Fear aggressive dog. Second dog bad idea?

[thullo]

Hi, just some advice please:) I have a small dog who has suffered from fear aggression since an incident with another dog when he was only 3 months old. He is now nearly a year old.He is fine with dogs that he knows,its strangers he has the issue with. He is alot better now than he was 4 months ago,but still has issues. Sometimes, whilst out he will try and play with other dogs, but other times, if a dog attempts to walk up to him,he will snarl and air snap at them? We know alot of his triggers, but he can sometimes be unpredictable.
We would love to buy a second dog,but unsure as to whether this would be a really bad idea due to his fear aggression? We dont want to buy a second dog,for it to be a total disaster! Any advice welcome as to whether advisable?
Also, if we were to go ahead with the second dog, we would prefer rescue, but also unsure at this point in time whether a rescue would consider re-homing a dog into a household where there is a fear aggressive dog?

[LetThereBeCupcakes]

Personally I'd deal with your current dog's issues first, as you would risk a second dog learning this behaviour, and you'd end up with two with fear aggression! Not fun. Is somebody helping you with the fear aggression?

I don't think our local rescue would rehome to somebody with a fear aggressive dog tbh - when we adopted our second the centre wanted to meet our first dog and see how they got on before they would consider us, they were very keen the dogs got on.

Don't give up on the idea of a second though - we love having two, and they adore each other. Just need a little work first :)

[thullo]

Hi, yes we have guidence from a behaviourist that we worked on with him. She was very good, and thinks the progress that he has made over the months is fantastic. But she also thinks that he is a very 'stressy' dog and is unlikely to ever be completely happy around strange dogs.
She doesn't seem to think that his fear aggression now is to much to worry about tbh as she thinks most of the time he is now just reacting to what would be percieved as 'bad manners' in doggy language
A huge part of me thinks he would love a doggy friend as he adores playing and romping around with dogs that he knows or is familiar with, its just the air snapping that he still displays sometimes that is a major concern for me.

You have kind of confirmed what i thought about a rescue having concerns though. Thank you:)

[Cuebill]

Obviously go with the behaviourists advice but our rescue would not write you off if you had a fear aggressive dog.

There would need to be lots of meetings to see how the dogs got on, but you would clearly see if the dogs did get on. Together you could work out which dog relationships would work etc. Gentle introductions done in the correct way would go a huge way towards making your boy happy. Some dogs do benefit from being with another dog.

Although have you thought about if your new dog throws another difficult behaviour at you - would you still be able to cope.

[D0oinMeCleanin]

One of mine has become fear-aggressive on leash after an attack by another dog, it's hard having one dog with issues. She needs to be walked apart from the other two dogs in order to successfully overcome her issues.

I can walk them together, as in my other two are fairly well behaved on the lead and I am physically capable of controlling the fear aggressive one, but the training I am doing with her works best if my attention is 100% on the dog with issues and the other two (one in particular) still needs some work on lead walking.

You need to bear in mind that this might be an issue if you got another dog. Would you have the time to do two separate walks while you were still rehabilitating the first dog?

I still foster, even though one of mine has issues we just need to be more careful with the introductions. The foster we have now came to us an emergency dog so there was no time to do introductions they way we would have liked, but with careful management and letting the greeting go at the fearful dog's pace things worked out okay, they now get on like a house on fire.

[thullo]

Thanks for the replies:) Some great points that I will give alot of thought to thanks. I think he would benefit from another dog,but can see we would have to give alot of thoughts as to how to manage walks etc as a second dog learning his fear aggression would not be fun,no:)
Also, the point about coping if a second dog developed seperate issues as well, will give alot of thought to that. Thanks