[ Post a Response | Rhodesian Ridgebacks And Friends ]
Posted by Christina on 7/10/2008, 11:05 am, in reply to "To get a second... or not to get a second..."
65.160.57.101
Hi Alison -
It seems like just a little over a year ago, I was right here asking the same question! The general consensus, with a few caveats, was... go for it!
So now I have Riley (2.5 years) and Griffin (11 months). Overall, it's been a great move.
Riley sounds just like Lucy (I think it's a Ridgeback girl thing.) Extremely intelligent, quite the "queen bee", bossy, attention-craving yet also fairly independent. She was not overly jealous of other dogs, but I worried about her having to share attention with another live-in dog.
Enter Griff, who has quite the opposite personality. Where Riley is all go all the time (think canine ADD), Griff, even from a puppy, was pretty calm, easygoing, easily redirected, sensitive and eager to please. And cuddly! Riley was affectionate on her own terms, but Griff's the guy who will stop whatever he's doing to come over and lay his head across your lap and go to sleep when you sit down on the couch. He's also content to lay down at your feet and chew on a toy for an hour or more. (Riley could never, ever do that!)
Interestingly, I've seen some changes in Riley since the new kid came around. She is suddenly much more affectionate, willing to stand and be petted for a long time, and even likes to snuggle up with the humans!
Initially, she was not thrilled with the new puppy. She was sort of indifferent, borderline irritated. Like, "what am I supposed to do with THIS? It's competing with me for attention, but it's too small to even play with!" A lot like a young child adjusting to a new baby sibling, I suspect. She would relentlessly put him in his place. But once he got to be about five or six months old (and BIG), she started to really accept him, and he started to learn to respect her boundaries, and now they are great companions. He's sort of a sweet, clueless oaf compared to her, and every once in a while she gets irritated (he ALWAYS tries to plow right in when a human is petting her) but for the most part she loves having a playmate. And I love having someone who can get her running and play tug incessantly. Gives me a lot more spare time in the morning!
I think the key has been making sure they each have some alone time with me (like separate walks, switching out who gets to come with me to the pet food store, etc.) and being careful to give them both their alone/crate time in the first few months. Also need to have a lot of gentle rules/reminders, like down-stays so that they remember who is the REAL top dog. Whenever Riley gets too possessive of anything, I remind her that I, the couch, the bed, the toys, etc are all MINE, not hers to guard from Griffin, and if she does I take away whatever it is.
Overall, if you're willing to devote the time, two is better than one, in my opinion/experience. I think an important key is to talk to your breeder about Lucy's personality, and have them help choose a pup for you that will be likely to have a complementary personality. With Riley, I definitely didn't want the most bossy/assertive pup of the litter (Riley was that in HER litter!) I also think a male tends to be a better choice to complement a female, if you're open to that. (Not to say that is ALWAYS the case, but I think there is a better chance of that working out than two b#$*%s.
Good luck!
Christina
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