I have personally had 7 dogs in my career and brought in a 2nd puppy w/o incident. Maybe your training and dog experiences are with breeds that ten to be aggressive?

Good morning. I have read at least 20 articles that you have written and I finally got fed up when I read the ones on introducing a new dog.... Although what you say "can happen" I think you fail to realize that 80% of all dog owners do not have the time, knowledge or inclination to follow your very restrictive training rules. I have personally had 7 dogs in my career and I have always brought a second puppy into the home without any incident. I am also a member of a lot of dog owners groups and I don't recall this being a primary problem with any of them either. Just a suggestion but maybe your training and dog experiences are with breeds that tend to be aggressive to begin with? Even your email examples seem to involve shepherds, rotties, pit bulls and mixes of the same. I have always been very protective of my dogs around these breeds because I have found many of them to be really dog aggressive. Maybe you should temper your "scary" articles with some breed or temperament discussions because I think this has more to do with bad new dog introductions than it does with techniques of the owners. If people followed your training advice regarding introducing new dogs, they would never get a second dog!! This is not meant to be a flaming email it is just a suggestion about reality. Very few of us are going to: keep other family members from petting and loving on "our dog" or keep new dogs totally separate and in crates for weeks at a time. This is just not realistic. When I bring a new pup into my home I get it used to and happy in its crate so I can give the other dog a break, I make sure I give first attention to the older dog whenever possible, I do not feed at the same time or place, I do not allow them to share or have bones in the same space, I use rewards to immediately begin teaching my pup sit, stay, wait, down etc. I give them both lots of exercise separately and together (once the pup is vaccinated and old enough), and I am constantly "managing" the situation. Even other people I know who are not as anal as I am about training don't have dog fights when bringing in a second dog... All your articles have done is reduce your credibility with me. Even though you have trained for 45 years, I (and many others) have successfully owned and trained 2 dogs at a time for over 30 years without incident. I currently own a 3 year old Labradoodle who has her CGC and TDI certification. I plan on bringing a new goldendoodle pup into our home in 1 month and I have no doubt that it will be fine. Granted, these are typically mellow breeds and for the most part they are easy to train. I have owned golden retrievers in the past, I have even always had 2 females at a time and I have never had a dog incident or fight between them. Is this chance or is it breed and temperament selection?? Your articles of warning can be used but maybe you should tone them down a bit for those of us who don't own aggressive dog types to begin with. There are many ways to "skin a cat." I guess I believe that sound foundation training, lots of love and respect between me and my canine friends, and regular consistent exercise helps to make them great for my family and content with each other. Just some thoughts...

Julie