# have male dog.. now should i only get male?



## neupane00 (Apr 10, 2008)

hey guys quick question. i am getting a male puppy soon. And i wanna have 1 more dog within next 3 months or so. Since i will have first dog which is male, should i stick to only having male dog? I dont want any mating or anything funny going on in my house. haha.. i plan to neuter / spay dogs. what do u suggest? 
my first dog: havanese.. current around 8 weeks
my future second dog: shetland sheepdog (sheltie).. maybe buy from jan 2010 litter and home around mid march


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## Ocsi (Oct 11, 2009)

I would put a good 2-5 years difference between the two.
I wanted to make sure my dog was well undercontrol, well trained, and well just crazy about his owner before we got a second dog. If you have two dogs that are very close in age (think from the same litter especailly!) they will bond to one another much stronger than they will bond to you.

Sex doesn't matter in my opinion.

Take time to get to know your dogs as individuals, if you get two you'll never really get that chance. Plus if they are so close in age, what happens when they both die within a very short time of one another?? Then you've lost two dogs and the suffering is even greater!


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## pittsabowawa (Jul 26, 2009)

I also agree that you should wait AT LEAST a year between puppies. It can be much harder to train two puppies at once.

I've heard that it is better to get dogs of different sex but I don't know how much truth there is behind it.

If you keep vigilant there is no reason for your dogs to mate until you get them s/n and after that it won't be a problem


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## Thracian (Dec 24, 2008)

Raising one puppy is very challenging. I would absolutely not suggest raising two at once. Get the first dog well trained before you consider adding a second one.


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## neupane00 (Apr 10, 2008)

okay sounds good.. i will wait a year or so.. but what about sex of the dog? any suggestion about that?


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## Ocsi (Oct 11, 2009)

neupane00 said:


> okay sounds good.. i will wait a year or so.. but what about sex of the dog? any suggestion about that?


if you plan to alter both dogs, it should be a zero issue then
two females are more likely to fight for dominance imo, than a male and female
in the wild, packs of dogs are not single sex, so its not really a big deal


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## Charlene (Sep 12, 2009)

two females in the same house CAN be a big deal, a VERY big deal. it depends on the personality of the dogs. i have two great dane females, one 8, the other 3. they are best friends. however, my neighbor has a female aussie that i will absolutely NOT allow anywhere near my dogs. she's fine with any male but she will attack another female in a new york minute.

i raised two siberian husky puppies at the same time, a male and a female. it was just as easy as training one, at least it was for me.


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## neupane00 (Apr 10, 2008)

so i guess male and female is a good solution. if they are both neutered/spayed.. do they still try to hump? can i leave them alone together? i know there will be no babies but what about their activities.. i dont want them humping.. does anyone have experience having (neutered/ spayed) male and female together?


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## prntmkr (Jan 17, 2009)

neupane00 said:


> okay sounds good.. i will wait a year or so.. but what about sex of the dog? any suggestion about that?



As others have already suggested, if you can get a female for the second dog, it will be a safer choice. By the time your dog is a year old, you should have a pretty good idea if he will have any problems getting along with another male...

Having said that, the (Sheltie?) breeder of your second dog will be able to better advise you in this regard.

Best of luck with your new puppy!!!


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## Ocsi (Oct 11, 2009)

Yes, and they will still do it. 
If you're concerned, keep them seperated when you cannot watch them with 100% of your attention. Weither it be a baby gate, or crates. It takes time to teach that it is a behavior you don't want. 
But honestly, you should do some reading, go to the library and research dog behaviors. There are published authors with hundreds of pages on dog behavior that it would be benifical for you to read before you put dogs into your family. They don't speak English, and never will- so you need to learn their laungage if you want a happy pet.


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## Keechak (Aug 10, 2008)

neupane00 said:


> so i guess male and female is a good solution. if they are both neutered/spayed.. do they still try to hump? can i leave them alone together? i know there will be no babies but what about their activities.. i dont want them humping.. does anyone have experience having (neutered/ spayed) male and female together?


Dogs hump each other, it's just a form of communication. You can redirect them to other activities if they do it, but if your dogs are fixed they wont be trying to breed. Dogs don't have an "urge" to mate constantly like some humans do. Dogs are much too civilized for that  j/k


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## Ocsi (Oct 11, 2009)

^haha, great way to put it!


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## Ayanla (Jun 11, 2009)

I have two pups that are 5 weeks apart in age, opposite sex. I got Odo when he was 8 weeks old, and then Kira 5 weeks later when she was 8 weeks old.

It's definitely been more challenging with two pups than one. I would liken it to having twins versus one baby. It's doable, it's not impossible, but it's not exactly as easy as having just the one, and there are unique issues that just don't crop up when you only have one puppy.

On the humping front, both of mine are altered. They still hump each other on occasion, though it seems to be lessening as they get older. We used to step in and redirect but at this point they police each other. Odo tries to hump, Kira knocks him off and starts chasing him. Kira tries to hump and Odo, being so much smaller, just darts off.

We have just discovered, though, one major boo-boo we've made. Kira can not be left alone without Odo present. When I took Odo to the groomer last week, my boyfriend and I decided to just crate Kira and run and pick up dinner. She was barking/whining when we left, which is kind of unusual, but when we came back less than 30 minutes later she was yowling madly and when we got to her crate we found her entire face soaking wet from drool/tears, and we found that she had peed, which she never does in the crate. She was shaking and had ears laid back and was frantically trying to lick us as we let her out, as if she was apologizing for something. It took her a good ten minutes to calm down after we let her out. She's been crate trained since we got her, and has never had a problem, but Odo has always been there in another crate beside her. This tells me that we are going to have a huge problem should Odo need to be somewhere for a period of time, like for a medical procedure, or if he should pass away before her some day.


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## ThoseWordsAtBest (Mar 18, 2009)

I've fostered litters of puppies at a time, and while I would probably do it again, it's not my idea of a party and I'd probably never personally train two puppies at the same time. Though, I know lots of people who have, and had an easy time with it. 

We've talked a lot on housing same sex pairs, and it really depends on the dog. I've mentioned before Smalls can have a problem with female dogs, does not matter if they are altered or not, and we had a very rough go of assimilating Magpie into the house. They haven't had a scuffle in a while, but they're very strictly supervised. Magpie is the happiest, most easy going dog in the world who sees every other dog as a new best friend, so she was not the aggressor in any manner. It was all Smalls.


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## Dog_Shrink (Sep 29, 2009)

I have 6 dogs in my house all out together. 5 of them are males with 2 still intact and we never have issues. We have 1 female that is 5 months old. I have never had any good experiences putting 2 females together as they will always vie for rank and position whereas males only challenge for higher position if they see the current leader is weak, ill or too old and usually then it is a less than hostile take over by the next in line. I see no problems with putting 2 males together. In the future if you wish to add a 3rd dog and already have a male/female combo THAT could cause issues as the resident male could take issue with another male in the house "hoarding in on his gal".


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## sizzledog (Nov 23, 2008)

It depends on the breed. In my breed (Dobermans) owning two males is practically inviting major fights and e-vet bills into your future. In my experience, a male/female pair has been ideal. 

Females can be just as bad though - it's just less common than male/male aggression.

And no, this has nothing to do with training, socialization, or neutering. Many breeds have same sex dog aggression - it's ingrained into the breed, it's unfortunate but it's just the way it is.


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## GypsyJazmine (Nov 27, 2009)

Generally opposite sexed pairings work best if you spay & neuter.


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## Ocsi (Oct 11, 2009)

Yes, I'm so happy that I have a boy and girl at my house. Besides my comments above, its fun to put a little pink on my girl poodle- I've put bows in Ocsi's hair before, but its just not the same. 
LOL

But yes, I think they've only had 2 scuffles over toys, where my parents dogs (both female) have gotten into mulitiple fights and our old sweet poodle (12 years old) has come away with broken teeth!


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## kossde (Sep 6, 2008)

We have four dogs - a male German Shepherd, a female min-pin mix, and two chihuahuas, male and female. The Shepherd is 11 years old, the min-pin is 4 and the chihuhuas are 3 and 2 years old. They get along fine. The gender doesn't seem to be a factor in their personalities or interaction at all. They are all spayed and neutered.

I hope that helps.


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