Should we get another dog?

Hi All,

I havent posted here for a while as we have been enjoying our rescue staffy Ralf! He has been an absolute joy (apart from a few hiccups which were to be expected)...

But now we are considering getting him another dog as company... Ralf LOVES other dogs, he is an angel off the lead. He loves attention and company and when we go out we do feel a tad guilty. That usually surpasses when we find he has caused havoc at home from boredom, although, this hasnt happened in a long while now - unless food is accidentally left on the worktop by the kids!

Anyway, when we go out he gets very anxious and doesnt like it at all. When we get home he is OFF THE SCALE excited, which is fine, but sometimes he goes totally mental for about half an hour!

We were told an older, bigger dog might calm him, tame him and keep him company, so we are looking at getting another rescue dog. He is a gorgeous boy; English Mastiff so a big old lump of teddy bear goodness, he is 7 but still loves a run around. He is a total softy who loves children and other dogs.

As yet, the two dogs havent met - what are your initial thoughts though?

If you have the money ,time energy,room and love then go for it what have you got to loose as long as both dogs are good with others and you are aware of potential problems then all should work out fine.

I agree with Gem if you know you have enough time, space and can afford another dog then i say go for it!

My husbands concern is if it is ok for us to leave two dogs on their own together?

For instance, i do the school run daily... My husband is worried that they might out of the blue and all of a sudden start to fight...?

The temperament of a English Mastiff, this is unlikely to happen but I know that Ralfy is a very playful boy...

stuandlee wrote:My husbands concern is if it is ok for us to leave two dogs on their own together?

For instance, i do the school run daily... My husband is worried that they might out of the blue and all of a sudden start to fight...?

The temperament of a English Mastiff, this is unlikely to happen but I know that Ralfy is a very playful boy...

I wouldnt leave two staffs together unattended speacially not two of the same sex. Your husband is right and if a fight did break out which it could do over next to nothing then staffs will not back down or give up and may even fight to the death or if not u will alost certainly have a very big vet bill. I wouldnt risk it personally. My two are separated any time i can not be with them (even if i go to the loo).

My older girl (Kita) grew up with a mastiff for the first 3 years of both their lives (she's now 14yrs old) and they were the best of mates. Mastiffs are very gentle in nature and these two only ever had one issue about a bone when they were both less than 12 months old. I used to feel sorry for our mastiff as Kita really did give push his limits (in my eyes), but he either just rolled over and ignored her or played just as hard back.
Mine were on their own for the majority of the day when I worked as my ex (stay at home partner) still managed to take off for weeks on end at times, but they really were the best of mates.
Oops forgot to add the only thing that would bother me would be the same sex...


Here's a pic of my two together

If you're at all worried that they may have a 'disagreement' while you're out, fix up a baby gate to keep them apart. I know that both could easily jump it, but the chances are they wouldn't bother!

I agree with whats said above you could either use a baby gate or get dog crate(s)

@blaze - I did wonder that and thought about holding out for a girl but now I have seen Harvey, I appear to have fallen somewhat! And I feel so sorry for him stuck in that tiny kennel...

@doggalogs88 - those two are SO adorable - they look like tweedle dum and tweedles dee!

@Caryll - we have the ability to segregate our house somewhat, so that Ralfy (who likes to look out of the playroom window all day long) could have the front of the house, and Harvey would have the rear of the house. But this would be by doors. Is it better to have a baby gate so they are able to see each other would you say?

@ella - two giant crates would be troublesome. Although our house is pretty big, crates would be cumbersome with two large dogs and two nutty kids... as well as husband who falls over everything!

SO NOW I AM PANICING AFTER ALL ABOVE. AM I MAD LOOKING AT TWO DOGS RATHER THAN A DOG AND A BITCH? HAS ANYONE EVER HAD TWO DOGS GET ALONG, OR WORSE, FIGHT?
I DONT WANT TO UPSET THE UNISON AT HOME BUT I THINK RALF WOULD LOVE A PLAY MATE. MY KIDS WOULD ALSO LOVE IT. NO DOUBT ITS GOING TO CAUSE HAVOC WITH EVERYTHING TWO DOGS CAN THROW AT YOU BUT IM WONDERING IF IT REALLY IS A GOOD IDEA.... TIME AND MONEY ASIDE.

RALF IS A FAB LITTLE STAFFY, MY 3 YR OLD GIVES HIM GRIEF! TUGS HIS TAIL, LAYS ON HIM, CUDDLES HIM WAY TOO TIGHT, AND OF COURSE WE TELL HIM NO, BUT EVERY NOW AND THEN HE DOES GET TOO HEAVY HANDED WITHOUT REALISING. AND POOR LITTLE RALFY JUST GIVES THE TINIEST MURMUR OF GRR AS HE BREAKS FREE AND THEN LICKS HIM TO DEATH. I WOULDNT WORRY IF THERE WAS NO GROWL, BUT IT JUST MAKES ME WONDER WHETHER HE COULD TURN.

I THINK I MAY BE GETTING WAY OVER-CAUTIOUS AND WORRYING TOO MUCH NOW - CORRECT ME IF IM WRONG?!

I could never ever recommend getting two staffs of the same sex. Staffords will put up with the opposite sex much better than the same and your house will be much calmer. My boys get on brilliantly most of the time but we are extremley hard on them to be honest. They cant have any toys or treats unless completley separated, we cant have them on sofas etc. All of this helps jealously from occuring and fights breaking out. We have had to put ourselves so high up in the pecking order and have had to make sure they no thier place is right at the bottom even under the cat. That makes it easier when they are getting to much they will listen to our voices. Staffords in full fight mode will not listen and will fight as i said before to the death in some cases and separating them will not be easy and you will probably get injured yourself. I dont mean to put you off as getting another dog isnt a problem but i just would never recommend getting 2 males or 2 females. Get one of each!

just re read your post i still would look at a female and wouldnt risk a male but as the mastiff is older it may work better....

I would always advise the dogs be of opposite sex. The age difference and overal tempermant of the Mastiff may make this point mute. I think if you fllow the advice that Blaze offered and keep them seperated if you aren't around it should be okay.

I would advise that you introduce them on neutral ground before the adoption if possible. It's best if they are both exercised before hand so they are calmer. This will give you an idea of how they will get along. Some dogs just don't coexist for whatever reason and if this was the case it would let you know early on it wasn't a good idea.

I too would also recomend opposite sexes and im not saying that it cant work but you never know

Although I generally recommend one of each sex I've mostly had males, and it's usually not an issue having several males together (at the most we had 3 intact males, no issues). If one or both is neutered I wouldn't worry about it, really, and if not I would make sure they met and got along to begin with since they are both adults. There is a decent age difference with them, which is good, and from the description of the mastiff he doesn't sound like a guy who likes to get into conflicts.

I would keep them separated during the day if they are unsupervised for safety reasons. My whippet was severely injured by his best friend when left alone, and in the end had to be pts. You just never know what can happen. A baby gate or something that gives them the possibility to see each other (=company) but not to do any damage is great.

Hi, we picked up our old Staff. (then 16 months old and neutered) from rescue as a friend for our Jack Russel (3 years and entire) and they were the very best of friends from the start, despite the JR being a moody little toad! We didn't know as much then as we do now and they were together 24/7 even sharing the same big bed but it worked fine even with bones,toys and other dogs.

We lost the JR at 13 and soon picked up a rehomed un-neutered Staff who was 18 months old but who had an uncertain history to keep our 10 year old staff company. We took no chances and seperated them with a big dog gate when we were not there to supervise and had no toys in shared space in or out etc. they got on well and played like 2 puppies but after 2 weeks there was a scrap and a vets bill to fix the new dogs' torn eye lid....hands up we had missed a toy in the garden .

Several weeks later once we were settled we had him neutered. He then began showing dominant behavior and began targeting me mostly but one day things got out of hand. He was trying to playfight in the lounge with our old boy who was politely telling him to bugger off! But he was very persistent so my DH told him to settle down and lay down sort of thing but he was ignoring him. With that my DH stood up to take them/him outside to the garden and the dog went from playfull to aggressive in an instant aggressively snapping at DH biting him in the arm pit (DH was moving out of his way to protect himself from a bite) but with that he came at him again and my dh was badly bitten on the arm requiring hospital treatment

I've been debating on wether to reply to this post but it is at the end of the day it's kind of negative and positive. I think from my point of view/experience I'm trying to say things can work brilliantly or not so, it's a gamble, you wont know until you've tried! Sorry not very helpful huh?! You might have to take serious measures to avoid all unsupervised contact and you like us have young children (ours were 3 1/2 and 8 months at the time) and having done it although not for any serious amount of time I can honestly say WE found it annoying-but it had to be done in mho. But you see the others (JR and Staff.) were amazing together and never even scrapped the entire 10 years they were best friends and we were careless through ignorance of the potentials with toys and bones like I said!