Becoming a 2 dog household?

[Dulcee]

Looking for any suggestions/experience.

We have a 6 or 7ish year old husky/shep mix now. She was an adult rescue so we aren't sure of her exact age but a bit of grey starting to appear in her muzzle suggests our guesses are about right. We've had her for 3 years now and as she ages we both worry about the inevitable day of loosing her (hopefully not for many more years!) She's a great dog, loves to run and play but is also happy sleeping the day away. She adores our 1.5 year old cat and they spend most of the day snuggling and playing.

But recently we've been seriously considering getting another one, a puppy this time around so we'd have a nice spread between this one and our current pup. I've had dogs my whole life, DH has had a few. Neither of us has had multiple at once. So I'm looking for thoughts/suggestions/experiences. How'd you bring your new edition home? How'd your older dog react? Do you regret going from 1 to 2?

Give me the good and the bad!

[ginger19]

We adopted a dog about 1.5 years ago to add to our house of 3 dogs. We looked for a dog that would be fit in to what we already had. We did a 1 year old dog because we were just not up for puppy training with our active lives and our other dog was 2 so it was perfect. We went with a submissive dog who would not upset the heirarchy and he really fit right in.
Our other dogs were a pack so they were used to having many of them around but a cat and an only dog may not be so tolerant so it might be a bit more work. I would go with the opposite sex and the same or slightly smaller size and choose a breed that gets along well with other dogs.
Give them time once you do introduce them as it will take a while for them to work things out. We just lost one to cancer in November and the others spent a whole week (several weeks after) trying to re-establish their order. It's natural so do your work and know natural dog behavior vs aggressive behavior towards the new dog.
good luck!

[Katzateer]

We have an older Sheltie and I wanted a golden too. Our Sheltie has always been scared of larger dogs ( when we did puppy training she would run and hide when larger dogs tried to be friendly).

So when a litter of golden puppies from a rescue needed a foster family ASAP we took the 3 - 6 week old golden mixes in and raised them for a few months. We kept one and the rescue found forever homes for the other two litter mates.

If you bring in a rescue to foster, that is a good way to see if the rescue and your dog are a good match. You don't have to take in a puppy if you would rather adopt an older dog that is trained

Our Sheltie does great with our golden and he is about 45 pounds heavier than her. But he thinks she is his mom.

Rescue puppies are wonderful!

[NewDVCowner]

I would suggest introducing them on nuetral ground. You don't want to introduce them on one of their territories. The shelter I adopted my dog from actually requires you to bring any other dogs that you have in to meet the new dog before you can adopt them. See if that's an option. That way you'll have a better idea of how they'll get along. Some dogs just have clashing personalities.

An idea, though, you might want to think about getting a dog that is out of the full 'puppy-hood.' The antics of a young puppy might be too stressful for an older dog.

[Dulcee]

Thanks for the responses guys.

We did decide to go ahead with finding a puppy and after a bit of searching we found one who seems to fit our family well. We went with a little 10 week old male shepherd/lab mix from the shelter up the street. After some time at the vet for neutering and some heavy de-worming he's home with us.

Our current dog seems smitten with him and in the past few days has been doing a good job of teaching him some manners. He's quickly figuring out whats acceptable play with our Husky and when she's best left alone. She was picked up several years ago as a stray with a litter who she raised in a foster home before coming to us, it seems her mothering-no nonsense instincts have kicked right back in.

Our cat is taking a little longer to warm up to him but he's getting there. Again, a few swats from him and the puppy is learning who's best left alone. It didn't take him long to decide a chew toy is a far better friend then the cat.

Now if we can just get him to start sleeping through the night... ;)