Advice on adding another dog to the pack...

[notkk]

We currently have a 4 year old maltese/toy poodle, a 3 year old DSH cat and an 7-9 year old DLH cat. They are all altered females.

The dog has never had any problems with other dogs - male or female. She is the "leader" and a pretty bossy little dog. :p
The younger cat shows little interest in any dogs (and gets along fine with our current dog).
The older cat was the last addition to the family and she doesn't like dogs invading her personal space (aka if they come within 2 feet of her, she will hiss) - but does co-exist with our dog.
Both cats have their claws.

We are planning to adopt a golden retriever (www.ragom.com) sometime in the next 6 months. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether or not we should look at a male, female or if it really doesn't matter? (Obviously, regardless of the sex, it will depend largely on the personality and background of the dog).

Growing up we always had a golden and a poodle and I've done the male/female and female/female combination with them, but we never had cats in the mix.

[justcbk]

i would look for a male, the theory being that you don't want a dominance fight between the two females.

more importantly, however, i'd take your current dog with you when you go to look at the possible goldens -- give your dog time to meet and interact with many of the potential adoptees.

of course, you can't gaurantee that a match will work in the long run based on just a few hours, but it's amazing what you can tell about whether a dog likes or dislikes another dog in just that short period of time.

good luck!

[kam]

I would let your current dog lead you in your decision. We heard time and time again that females should have a male companion. I'm sure this is the norm but not 100% accurate in all situations. Don't force your dog to hang with any certain dog. If she's not interested, she's not interested.

[notkk]

Thanks - this is helpful.

We definitely plan to have our dog meet any new dog before we bring them home - we love that the Golden rescue is based in our city. ;)

[Jazz]

We tried fostering a second female we were thinking of adopting, and I'll throw my vote in for not pairing up two females. The foster was staying at her doggy daycare, and they'd played nicely there. At home however, was totally different -- total chaos.

If we decide to adopt a second (I kind of think our dog is happy as an Only the Lonely), we'll look for a male, since she was such a brat with the female.

[thedoorchick]

How timely - we just adopted our third dog today!

I agree that you should let your current pets meet the new prospect. See how they interact with each other.

I don't think two females is as big of a deal as two males, but that's JMO. Since we already had one of each, we didn't have a choice as to doubling up on one or the other gender.

I've never owned cats, so I can't speak to that relationship.

[Teresita]

I agree with the others. Look for a male that is relatively submissive. And, try to allow the two dogs to interact as much as possible before you decide on the adoption. When we adopted our second dog, we had our other dog (who had been an "only dog" for seven years) hang out with her for a day to make sure there wouldn't be any sort of struggle for dominance.

In our case, since we already had a male alpha dog, we adopted a submissive female dog. Even though the female is a lot bigger and stronger, she never questions the little dog's authority. :)

[sublime311]

I think the relationship dynamics are completely individual, but I'll share my situation with my 2 dogs and 3 cats! 2 of my kitties are brothers - one is super brave and will stand up to the dogs, but the other is afraid of his own shadow, let alone the dogs (though is the "boss" in the sibling relationship!). My first dog is a chow/GS/Pit mix spayed female - when she was 1 yr 8 mos old, we adopted my friend's 1 year old lab/chow mix spayed female dog. They are almost EXACTLY the same size and we've NEVER had any trouble with them. The first dog, Luna, is the "subtle" alpha and Raven, the 2nd dog added, is just fine with that. I guess it's important to have only 1 alpha. If your dog has an alpha personality, then a more submissive dog will work fine regardless of sex. Whereas adding an alpha dog to a house with an established alpha will only cause trouble.

Good Luck!

[ejs]

Our male dog was about 2 1/2 years old when we adopted a female puppy. We followed all the "rules" about making sure our male knew he was the alpha dog of the house. It didn't work. The female definitely rules the roost. We decided to let the two dogs establish the hierarchy on their own, as long as there was no aggressive fighting.

The rescue we got our second dog from had us take her for a week before we made everything official. That gave our two dogs time to get to know each other.

Now they're like brother and sister. She bugs him, he teases her. She thinks she's bigger than she is; he's protective of her. It all works here.

[notkk]

Thanks for all the input - we had been thinking of a female, along the lines that all we have are females, but now I think we'll look for a male first. Definitely a submissive one...our alpha female even bosses other dogs (namely my mom's and my MIL's) around in their own homes. She likes to be in charge. :rolleyes: At least she's not aggressive about it.