re: Any advice on adding a 2nd dog to the family?

quote:

---

Oh snap you got a lady now? Thought you were gonna be a bachelor for life?

---

Yup. Getting married Dec 17th. All thoughts and prayers are appreciated.

Though my experience might be off since my male was aggressive. He was also 100# so that didn't help

They are social creatures and love the company. It chills them out.

If you can get a boxer rescue that is similar age and temperament, I would look into that. Other than that I see zero issues bringing in a puppy.

Anybody have advice on adding another dog when your current one shows aggression towards other dogs? My SO and I would like to get a 2nd dog after we move into a house with a fence in a few months

*Disclaimer*
This is a long post. Skip it if you don't want to read or have generic tips. I wanted to provide as much insight as possible for anybody who may be an expert




We have a male Doberman/Lab mix that is almost 3 years old. The aggression, at least to the level, is fairly recent. He grew up with 2 other dogs from the time he was 2 months old until he was 2 years old. A Golden Retriever and an English Springer Spaniel. The Spaniel was his playmate and they occasionally got into it over toys, while the Golden was the old man and the biggest so they'd occasionally get into when one or the other would try to assert dominance. Sometimes our guy would be the reacter, sometimes he started it. But there was never any major incidents, maybe a couple that could've turned it if not stopped. No real aggression other than his playfulness and clinginess. However because he was the youngest, and had the biggest personality, and IMO because of his breed, her parents always put the blame and punishment on him. While nothing major the incidents, especially the dominance issues with the old Golden, were enough that they would leave our Doberman/lab kenneled when nobody was home.
But still at that time we had no problem taking him out in public. We once even took him to a large dog festival. Not only was he fine, but sort of shy around the other dogs. The only time I've ever seen him tuck his tail was at that festival when our friends 4 month old female lab that was 1/4 his sized sniffed him.

The real problem started when my gf moved out and we got an apartment. There are two large Bulldogs in our building. Both are a legit 150 lbs. Not long after we moved in my gf took him out and one of the Bulldogs had gotten out. Our dog only reacted when the other dog pushed his chest into my gf. But since then he has become the aggressor. He will try and go after any dog that gets in his sight. It's to the point where my gf won't take him out anymore because he's stronger than her and she's scared he'll see another dog and he'll start dragging her and she won't be able to stop him. Another incident at a park where two unleashed dogs it too close for his liking and now my gf is scared to take him in public anymore. She doesn't even like for me to take him and I can handle him.

We had friends who insisted on us dog sitting for a week over the summer. Said their female dog was submissive so there would be no problem. We took the dogs to meet at a park beforehand to make sure. On neutral ground at the park, our dog was the one acting submissive. However when we got her home our dog immediately become agressive and territorial so we muzzled him. Sure enough, a minute later she sniffed his kennel and he lost it and attacked. If it wasn't for the muzzle he would've torn her up.

He's never been aggressive to people. Loves people. He does extremely well with babies, incredibly gentle and soft with them, so we thought it might help if we introduced a new dog as a very young puppy.

Advice or thoughts?

My advice is to not bring another dog in. My experience was that I had a male boxer that was dog aggressive in the beginning. He would tolerate dogs when he got to know them but it was always instinct to be the alpha and charge them. I'm lucky I am strong enough to hold him back.

We then brought another boxer in and maybe he will get socialized more and know that other dogs are not all bad. We even went to the Petsmart obedience courses just for interaction. What ended up happening was that he just learned to tolerate the female boxer and still be dog aggressive towards others. Now we have two dogs to deal with instead of one. The female is very friendly to all dogs and people but just having the one that was dog aggressive and throwing in another responsibility was just too much. I believe he needed a truly dominate owner (me) to control him. He was much better behaved when I took care of him without my wife around.

Like I said in another post, I hate that he passed but life has been easier.

quote:

---

I am glad I got a second dog because my dog is more energetic now and seems happier.

---

I always have 2 dogs, I think they need dog companionship. With them only have a 1.5 year old, it should take to a pup fairly quickly.

Boxers are great dogs. Just get another Boxer.

If alt breed is preferred I would go Lab. I don't know where I heard it but I thought I was told these two get along great (?)...

quote:

---

We even went to the Petsmart obedience courses just for interaction

---

We did puppy training at PetSmart when he was a few months. He's a highly intelligent dog though (doberman's and labs are two of the top 10 smartest breeds) and he learns quickly so we never felt he need for more training until the aggression started.

We took him to an evaluation for similar classes with a highly regarded trainer in the area. This trainers personal dog is a Rottweiler and as part of the evaluation he brought his dog out on one side of the room, and had his assistant trainer hold our dog on the other side of the room. He didn't bark or growl at the rotty, just lots of pacing, and lunging, and huffing and puffing. The trainer said that in his opinion our dog wasn't actually aggressive, just wants to be the alpha male and establish dominance. This guy has a Ph.D. in canine behavior, but literally everybody else says he is aggressive, so I'm still not convinced that he's not just trying to sell me on paying him the $3000 for classes.


Slightly off topic, but our dog isn't huge by any means. He's been over 80 lbs before, but the vet seems to think 70-75 is his most healthy weight. But he's solid muscle and deceptively strong, and being half Doberman he knows how to handle himself. During the evaluation when the Rottweiler was out, one of my dogs lunges actually pulled the asst who was holding him off his feet and put him flat out the ground. This was a 6'2"ish grown man. Afterwards he said only 1 other dog had ever put him on his arse like that and it was a 150 pound mastiff. That gave me a good laugh and made me a proud dog dad.