Hey guys, I recently got a golden retriever pup and was wondering if 2 are easier to handle than just 1. My pup that I have now is a little over 5 months and she is a little ball of crazy. I found another male golden for sale that is about 3 weeks younger than her and I am thinking that her having another pup around will help her lose some of her enormous amounts of energy. Anyone out there have any success with this tactic or will it just bring complete chaos? Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
I have two lab mix litter mates, adopted them when they were not all that old. When they're out together they are really hard to control but separate I can work with them. I don't know if this is something that carries over to all cases or not as I usually got and trained one dog at a time. I did have two coon hounds once that were brother and sister. The sister was the only good hunter and she just up and died unexpectedly one night under weird circumstances. The brother was never worth a dime without her, wasn't even a very good pet which I always found odd. He just laid down and quit but he wasn't much with her as far as that goes. They were also hard to work with together but apart they were easier to get to focus. I don't know that it's something I'd recommend if you're having trouble handling one by itself but it may be one of those things you'd have to try for yourself and find out. All dogs and owners are different so my experience may not be anything like what you'd find. Socially, I can see some benefits for the dogs to have company.
I'm in a similar situation right now and am having a hard time deciding if I should get another dog. I have a three year old shepherd that has always had someone at home with him for the beginning of his life, but now that I moved he is home alone for 8 hours a day. He shows some signs of anxiety and has tons of energy so my original idea was to get him a companion to play with while I am away but, not sure if that will make things better or worse. I think buying two younger dogs at the same time will make training more complicated but buying them a couple years apart should make it easier.
Another issue is that the dog that I currently own is training to become a service dog that my fiance will be taking to work everyday for her residents at an assisted living center. She is currently very well trained minus an accident in the house every now and then in the middle of the night and her more than excessive barking (attention seeker/high energy). I'm concerned that if I get a new dog that is not being trained in the same fashion that she will revert back to her puppy stages which will force me to lose my mind. I think that I am going to hold off on getting the second dog until my current one is a little more mature and is complete with her service training.
I would hold off as well. Sounds like the dog need a job My field bred lab is insane if I don't work him everyday he is like a kid with ADHD that just drank a 24 pack of mountain dew and a pound candy. On days that we are not hunt training we do fly ball and agility in the back yard.
Having two dogs is usually easier if there is a mature dog that has the trainong down. It makes training the 2nd dog alot easier...usually...problem with two dogs is they will pick up habits from each other...good & bad Sent from my SM-G935R4 using Tapatalk
It would also depend on the amount of training and socialization that the new pup has had. Being that old there might have been some critical training missed that will be very hard to recover from Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
I have a 3 year old shepherd and 5mth ago I got a 2mth old aussiedor to keep my shepherd company while me and the wife works. While Ty has been a handful and keeping us busy with the training it's been worth it for how much I see them play together and keep each other company. Total worth it. If I was to do it all again I would get them at the same time so we didn't have to go though all the potty training and chewing everything twice.
