Gender matters with a second dog
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, but generally, gender will play an essential role in whether your new dog will get along with your existing dog.
Experts agree that the second dog should be of the opposite sex for the best possible chance of success.
Why might two female dogs not get along?
You might think that two females are better than two males. Boys may be boys, girls will be women, they say. But this is an oversimplification for puppies and dogs. Two female dogs could act exactly like their male counterparts. As young pups, these two new female puppies may be friendly and pal around as you’d expect. But when they get a little older, they could vie for dominance.
Did you know that dogs reach sexual maturity between six and nine months, but they don’t reach social maturity until they’re twelve to thirty-six months of age? With each of these milestones, new challenges can present themselves. Changes in hormones and social status could cause fights.
A male dog more than likely will only fight till he’s hurt. A vet friend of ours shared that when they witnessed two female dogs getting into a squabble it was to end the argument once and for all. At the risk of sounding overly severe, these fights could end in serious injury or even death.
While you’ve made a choice to bring a second female dog into the house, in nature, you’d rarely—if ever—find multiple females living under the same “roof.” Why would you expect something different from your furry friends?
Before settling on a breed, think about the gender of the dog. For the happiest dogs and the safest household, opposite sex dogs almost always do best together. Many same-sex combinations of dogs will fight, sometimes to the death. Those who work out a dominance order may not fare much better. The dominant of two males will become more dominant (toward other dogs, not humans) than he would have otherwise been, and the sometimes submissive one will be pushed into more submission than would have otherwise been normal for him. Because they live with humans rather than in the wild, they are stuck in this situation. It can be stressful.
Leaving aside for a moment all the changes a second dog would bring to you family’s life, let’s assume you’ve been through all that and it seems right to you to add a dog at this time or some planned time in the future. Of course you need to look at all the normal things about choosing any dog. Those things include: • Size • Grooming requirements • Activity level • Disposition for interactions with the people and animals in your environment • Genetic tendencies to make noise (and your facilities for keeping noise from disturbing neighbours) • Matching the dog’s training needs to your training ability • And the many other factors
With a fenced yard and two playful dogs, much of your work of keeping your dogs exercised may be done. This exercise must have your supervision, though, and at various times they cannot be allowed to play for health reasons. When you have a dog sick, hurt, or who has just had surgery, ask your veterinarian about play activity and follow instructions. This is important for the dog’s physical healing as well as the relationship between the two dogs.
When both dogs are healthy and vigorous, they may run together and bump each other to figure out who is faster, who is stronger, etc. A female may especially value a male who is as strong or is stronger than she is, because she’ll feel he can protect her. Don’t make a big deal out of any humping during introductions, but gently interrupt it before it becomes oppressive to the dog being humped. If the male tries to hump the female and she snarks at him, he should stop and not fight back. If he doesn’t respect her right to say “no,” they may not be compatible as family members.
Getting two dogs at once is a popular idea, but seldom a good one. It takes a dog more time than you would think to become fully integrated into the family. If you bring in another dog before that time, some things can be lost, including best bonding between the dogs and human beings. A safe interval from this point of view is to wait at least two years between bringing a new dog into your family.