told my mum who has considerd spaying another of our bitches to only do so if she has to.  It's alot of work keeping maisie's coat nice and correct. :)

>We are looking at Dobes, Staffies and Rhodisian Ridgebacks

In that case I would definitely say to get a female! The majority of male dogs of those breeds will not tolerate another male dog in the house and your Cavalier would be but a mere mouthful

I would recommend waiting a while yet. Two pups are nowhere near as easy as one (if pups can ever said to be truly easy) and if you are seriously considering the breeds you mention, they'll be much more of a challenge than a Cavvy! Personally, I'd wait until your first dog is at least a year old and ideally nearer 2.

We are really still looking into it at this stage although we know for definate that we do want more dogs in the future. I guess i tend to go for the shorter coated breeds that tend to be more powerful but my husband tends to go for the smaller breeds with longer coats!!:rolleyes: But when we found our "baby" we BOTH adored him!!

Staffies hold a very special place in my heart, my parents girl was originally mine and i love her very much but she came from a bad background and wasn't happy when i had the children it broke my heart to see her go but my parents love her and she has been with them for nearly 3 years and she loves it!!

The only thing that makes me hesitate slightly with a staffie is my parents girl HATES other dogs, male or female she won't tolerate them at all!!

x

Bear in mind there can be all sorts of problems when you mix little and large dogs -the size difference can be dangerous in play especially when the bigger dog is the younger one and boisterous. My first Cavalier used to love to play with a Golden retriever puppy who was a year younger than him. As he grew bigger and bigger and soon much bigger than him, eventually the cavalier started to refuse to go out for walks at the same time as he knew he'd be knocked over. I think when you mix two sizes it's far safer for the oldest dog to be the large one.

Thanks for all the replies.

We need to make sure we do our research properly before we do anything so we thought we'd look into it from now onwards.:rolleyes:

It is unfortunate that our small dog came 1st but i'd hate to think that it would prevent us from getting anymore of the breeds that we love.

We are also cosidering a rhodisian and a dogue de bordeaux so we really are just at the very start of our search!!

I had a little peek at your website Goldmali and your dogs are great, do they all get on well and live in the house together??

xx

Thanks. :) Well Dandy the oldest (11) Golden took against Rufus the Cavalier (12) when Dandy was 2 and Rufus 3. Really serious as well, he meant to kill. What set it all off was an in season bitch. We have ever since then had to keep those two 100% separate. In the past year I think Dandy has forgotten it all, he's getting a bit senile :) but I'm not risking anything, to play safe, so they never meet. (4 years ago a visitor let Rufus in to Dandy by accident and Dandy picked him up by the neck and shook him and almost killed him.)

All the others get on just fine but the Cavalier and the Papillon live separate to the big dogs. The big dogs are outside virtually all day (as long as the weather is good) and have the kitchen/dining room to sleep in. The little dogs have the run of the rest of the house. The big dogs go outside at the back, the little ones at the front, simply to avoid accidents -my Papillon weighs all of 3 kgs and the two biggest dogs weigh around 40 kgs each so it's a huge size difference and just a step in the wrong direction could cause serious injury. However I do walk Bobby the Pap with the big dogs (one at a time), but again take care - Bobby is only allowed offlead together with any of the more sensible/less clumsy dogs, -the Goldens are far more likely to trip on him, being much clumsier. :)

Gosh Marianne it sounds as iff you have a fulltime job just keeping your dogs seperate Arent there any options you could try so that all dogs can live together harmoniously? :)
I wonder how other people who have big and little dogs living in the same space together manage it?

hmmm, perhaps we will go for a staff as although they are alot more powerful than a cavalier at least they are similar in size. You must seriously have to have eyes in the back of your head!!!

Do you think it was because they are all boys?

xx

Don't think you read my post properly Ktee! There is NO WAY I'd ever WANT a 3 kg Papillon mixing unsupervised with two 40 kg dogs (plus one 30 kg, one 25, one 22 and one 24 -and the boisterous 5 month pup who must be about 20 now) -VERY dangerous and irresponsible! Are you seriously saying you'd want to see 7 such large dogs run around and play outside with one 3 kg dog?! My dogs don't just  sleep all day, they DO run around and play. As my post said, ALL my dogs get on fine now, even Dandy has forgotten about Rufus the Cavalier in his old age (although I'm not risking them meeting, Rufus is after all very ill with his heart and very old for his breed) -but that makes no difference when a 40 kg dog so easily could kill a 3 kg one just by raising a big paw in play or even just sitting down on him by accident. And Papillon legs are notoriously fine and easily breakable but virtually impossible to repair should they break.

It takes no time at all to keep them apart, why should it?

There was a girl on here a while back whose chihuahua had been killed in a simple collision with her own FCR while they were playing.

Also I seem to remember somebody else whose Cavalier had its back broken by a Labrador who playfully put a paw on it.

My friends Cardigan Corgi broke her back walking out of the house down one step No other dogs involved. Like I said it does depend on the dogs involved Maybe I have just been mega lucky in having all my GSDs being gentle with my Cavaliers(but not vica versa I hasten to add)

Fully agree MM, it depends on the dogs involved. For instance my Malinois (one at a time) can be trusted to run off lead with my pap during walks once adult, but the Goldens can't as they just are so clumsy. Goldens also seem to have this thing about falling over on purpose a lot of the time, just for fun. :) And of course once you have two or more large dogs running around playing together, the risk of accidental injury to a smaller dog is greater than with just one dog. My best friend in Sweden had the combination of Cavalier and GSD as well, both hers were Ob Ch and she never had any problems, but the GSD was the older one and very sensible. :)

I've had big dogs & Cavaliers for 15 years & never had a problem, one of my GSDs was 31 + inches at the shoulder & never hurt the little ones. I'm down to one BC & two(sometimes three)cavaliers at present & the Cavaliers have always ruled the bigger dogs-who all allowed them the licence that a puppy would get. Abbie the last of our GSDs was a very big girl yet so gentle with the Cavaliers from the day she came here(aged 8 months & already big)

It all depends on the temperament & character of the dogs & their training, my smallest Cavalier regularly beats up my BC the different in size is quite big as my BC is a strong dog. He has never offered to hurt the Cavaliers no matter what they do to him & he is the youngest

Well its a while off yet anyway but i'm sure i will be contacting you all again for some more tips when we have decided :0)

Thanks
xx

Two freinds of mine one with Elkhounds and Buhunds and the other Elkhounds both have papilons.  I think the only seperating that goes on is when the big ones are pups.

One home has had up to 3 elks and the pap, and the other I belive has two Elks 3 Bu's and two paps.

>He has never offered to hurt the Cavaliers no matter what they do to him & he is the youngest

I think intentional harm is maybe only one consideration though - what about over zealous play or a simple misjudged movement. My Dobe has nearly crushed my thighs many a time when he's landed like a sack of potatoes on one of my legs when meaning to lay next to me - sure enough he jumps straight back up and looks suitable aghast at me shrieking and clutching my leg but the damage would be done if my leg had been a small dog. One of our other Dobes ran full pelt into my mum in the garden once (she used to veer off right at the last second but misjudged) and knocked her right off her feet. Someone else I know had their leg broken when a golden retriever ran into them. One simple error of movement is all it takes.

Lots of people do seem to manage fine with the small dog/big dog combination but not something I would be able to relax with personally :)

This is exactly my point zarah. :) My mum injured her ankle once being knocked over by a Golden that ran past her too closely, took months before it healed properly. A Golden I had accidentally laid down on top of a kitten and seriously injured the kitten's leg -he was fine in the end but had to be caged for a month to allow it to heal.  I wouldn't want to take risks with dogs I KNOW are boisterous when I have such a tiny dog as just 3 kg.

A lot does depend on breed.  I regularly used to walk 4 Elkhounds with my Friend who at the time had four dobes.

The dobes are so much clumsier, never had one of the Elks knock into me when running, but been felled by the dobes. 

The Elkhounds do play rough, but seem very able to alter their style to suit their companion.

Even Myka at 4 months played beautifully with a tiny Jack Russell, adult.

It's one of the reasons I always put my Golden Retriever back on lead if we are approaching a small dog. He is like a bull in a china shop when playing, runs like a dervish and can turn on a sixpence.  I sometimes meet a chap walking two whippets when in the local woods and the thought of Harley coming into contact with those elegant spindly legs just doesn't bear thinking about

A walking acquaintance had her leg broken by a labrador playing chase with her own GR and is still on crutches now. As friendly as our dog is I wouldn't want to take the chance of him meeting another smaller dog off lead when he is in ten pin bowling ball mode :D

>what about over zealous play or a simple misjudged movement

Which is why my bigger dogs are trained to play with the little ones & I stress it depends on the dogs involved

My BC is crated if I leave the dogs alone in the house as much for his safety as the little ones

It's just as important to consider the effect of getting very large dogs on the rest of the family and I note that the OP has two very small children as well as the Cavvy. Now it'd be absolute nonsense to suggest that small children and large dogs can't mix perfectly well but it's a factor to take into account since a great big bouncy Dogue de Bordeaux pup (for example) will need to be treated very differently to a Cavvy.

And yes, never underestimate the accidental injuries that a well built dog can wreak upon a human. I spent 17 weeks in plaster last summer after our former neighbour's Springer bowled me off my feet while he was trying to get his teeth into Nipper. I broke my wrist and ruptured a major ligament in it and the subsequent surgery has left me with galloping osteo- arthritis which means I now have to have my thumbjoint replaced next month. I'd never have thought a medium sized dog could have been responsible for such a bizarrely serious set of injuries but as the springer ran through me, it felt like being hit by a truck!

So if you do have very small children and very large dogs you have an extra set of things to be cautious about!

Thanks for all your replies, it is something that we would have to look into very carefully before proceeding. I'll be honest i didn't realise there would be these problems with small and large dogs. I obviously realised that there would be the size difference but thought that with careful training this would be something we could live with.

Perhaps i will have to sit my husband down and have a long chat....

xx