” Why on earth would you get a third dog? ”
” What possessed you to get a third dog? ”
” Your life’s busy already. Why add to it??? “
These are just a few of the comments we were getting!
As a family that currently owns a 13 year old dog named Jackie, our golden girl, and a just turned 3 year old dog named Miya, we decided to bring another member of the four legged kind into the fold. You may wonder why, when we already had two lovely girls to complicate our lives.
Meesha’s story starts here…
One afternoon my husband and I were watching Miya trying to entice Jackie into play. Our golden age girl was having nothing of it. So Miya gave up and decided to settle in for long afternoon siesta. As I was watching this I wondered if our Miya was turning into a golden age girl without realizing it. Maybe it was time to get a sibling for Miya. Should we get a puppy or an adult dog? The same breed or a different kind? So we decided to give much thought to the right dog and fit for our current family of five. As in every human family the dynamics in a pack, which your dogs think you are part of, can be important. However that said most families/packs are able to bring a new comer into their home quite easily. So take some time in deciding what kind of pet is most appropriate for your family.
When is the best time to get another dog possibly a third dog?
There are many professionals that recommend when a dog is 3 to 5 years old to introduce another dog/puppy. When we decided to get Miya we waited until Jackie was 10 years old. This in the end was too long. Jackie was acceptable of Miya and was happy for the company, but there was a big difference in age for playing, walking and just plain romping around. That story can be found with Jackie our Golden Girl. Miya on the other hand loved being with other dogs. She couldn’t wait to charge into a dog play area and pick up with her pals a game of pull the rope, catch or not give back the ball and hide and seek!
So the decision on what kind, where and when to get the new puppy began!
We gave great thought on whether we really wanted another puppy and live through all of the training (potty being the biggest) or get a dog about the same age of Miya. In the end we decided on a puppy since we wanted Miya to have her own rights as an adult dog and provide our family with a continuous cycle of pet ownership. Not to mention this gave me a good reason to write to you in the present time about bringing up a puppy. Which at the time I thought would be a breeze since Miya was so easy going and followed whatever Jackie did so training wasn’t a very big issue? Well as two humans siblings are not a like nor are two dogs. When you see my blog on Meesha, this puppy is completely different.
We decided on another Labrador Retriever, so we went back to our trusted breeder, Cooperslane. For context, Jackie is a mixed breed of Golden Retriever and Yellow Retriever. I took her home from a farm one day while I was driving in the country. Jackie has had a hard life medically speaking and I will tell Jackie’s story another day. In this new puppy’s case we wanted to know as much about the dog we were getting and were very pleased with Miya’s breeder so we decided to use her again. Miya’s good temperament and nature (when I now look back) was so easy going. (I’ll leave that for Miya’s stories). We contacted Valerie at Coopserlane and our road to getting another dog began. We are all excited about Meesha’s arrival.
Liz
As a life-long dog parent and enthusiast, I can’t get enough of all things doggie! My love of dogs and passion to educate and share solutions with other dog owners, is essentially how this site came to be. With the help of my three dogs I will provide engaging ‘tails’ and real life-lessons learned on dog ownership.
