As some of you may know I've been considering a Dutch shepherd pup in my future. It looks like my situation may permit me to get another pup sooner than I had anticipated (maybe 6-12 months?). My male GSD is 19 months old now - is there a certain age that he should be that is most desirable to add another pup? Should I wait till he's 3 or older? or does it not make any difference? I've read all the articles about introducing a new dog into the home etc, but there's never any mention of the age of the older dog, it just says not to get 2 puppies at the same time.

Mike, a lot of this depends on the dog you already have. is the dog kept inside or outside? how does the dog react to changes in environmental aspects? is the dog "dog aggressive? and what are your intentions with a dutch shepherd? police or sport? lots of intangibles here! i've got a female malinois that is 3 years of age. i introduced a pup to her 8 months ago....they are kennel dogs, not inside. my female is about as sound environmentally as I have seen. the pup is going to be hot....already sold to a department. i have an additional ten month old aside from these two....and he's pretty hot too....already sold as well. are you getting a male or female pup? best of luck, chad.

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is the dog kept inside or outside?

Both my current dog and new dog would be kept inside. My GSD is only allowed in whichever room it is that I am in, he is crated when I leave the house, he is uncrated at night. I would crate the new puppy and try to keep them seperated for at least a few months to establish a bond with my pup and try to stop her from getting too "doggy". Seperate feeding, seperate walks, seperate play time.

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how does the dog react to changes in environmental aspects?

He seems to be pretty good with changes, I haven't seen anything negative from him. I took him camping for the first time the other night to see how he'd do in a tent. Based on how tired he was the next day, I'd say he didn't sleep very well... but neither did I <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> He slept alot, but was always alert and sticking his head out of the tint window to watch what was going on, but he did very well overall. When I have guests staying with me he seems to adapt to the change very well.

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is the dog "dog aggressive?

He is aggressive to some dogs (the only dog ive ever seen any serious aggression toward is my helpers male GSD, I don't know why, but if its even possible, it could be because he's seen that dog bite me during bitework quite a few times before we got him a crate to put him out of the way), but he doesn't pay attention to others and is fine around my friends female great dane and my helpers female american line GSD. So the way I see it, he seems to have a bigger problem with males and no problem with most females. I think that he would be fine with another female puppy in the house, but I would be concerned about getting a male.

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and what are your intentions with a dutch shepherd?

Personal Protection, possibly American Street Ring titles, maybe some tracking, but protection is the primary goal, plus when the dogs are older and the groundwork has been put down, my hope is that the dogs will get along well and be able to run together in the back yard and keep eachother company when I'm not home.

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are you getting a male or female pup? best of luck, chad.

Female is probably my best bet - I don't want to spay her though so I'd need to find a solution to the bleeding problem and keep my dogs seperated when she's in heat (I'm not a big fan of unsupervised dogs anyway so that's not a huge deal anyway). Perhaps build an outdoor kennel for her to live in during heat, which doesn't seem fair if she's ordinarily an inside dog, or maybe it seems worse than it really is and I can just deal with it when it happens. Maybe buy some huggies pull ups for her <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Also what I was wondering... when I have the 2nd puppy, do I crate her where my male GSD can see her, or should I put her somewhere out of the way? I have my boys crate in my bedroom/office where I spend all day, this is his home, this is the part of the house he always comes back to as "his", when I go to bed and hes uncrated, do I crate her here too? Or will she be annoyed that he's walking around and shes sleeping in her crate?

This is one topic where I have lots of experience. I crate my dogs in the same room. All are crated when they first come- at night too. Now, all are loose at night (except the add dog who prefers to get up after 4 hours of sleep). None of my dogs prefers other dogs to me. One word of caution- don't put your bitch in heat outside alone EVER. Many litters are conceived "through the fence". Not only that, but you will have many visitors traipsing through your property. Keep her in the house crated when you are away, and put the underwear on her. But, if you have an intact male, you will have to be very careful- he will go into overdrive trying to get to her, and it may be a very exhausting time for everyone.
Julie

Thanks Julie <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I figure sometime in/after April would be an awesome time for me to get my 2nd pup so I have a little under 4 months to figure out where the heck to find a nice working dutch shepherd. Again, if anyone has any kennel suggestions other than the ones that have already been suggested to me, send me a PM or something. I'd still prefer to not deal with importing a dog and having to go to holland and find somewhere to board my GSD, but if that's what it takes to get a nice dog then thats what I'll have to do.

If you have an adult dog (my last one was only 9 months when I introduced my guy though) that responds to your command well within distraction, I think you could be ready to add that second dog in. And it's nice to have a babysitter on hand. If the pup gets away and grabs something I don't want him to I can ask my female to get it from him for me. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Also well-trained dogs = well-trained pup, usually. Pup watches what older dogs do when you ask them to do something, feels silly if he doesn't do them, and follow you. Not to mention I really feel that if you have an older trained dog that you can ask NOT to play with the pup, you let them mingle, pup will try to initiate play, fail miserably, and then go to you for affection...great way of getting them to play 'under distraction'. My pup right now will focus on me when he's around the older dogs and listen to my commands (still a bit distracted but not entirely so). In contrast I've noticed that with my boyfriend's dog who never gets daily contact with other dogs, when he's around them he is very, very distracted and won't listen to us.

I feel jealous now. Nothing nicer than planning a new puppy...well, before the 'breeder jitters' part. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Over the years we have added new puppies several times. The adult dogs were 4 years, 13 years, and 6 years old when a new pup was introduced following the death of another of our dogs( old age ect.) We have never had a problem, as long as you do not uproot your existing dog for your new pup, remember he was there first. They have always been crated in same room, your pup will not like that at first, when your older dog is out but they adapt and so they should it's part of their training.

We have two pups right now they are going on 6 months, I walk, train and play seperately with both, but for about a month now I have also been walking them together and they have had play time together from day one and I am still their #1 focus if I so much as move they are looking to see what I will do next because they want to be there. They are definetly not doggie but are great company for each other even if they are separetly crated when I'm not home.

Previously we always added a pup of the opposite sex but our new additions are both male.

I'm getting all kinds of excited at the prospect of a new puppy now <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Thanks everyone for the advice - hearing good stories about 2nd dog additions just builds confidence in my ability to deal with 2 dogs. I'm prepared to take out all the time I need to get everything dealt with. I've talked to a breeder I like in holland about an upcoming litter they'll be having right around the time I'd want to get a pup - the only concern I have is some inbreeding in the lines, like a grandfathers name will crop up twice with 1 dog and once in the other dog they are breeding, I'm not sure if this is something I need to worry about or if that's not really an issue.

Mike depending on were in the pedigree this name pops up it just sounds like line breeding, was this dog famous or an excellent stud ect.?