Multi dog myth busting

Myth busting multi dog myths - from someone who thought this was a totally normal amount of dogs to have 5 years ago 😆

❓ My dog is barking and struggling with behavioural challenges. Should I get them a friend to help?

👎🏻 Get another dog because you want another dog, ideally when your first dog is under good control already. Adding a second dog to help with the firsts behavioural challenges usually just results in two dogs with behavioural challenges.

❓I want to get two puppies so they’re never lonely. Is this a good idea?

👎🏻 Generally it’s best to get one puppy at a time, get the first trained up and well bonded with you before adding the second. Two at once is about triple the work as they still need 1-1 time with you and practice being alone to develop into secure adult dogs and avoid what is known as littermate syndrome - when pups become codependent, and all the issues associated with that.

❓My first dog will put the new puppy in their place - right?

👎🏻 It’s our job to teach the new puppy what is appropriate and not appropriate. While a stable adult dog can be super helpful to support this, leaving them to “sort it out” may result in your first dog feeling more stressed than they should, and potentially over correcting your puppy leading to relationship issues long term - and severe damage in some cases. Advocate for your first dog by taking charge, giving them space to adjust & teaching the puppy what is and isn’t appropriate.

❓They’ll just entertain each other, right?

👎🏻 While in a good match your dogs may play and entertain each other nicely, it’s still on us to provide suitable exercise and training to really fulfil our dogs. Play alone isn’t a substitute for us putting in the work.

Do you have a multi dog challenge? Get in touch to schedule a session - hello@wolfedogs.nz