[abbeypollard15]

We currently have a 14 month old male Border Collie x Golden Retriever, and a 12 year old female toy poodle x shit zhu. We are thinking of getting a third dog, a 10 week old Golden Retriever. Our two current dogs don't get on super well, the start was very rocky, but they are now very tolerant of one another. Our old girl isn't into playing, and mainly just wants to sleep all day, where as our puppy just wants to run and play. We feel a friend for him would be really beneficial. The two dogs currently get walked together for an hour a day, and the pup gets an extra hour in the afternoon.

We are a family of 3 and kids are out of school and often home. We would sleep the two puppies together in the laundry with a dog door, and have our old girl in the house.

What are your experiences with 3 dogs? Would you advise us to make this move?

 

[RonE]

We have a somewhat similar situation. We have a young, very social dog and a 12-year-old lab mix that mostly doesn't want anything to do with other dogs, though she tolerates the youngster.

My own feeling is that, while the youngster would almost certainly enjoy a playmate, it would further stress a senior dog who has earned some peace and quiet (and she was here first.)

We've had three dogs. It's WAY more challenging than two and infinitely harder than one. Traveling (whether boarding them or taking them along,) training - even feeding get much trickier. Vet expenses seem to go up more than seems possible.

And conventional wisdom says that you should get a second (or third) dog only if YOU really want one, and not because your other dog might want one.

Once our senior is gone, and we hope it won't be soon, we'll consider another dog.

 

[Quinsation]

Well, my dog limit is 3. We've had 4 for almost 5 years and just added a 5th dog!
The 3rd was easy. With the dogs we had, I knew we had to get a young, female. She fit in PERFECTLY. When we lost one of the original 2, (cancer) we decided to wait a while and get an older male puppy.... A week later, we had a 10 week old female puppy. She fit well, but was supposed to be my husbands dog. She was scared of him for several months. We weren't looking, but my husband saw an older male with a lot of physical issues at the shelter that he HAD to adopt. He was #4 and fit nicely. (remember, my limit is 3)
Fast forward 5 years...our original 3rd dog is diagnosed with cancer, the older dog we adopted has degenerative spinal cord and our original dog is 15.
I wanted a puppy so our younger dog could get used to him before losing her buddies (she typically HATES puppies & new dogs) So, about 3 weeks ago, we added #5, a 9 week old male.
He was the perfect fit for our younger dog. She LOVES him and they play all the time.
Unfortunately, we will be back to 3 dogs very shortly. Cancer sucks! DSC sucks!