Possibly getting a second dog

[Priscilla's Mom]

Hi,

My family (Me, mother and step-father) and I have a cairn terrier (Priscilla) who will be 2 years old this April. So here's the deal, I did Priscilla's training (not perfect) and she also sleeps with me on my bed, I'm also home 2 or 3 days during the week with her. Later on this year I will be moving back home to Australia and Priscilla will be staying here with my folks and they are considering getting another dog since they are gone 5 days a week and some of those days can be like 10 hour days.

This second dog will not be another cairn terrier, possibly either a dachshund or a minature pinscher, one of my questions is that Priscilla is female, is she more likely to get along with other female dogs or males? There's two other female dogs in the street that she plays with and gets along with fine. I'm also really concerned about how she may take to another dog being in the home even though she loves and wants to play with every dog she comes across.

My other question is since we are fairly new to the dog world, are two dogs easier to handle than 1, especially small active dogs, just curious about people's personal opinions on this topic. Thanks for your time and any information you could give me.

Andrea.

[bradl]

Since we don't leave our dogs loose when we're gone, getting another one for company when we're gone doesn't really make sense for us. Having two dogs takes more TIME, but in my view two are less than twice the effort. So I'm a fan of two dogs, generally. There's a saying you'll hear from some breeders - "There's a reason they call them bitches" - which leads me to believe that a male/female pair is often a slightly safer bet. Of course there are lots of f/f and m/m two-dog households that get along swimmingly. I think it's largely a matter of mathematics and probability, depending more on the individual animals than their gender. If the second dog is a puppy, the older dog will help set the agenda for it, and I think odds are they'll get on famously.

As an aside, we had a house-sitter for a little over a week last summer, looking after our four Cairns. The house-sitter brought along her standard and smooth dachshunds - one adult male and one junior (older puppy) female. Our Cairn puppy and the dachsie puppy wrestled and played from sun-up to sun-down, apparently.

[Priscilla's Mom]

Thanks for you info. I agree with you that getting another dog for company if they are crated doesn't make sense. However our cairn is not crated, I tried to crate train her from a pup and she just wouldn't have it so she has access to the kitchen and the hallways when we are not home. I don't think the second dog will be a pup, my mum doesn't want to go through that again so the second dog will have to be fairly youngish though...maybe a year old or something.

Andrea.

[suedelu29]

I had just one cairn, and I was gone alot too. She was 15 months, and I did get another one, 13 months. Even though they are both caged, when they do get out they are much happier having each other to be with then following me around bored trying to get my housework done or whatever. I don't feel as guilty. I did get a male for my female, because usually, in this breed anyway, the female is supposed to be the controller. Whatever the case it worked out well for me. It is twice the work as far as feeding, exercise etc., but the amount of stress it took off of me having an "only child" was well worth it. Hope it helps a little.

[Eliz222]

We have two female Cairns and haven't had any problems with them getting along. I STILL can't figure out which one is alpha! They play together very well and keep each other company. Having two dogs is more work than one, but not by much. I walk both of them at the same time and feed them at the same time. My 2yr old has the run of the house, but I still crate the puppy, who is now 10 months old. She is housebroken, and sleeps with us at night, but I don't trust her past the end of my nose....it will be another year or so before I attempt to keep her out of the crate.

[kgemind]

I agree with Shoe - I have 2 females 7 years apart and I can't figure out which one is Alpha. Annie is older and less nervous/high-strung than Sofia. They spend the day together, confined in a large room and they get along fine. But when I'm home there are small scuffles - I think we had 3 tonight. Sofia is usually the one who is disciplined if I see the whole story. Sometimes they will be playing together in another room and I will hear Annie barking, barking at Sofia - like she is giving her orders. In those cases, I calm them and play with them for a few minutes. When we get #3, hopefully later this year, I will kennel her while I'm gone.

P.S. How will you leave your Priscilla behind when you move???

[Priscilla's Mom]

I don't know how I"m going to leave her behind. She is my first ever dog but I don't feel she is entirely mine so I figured it would be better to leave her here with my parents. Another reason is because she refused to ever let me crate train her I don't think I could stand the thought of her having her confined to a crate for a 14 hour plane flight. Plus if my parents are thinking of getting a second dog for her then there is no point in my taking Priscilla because then the other dog would be alone.

Andrea.