planning ahead...one puppy or two?

[knittedsoxer]

Hi everyone
I have been waiting a long time and now feel that our family is ready to step up to the responsibility of having a dog. next may i plan on getting a dalmation puppy and was wondering if i should actually get two? my children will be 12 9 and 7. when i was growing up we always had 4 or 5 at anyone time and i am a bit worried dog would be lonely come september when i go back to uni...off may to sept, so lots of time to settle in. days when im not home dog will be walked by walker service. but actually think it would be nice if they were buddied up...any thoughts? thanks

It can be very hard to train two litter mates as they will naturally bond with each other rather than you. You will have to train them separately and walk them separately. Some breeders will not let you take two puppies in case you end up getting rid of them because they're such hard work. And can you afford to feed and insure two large dogs? My lab puppy currently costs me about £80 a month in food, insurance and vet club. It might be lovely when they're fully grown and trained but it might be bloody hard work to begin with.

thanks for your reply, we are financially able to look after two big dogs. so perhaps get one and then wait a year and get another? what you have said makes more sense thankyou very much

No problem. We're going to wait two or three years and then think about getting another. My lab will be older and well trained by then and will be a guide for the new one. We lost our old spaniel last year before we got around to having another. Going from two dogs to one is awful but going from one to nothing is hideous.

We got the second, when the first was a year old. It worked well. Having said that... They were not dalmatians. The one and only dalmatian I had was impossible to train, really, we couldn't even teach him that there was a glass door blocking his way to the garden.

We have a dalmatian, she is 20 months and I honestly can't imagine how hard it would be to have two puppies at the same time! Her breeder would not let people take two anyway. We are hoping to get another next year (possibly a young rescue) - I think it would be better to wait till your first is through the puppy and adolescent stages before getting a second.

Molly is quite chilled for a Dalmatian and is well behaved with wonderful recall, but she does seem to have a mental block against walking to heel. We have taken her to classes since she was 13 weeks old, she has passed her gold award and she still pulls on the lead when out (she will only walk to heel in the hall!).

I absolutely love the breed, they are not for the faint hearted but they are the most amazing, goofy, loving dogs if exercised well and trained properly.

Please don't get two, a decent breeder shouldn't let you anyway. Double Trouble

There are 9 months between our dogs and it was fine. You do need to be prepared to make the effort to train them separately though. I took Dog 2 to puppy school as soon as he was old enough and didn't always walk them together so that they both learned to walk alone as well as with each other.

I'm a sahm of school age kids though so I could make the time the dogs needed. They love each other and it's great having them at similar ages now.

Just don't do it! - dogs? - yuk!

Thanks for all the fab messages and insight!

I think the Guide Dog Assoc tried sending out two puppies rather than one to their foster homes before training - I believe they abandoned the experiment because one puppy always failed to reach full potential.