Posted: 6/12/2014 12:27:12 AM EDT
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I think I have come close to finally convincing my wife that a 2nd dog is in the cards
We have a 4.5 year old Dogue De Bordeaux currently He is a big teddy bear and really gets along with just about anything and everything. Hell he even likes the cats at the vet (his favorite place) For what it is worth he was neutered at about 2.5, and prior to this had no dominance or other typical male issues About 2 years ago we brought home a juvenile bull mastiff who we found without collar/ID. It was a Saturday, in the mid 80's and I was worried about leaving him at Animal Control over the weekend with it being hot, so he came home. He was very friendly to us and had no problems at first with our dog, in fact my dog seemed to enjoy the company. At one point the visitor decided to assert dominance and tried to hump my dog. That didnt go well. While we have not got to the point of choosing a breed, Im leaning towards a GSD First question.... Should sex of the dog come into play? Second questions.... Tips on integrating a new dog in with a mature dog? |
| As for gender goes I am unsure which is better. I dint know your dog personally, but I know that I have introduced two much younger (puppies) at different times with a much older dog. They get along great. The older dog still tries to keep up with while they play but he can't. Maybe try having a friend bring their dog over to see how the current dog reacts? |
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I have 3 dogs. 9, 3 and 2. The 9 year old (male) was 5 when I got my female pit. He wasn't a fan of her but after a few weeks he acknowledged her existence. He use to be a hunting/bird dog and now he enjoys the couch or our bed. She would try to play with him and he wasn't having any of it. After about a year we talked about getting a 3rd dog for the female to play with. Long story short 1 was found (2-3 weeks old male). Older male still wasn't a fan of the new addition (they have fought prob 4 times in 2 years, all were dominance fights, nothing bad but the last 1 the younger kinda won *9 year is 35 lbs, 2 year old is 65-70* anywho, the younger 2 play all damn day and night and the older dog gets do be a bum and left alone.
If they were closer in age I'd say get a male or female. But cause of the age difference, I'd say get the opposite sex dog just to avoid future dominance fights. I'm not looking forward to the next fight between the 2 males, mostly cause the older 1 actually knows wtf he is doing. The younger one just uses his weight to lay on the female (50-55 lbs) when they play fight. But the female "raised" the younger male and those 2 go everywhere together. Edit: just weight all the dogs since it's been a while. 9 yo is 55 lbs, female is 75 and other male is 80. Talk about a surprise with the females weight cause she doesn't look it, but she's all muscle. (Also can jump a 7 ft wall into the neighbors yard to play with their dog  )
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We had a 14 month old female Great Dane and we got a 8 week old female Golden Retriever and they just love each other...they are inseparable http://i58.tinypic.com/u1yl2.jpg Thats a beautiful Dane They are also on the short list In fact I believe my wife would rather a dane over a GSD because of hair |
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I would say go with a female only because you already know that your Dogue will not tolerate another male attempting to establish dominance. Like it or not, if you get another male there will come a time when they will have to sort that out. It may be that the new pup will be very submissive to your Dogue, or it may not be. What you don't want to set up is a household where there will be an eternal grudge match between the two dogs. I've known people that have had to deal with that, and it's a pain in the ass.
By getting a female, you will most likely avoid all that. Males will tolerate dominance behaviors in a female that they would never tolerate from another male. Be aware that if you get a GSD, you will need to give her a lot more exercise than you do your Dogue. When mixing breeds, I usually like to stick fairly close to the same energy level, or if one dog is geriatric, pick a breed that is fairly mellow even as a pup. Danes can be relatively lazy, so I think that may be a better choice than a Shepherd. |
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I would say go with a female only because you already know that your Dogue will not tolerate another male attempting to establish dominance. Like it or not, if you get another male there will come a time when they will have to sort that out. It may be that the new pup will be very submissive to your Dogue, or it may not be. What you don't want to set up is a household where there will be an eternal grudge match between the two dogs. I've known people that have had to deal with that, and it's a pain in the ass. By getting a female, you will most likely avoid all that. Males will tolerate dominance behaviors in a female that they would never tolerate from another male. Be aware that if you get a GSD, you will need to give her a lot more exercise than you do your Dogue. When mixing breeds, I usually like to stick fairly close to the same energy level, or if one dog is geriatric, pick a breed that is fairly mellow even as a pup. Danes can be relatively lazy, so I think that may be a better choice than a Shepherd. Couldnt agree more with the energy level A tough day for the Dogue is getting out of bed for breakfast, taking a dump and then finding just the right spot on his bed He will play a little bit, but gets bored and goes off to just sniff around (at the dog park) Our last Dogue would play until he passed out |
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I would say go with a female only because you already know that your Dogue will not tolerate another male attempting to establish dominance. Like it or not, if you get another male there will come a time when they will have to sort that out. It may be that the new pup will be very submissive to your Dogue, or it may not be. What you don't want to set up is a household where there will be an eternal grudge match between the two dogs. I've known people that have had to deal with that, and it's a pain in the ass. By getting a female, you will most likely avoid all that. Males will tolerate dominance behaviors in a female that they would never tolerate from another male. Be aware that if you get a GSD, you will need to give her a lot more exercise than you do your Dogue. When mixing breeds, I usually like to stick fairly close to the same energy level, or if one dog is geriatric, pick a breed that is fairly mellow even as a pup. Danes can be relatively lazy, so I think that may be a better choice than a Shepherd. MUCH truth to this point you made above... 
My girl Princess has punked this one male dog twice her size out at work to the point that if the male is in one room and Princess in the doorway (or near it) and the male dogs owner calls his dog from the other room to COME - Male dog will NOT go through the doorway past Princess... Princess would have likely got her ass handed to her IF she was a male dog and tried that aggression / dominance shit with another male twice her size...
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Dogs are by their very nature born with certain 'desires' although most dog people call them 'drives'. These are very base compulsions. Eat Food Chase Things! (while this exists as a step in the chain that results in a full belly, in a dog's mind it isn't directly linked) Shelter Be Clean Enough to Be Healthy (this is where the 'don't shit where you sleep' programming that crate training relies upon) Be Part of a Pack Mate Be Pack Leader Defend Myself. Not all these drives are equal. A great example of this is you may see some dogs that get very motivated by a morsel of food as a reward, while another dog would rather get as queeky toy, or have a ball tossed. Some dogs will have a 'I don't care what my stance is, I just want to belong in a pack' and some dogs will have an attitude where their standing in the pack is of great importance, to the degree they'd risk shaking things up to advance in standing even at the risk of being thrown out of the pack. This kind of different programming is how you can have a small dog that is bossing around bigger more physically capable dogs. The big dogs just don't care that much about being boss as long as they can belong, while the little guy cares a lot about his stance. (The other reason for this is because humans recognize a big dog that is pushing for higher rank and correct the behavior but little dogs get away with it as 'cute'...just like the often do with growling at strangers. In fact many breeders of large dogs who are companion oriented often breed away from rank drive because pet owners often don't want to constantly having to be involved in dominance drama, but again with small dogs for some reason this is more tolerated( ANYWAYS...sorry to take so long to get to my point....It seems like the dog who was visiting you was very rank driven and your Dogue De Bx was somewhat rank driven and this is why there was conflict. Bringing in a female will side-step this issue, but you can also bring in a male who has low rank drive. If he has low rank drive and also high inclusion drive, it will basically take care of itself. If he has low or even medium rank drive, and can be motivated by food or play, then just a few rewards for good behavior and he'll the message and they'll get along fine. Of course the tricky part is being able to identify this. A big part of it is genetic. Yes, there can be a fair amount of diversity in the litter, but it really is mainly genetic re enforced by early experiences and conditioning. The problem is, the only people who are really going to be aware of what kind and amount of drives a dog has is people who either have struggled with the issue (which means they know one of the parents have high rank drive) or who rely on different types of drive for training (police dog handlers especially, but also the guy who gets his dogs to do circus tricks) which means you will find it easy to identify dogs that are clearly a bad fit, but everything else is a mystery, could be good, bad, or medium. So until more breeders really get aware of the nuts and bolts of what is going on in the brains of their dogs, either add a female, or add an adult fixed male that is a known quantity, i.e. he was part of a multi-dog family before and he was not the leader. |
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Quoted: Problem is, most all breeders in Alaska do not do necessary genetic testing Quoted: Quoted: There is an English Mastiff breeder in Glenalllen. That is where we got ours Problem is, most all breeders in Alaska do not do necessary genetic testing In the absence of genetic testing, the next best thing is to ask for a list of previous clients and contact them to see if there were any health problems.
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I have two. If the second dog is a puppy most likely it will integrate easily. Just let them be dogs. If they scuffle its better to let them work it out (as long as its not overly aggressive). I think having two dogs is better because they tend to keep each other company. 
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I have two. If the second dog is a puppy most likely it will integrate easily. Just let them be dogs. If they scuffle its better to let them work it out (as long as its not overly aggressive). I think having two dogs is better because they tend to keep each other company. I've always added the second dog as a baby, and it's always worked really well for me. There have usually been a few scuffles when the younger dog reached puberty, but they've worked things out on their own. And I agree that 2 is better than 1, unless you have an extremely territorial dog that simply does not accept other dogs. That's pretty rare, though, as dogs are pack animals by nature. |
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Problem is, most all breeders in Alaska do not do necessary genetic testing Quoted:
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There is an English Mastiff breeder in Glenalllen. That is where we got ours Problem is, most all breeders in Alaska do not do necessary genetic testing Likely so. He sure has turned into a great pup. |