If one dog is good, two must be better. To some dog lovers that seems like it should be true, but the reality is, bringing a second dog into a home can create problems. What to do…

YOUR CURRENT DOG
Two questions to answer about your current dog before adding a second dog—does my dog generally play well with other dogs?…does my dog react well when another dog enters the house?

If the answer to either question is no, think twice about bringing a second dog into your home. If your heart is set on a second dog, you may need to hire a professional trainer.

YOUR SECOND DOG
It’s best to select a second dog that will be no more than 35 pounds heavier or lighter than your current dog when both are fully grown. If the size differential is greater, the larger dog might chase down and harm the smaller dog—even if the dogs generally get along well.

Seeing a small animal dash by can trigger a larger dog’s natural hunting instinct, a phenomenon called “predatory drift.”

Age differences between the dogs is not necessarily a problem, although some older dogs are unhappy about sharing a home with an energetic younger dog that always wants to play.

It also can be a mistake to bring two puppies into the home at the same time.

When dogs grow up together, they often bond very closely with each other, to the exclusion of close relationships with the humans.

BRINGING THE DOGS TOGETHER
The dogs’ first meeting should be outdoors in a fenced-in area that is not your own yard, and you should have help from another person.

If the meeting is on your property, your first dog might aggressively defend its territory against the newcomer.

Exercise both dogs separately prior to this meeting to burn off energy.

Position one dog (it doesn’t matter which one) on its leash at one side of this fenced-in area while the second dog enters from the other side, also on a leash.

Slowly walk the dogs toward each other. If both dogs appear happy, continue walking until you are about six feet apart, then drop both leashes (but don’t take the leashes off—you might need to grab them if a fight develops).

Call off the meeting immediately if either dog becomes aggressive (growling or snarling)…very tense (rigid body, fixed stare)…or very fearful (such as hiding behind your legs).

If the initial meeting fails, take the dogs on a long walk, where they walk the same route at the same time but with their leashes held by different handlers.

The handlers should be in the middle and the dogs on the outside. Repeat the introduction described above immediately after the walk.

If the dogs still don’t get along, you might need to hire a dog trainer.

If the dogs get along, let them interact until their excitement dies down, then take them home. Keep them on leashes inside for a few minutes until you’re sure that the change of venue has not upset either dog.

For the first month, separate the dogs in different rooms or crates when you’re not home.

Also take precautions to avoid fights at feeding time—a common conflict in two-dog homes. Place the dogs’ bowls in separate rooms or on opposite sides of the room while you remain in the middle.

Source: Pat Miller, owner of Peaceable Paws Dog and Puppy Training Center, Fairplay, Maryland.

She has more than 35 years of experience in dog training and a CBCC-KA and CPDT-KA certification from the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers.

Miller is training editor for The Whole Dog Journal and author of several books about dog training, including The Power of Positive Dog Training (Howell Book House). http://www.PeaceablePaws.com

Her 23 year old daughter told her about your wonderful topics. I get up each day wanting to read what is here next. I like your helping all peoples find common cause to let each person find a piece of dignity and a equal share of there country’s dreams.

When I was a mother trying to feed her children in Nashville, I had to do whatever I could to keep them with food and clothes.

White men abused be and my kind any time and any way they wanted. I was a Patrol Mother and we were at the mercy of merciless white men.

Police, lawyers, judges, just any white man who took the time to abuse us could because we needed the jobs and we could not testify against a white man in a court of law.

I feared for my children when they marched for the little dignity and the better piece of the American dream of equal treatment I see today.

I cried when Obama became President. I’m ill now so I don’t expect to see him get reelected. I pray to God every night before I go to bed and as soon as I wake that President Obama makes it out alive.

God knows so many black men before him paid with their lives so he could get the chance to be President. I see the hatred that it happened every day here in the faces, words and actions of whites here in Tennessee.

If I see God when I pass, my only question will be Why?

Why Lord did you have to test us so by putting human animals in charge of us? Mostly I have seen only death, and suffering caused by the whites I have come in contact with during my 83 years in the State of Tennessee.

I have spent most of my life feeling like I live in a cage which if I leave the animals out side will attack or kill me and mine.

Here I can say what I can not anywhere else. Thank you for making me like a Rosa Parks, even if I had to do it behind your place.

Julia

Who are these idiots?

Whites can keep anything secret because that race is full of racist narcissistic sociopathic ignorance. It is easy to get them to keep a secret.

One only has to appeal to one or more of those traits and they and you will be able to easily get the person to carry a secret to his grave.

That does not apply to secrets that have monetary value. Government secrets between nations can be bought.

Ergo most top level secrets held by America were in the hands of the Russians for years. Tens of thousands of spies on all levels were murdered because of the white boys penchant for greed over patriotism.

If you are a woman, don’t marry a man until you see how he treats his waitress.

Robert,rt