Adopting a dog - not 100% sure - wwyd?

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

We already have one dog - a brown lab bitch - who we love to bits, and we've been considering getting another dog for a while now - our dog loves company, and playing with other dogs, and we think it would benefit her and us.

So today we went to our local branch of a national rescue, and saw a dog there. We were to go and do a visit with our dog and her tomorrow, but the dogs need their vaccinations up to date, so it will have to wait a bit (our dog's vaccinations have lapsed, for various reasons).

The thing is, this dog is the first dog we have seen, and I am not 100% sure she's right for us - there's nothing wrong with her, she's pretty well behaved, nice, friendly, house trained, knows some commands - but I just didn't get that 'click' and fall in love.

It could well be that, if she came to live with us, and I spent time with her, I would fall in love - she's a lovely, bright, friendly dog - so I am not sure what to do - whether to rely on my instincts and hold off for a while, or whether to get our dog's jabs done, and then do the meeting, and see if their reactions to eachother clarified anything for me. What would people advise?

Part of me thinks that if it's meant to be, it will happen. Obviously, as we can't go tomorrow and let the two dogs meet, the other dog has been put back as available for adoption, and it's possible that while we are getting ourselves sorted out, someone else might come and fall in love with her, and adopt her - and I sort of feel that, if this happens, it would be because she wasn't the right dog for us, and that she was intended (by fate or the universe or whatever) to go to another home. As the woman at the rescue said, if it's intended for you, it'll not pass you by.

If you're not sure, don't do it.

It's a long old commitment and may not be entirely trouble free so if you have reservations, don't do it!

2 dogs are a lot more work than 1. If you are not 100%, don't.

Wait until you find one that you are sure about, it will happen.

Two girls is generally the worst combination. If I were you I'd get a male doggie to go with your girl. Agree with above posters though, it's good to be absolutely sure, to be fair to yourself and the new dog.

Thanks for all the responses. I think it is probably a good thing that we have to wait a few days minimum before we can do anything more with this process, so I can think things through properly.

The last thing I want to do is to take on a dog and not be the best possible owner for that dog - and this one has already had two homes, the last one of which (before the shelter) only lasted a few months - and it would be very very wrong indeed to have even the smallest risk of rehoming her here and it going wrong. I suspect that's where my doubts and worries come from.

If you're not sure, don't. As you say, this girl has been through enough and doesn't need to be messed around again.

Make sure you're not just over-thinking it though! I guess the most important things are whether you can cope with two dogs (walking etc), and whether she gets on well with your girl.

I've been thinking about this overnight and this morning, and part of what worries me is that this dog seems to be a stronger character than our dog - who is the least dominant dog I know - and I worry that the new dog would come in and take charge totally, and this would upset our dog.

But, as you say, I could be drastically overthinking this, so we are going to arrange a meet between the two dogs next weekend, to see how they do get on, and hopefully that will clarify things for us - well, for me.

I second the idea of a male...one if each is easiest and the males I have had usually s submissive to the bitch in day to day life.