Help - offered two labs to rescue . . .

[ellenrose]

We have made the decision to re-home a Lab and having successfully passed our home check have been offered a pair of 5 yr old dogs. Photos have meant I have fallen in love with them already but we actually get to meet them on Saturday. I am now trying to think of all the considerations to ensure I make an informed decision and is where I need help!

Safety gates? We have cats as well and we've been advised to give them some 'personal space'. As they often sleep on our stairs it seemed like a sensible thing to partition off the upstairs - have spent the last hour looking at the options for stair gates (we have plaster board walls at the bottom of the stairs) - any recommendations? I would have preferred non-trip style following the nightmares I had with falling over ones with dd but not sure how successful they are being drilled into and staying in plaster board.

Leads - recommendations for walking two dogs at a time - two separate or something like the Ezy range where you can clip on to free up a hand?

Vacuum upgrades - Miele, Henry Hound, Dyson - views?

I need to find out how they are used to being transported but recommendations on crates etc. (DogBag?) etc. also very much appreciated.

Having got over the initial shock at going from 0 to 2 dog household I think it would work well for them both but if anyone has any reservations - please shout now

And if there is anything else obvious I have missed, let me know?

Thank you!!

[Cheria]

Good luck taking on two at once - will be hard work but I'm sure you know that.

As for vacuum upgrades - we recently upgraded to a rowenta - one of the new ones that on the ads pretend to be silent (yeah right). It is brilliant for dealing with the hair from our cats and golden.

We have put a safety gate on the bathroom door which needs to be left open as the cat food and litter are in there as the dog kept going and eating the litter. It is a non trip one but we had to place it quite high up so the cats could still get under it. We have place a second gate part way up the stairs so that if we go out the dog doesn't eat all my books on the landing bookshelves and doesn't harass the cats. Again be careful to aollow space for your cats to get past / under.

Again, good luck, I'm sure it will be lots of fun, and well done on re-homing rather than buying a puppy! We sometimes regret buying our dog as a puppy - he is wonderful and we love him to bits - but I drive past our local rescue centre regularly and think I could have done more good by picking up one of their dogs.

[ellenrose]

Thanks Cheria, good tips re the gates and I will have a look at the Rowenta

[Cheria]

Just googled it and it looks like it's unavailable in the UK, sorry

[polkydot]

I have 2 black labs, one since a puppy and one from rescue, in some ways it's harder work with two and in others it's much better.

We have a dyson animal hair vacuum, which is brilliant with the hair from the two dogs and one cat, boring though I sound when I say it, but it is one of the best things we have ever bought, so much easier, more efficient and less time consuming than our old vacuums (which kept dying trying to cope with the hair). Labrador shed A LOT, and two seem to produe about 10 times more air than one because of playing together etc. We also use a shedding blade like this www.groomers-online.com/product.php/2210/bentley-shedding-blade/9265d311ba2fc568d5b92e56b1520a52 which is so much more effective than a brush. I am tempted to buy the new dyson attachment, which is for hoovering hair straight off dogs though! I think the hair and cleaning is my only downside to the dogs though.

I find it really hard work walking both the dogs on separate leads if is just me, so I use a double chain on one if their leads, like this www.equinecaninefeline.com/catalog/medium-chain-couple-double-lead-walk-dogs-together-p-5907.html, which is so much easier.

We have trained our dogs not to come up the stairs, which is incredibly easy with (nearly all) labradors, so have no need for a stairgate. They don't even try when we're out, unlike some other things they know they're not meant to do.

For travelling ours just go in the boot, and again we've trained them to stay there, so that's no trouble, after the initial training. Our rescue lab, who was 6 months and completely untrained when he came to us would not get in the car for a while after we had him and we had to pick him up to put him in, he was also sick the first couple of journeys, which I think was from stress. Now he will jump in at any chance when there is a door open and refuse to get out, because he doesn't want to get left behind/miss out on an exciting walk!

Sorry for the epic post, I hope some of it's useful. They really are fantastic, and our rescue boy is so easy, so willing and easy to train and fantastic and gentle with cats and children. Good luck!

[polkydot]

One more thing - you'll probably still need two leads, because I found it impossible to train them to walk to heel together, they really needed taking out separately for that. Master that and reliable recall and everything seems easy.

[chickchickchicken]

we have three dogs and 2 humans with asthma so have to keep the house as clean as possible. we use the dyson animal upright with ball. its easy to push and very efficient picking up dog hair. its the best vacuum cleaner i have ever used

cant advise on stair gates, we have passed that stage and dont have cats

i have separate leads. i find it easy to walk mine without using a doubler thingy. some people prefer them, i think its just down to personal preference.

having more than one dog is great fun. it does come with challenges and it costs more of course but worth it imo.

have you got a pic?