It’s not just the Dogs that are depressed although Daisy, the Girl in the photo top right is certainly very fed up. Her puppy Jet (although now 1.5 years old) is definitely a Dog with depression. She is feeling a little (to say the least) like the Dog at the bottom of the pack. Me and Mrs. Three Dog Blogger are also feeling the strain a little. And why?
We are a 5 Dog household until January 7th.
I really do not know how people cope with permanently having this number of Dogs. It seems insane. The floor is a mess, there was pee on the floor yesterday morning, Jet was sick this morning, probably stress related, and I keep getting up early, which surely can’t be good for the health of a man who is definitely NOT an early riser.
Faye (left) none too impresed
As you can see Faye is trying to blank it out by closing her eyes and chanting the mantra:
They are not really here, they are not really here.
Daisy feels it is imperative to guard the best blankies and Jet felt it was her duty to guard the wood burning stove just in case someone lit it and and the possibility arose that she could lose her spot.
Caden and Grace are lovely Dogs and Caden is actually one of Daisies other pups. A few days in to Dog sitting now and things are beginning to calm down although Grace was just sick and there have been any number of snarls and general Dog depression as the pack order is re-established.
Of course the reason we are looking after five Dogs instead of 3 is our own fault. Wind back to the summer of 2008 when Daisy was on heat. As I have mentioned before at the time we were so bewildered with what was best for a female, to spay or not to spay, to spay before the first season or not, etc etc. We ended up deciding to let here have a season and then get her spayed. A very bad move as it turned out as one night she bolted, pushed the door open and a few months later the result was five puppies. Luckily we re-homed all of them but Jet and hence the Three Dog Blog rather than the two Dog blog.
This is also why I ended up writing the rather popular Female Dog Spaying post, which, with over 100 comments is certainly one of the most popular articles on this site. Now i would recommend that you always get your Dog spayed as soon as you can, some will disagree, but from a personal perspective I feel bad that we allowed more Dogs in to the world when there are already countless shelters overflowing with Dogs that need homes. Not to mention that it has led to Daisy becoming incontinent on occasion, although apple cider vinegar in her food seems to stop this amazingly well.
Should You Get Your Dog Spayed Or Neutered?
Do it. Do it this week if he/she is old enough. If you do not want more puppies then there is no reason to not do it. Personally I believe that the pros far outweigh the cons. Just because you have a male does not mean that you will not be responsible for bringing puppies in to the world if he smells a bitch on heat and scarpers, only to return a few hours (or days) later with a satisfied look on his face. For females, with the best will in the world (like we had), it takes one mistake on your part and she could be gone and return soon you could be stuck with anything up to 12 puppies. How would you re-home them all?
I simply think that to be safe you should get your Dogs spayed or neutered so this is a non issue.
This is a kind of a rambling post that has brought up a few issues since we are looking after 5 Dogs so here is what else I wanted to address:
How Many Dogs Should You Have?
I have stated this before, and that is:
Owning three dogs is a lot more work than owning one more than two!
The difference is a lot more hard work and a lot more of your time. It is not like just having one more Dog. There are a lot more obedience issues, more general problems, a lot more frontline plus for Dogs to buy. More vet bills, more food, and problems withthe pack mentality taking over when they can all goad each other in to inappropriate action. The fact is that 3 Dogs is a lot of work.
So, how many should you own?
Why, 3 of course!!!!!!
Really, it is down to how many Dogs you feel you can reasonably look after. For us 3 is fine but it is a lot of work. Sometimes I look back to the days when we just had our first Dog Sam with some nostalgia. It is much easier to discipline and train when you only look after 1 Dog. Two is a handful but is still relatively easy and while 3 is a lot more work I do enjoy having the girls and would not change it for anything.
Before you get Dogs, or more Dogs I would really recommend that you do one of the following. Foster a Dog, this will show you what it is like to have an additional member of the household and you will also be doing a very good deed. Borrow a Dog or two. If you are thinking of increasing the numbers then at least try something like we are temporarily experiencing at the moment. Dog sit a friends Dogs for a few days and see how it works out. You will be able to see how much more work is involved and whether your home, and your temperament is suited to additional animals to look after.
I KNOW that I would never want to permanently have five Dogs. It is too much, our house is not big enough, walks are a nightmare and there are simply too many Doggie smells for my olfactory senses to cope with.
Just a bit of food for thought as we enter the new year.
Have a good 2010 everyone and here is to a very happy future to us all, and a bit of peace come the 7th January for the Three Dog Blogger.
Happy new year!
I can’t imagine having five! We have our hands full with 1 dog and 1 goldfish. 🙂
Mary
Happy New Year Mary.
Oh, to only have 1 Dog and a goldfish, it would feel like a holiday!
I want a second dog but the boyfriend doesn’t (yet). As soon as we have a larger yard and house, I will be getting a second dog regardless of what the boyfriend says.
Still, whenever we have an extra dog or two around for pet sitting or fostering, I am always relieved when the dog leaves. Multiple dogs create more work – more exercising, more supervising, more stress.
Lindsay, tell me about it. Can’t wait for the 7th. Five is just way too much work for me and we are actaully both beginning to get stressed out, which is never a good state of mind to be in.
We have two rotties, and few times we had 4 for a day or two.
I think two dogs is rather a breeze, if they get along, and ours do. We have an older female and a young male.
They got along quite well when we were babysitting our friends two boxers (also a male and a female). They were all quite happy with the arrangement, but they were also buddies and knew each other for some time.
Our ‘top dog’, Jasmine is quite easy going, and was just making sure she’s getting enough respect from everybody. The two visiting dogs were quite excited to stay over with their cousins and seemed to have been loving it.
Our daughter has two chihuahuas, and used to work with me at our home. Everybody was quite happy with that too, again, as long as Jasmine got her respect (she always makes sure of that).
So I guess we got off lucky 🙂
I’d say it also depends on personalities of the individual dogs. In our house it seems that Jasmine is always clearly the top dog, and the rest are just happy to be there.
Mind you, four still isn’t five 🙂
Jana
Jana,
Sounds like you had a more peaceful time than we did. The main problem I think was that the male wanted to assert his dominance which did not go down at all well.
I can see how that would do it. I guess all our guys had this worked out during their common walks, so it didn’t become an issue in the house either.
Our vet spayed our JRT at 4 months old. Sam, our blue heeler was adopted at 4yrs and we took him straight to the vet to be neutered. Our Eskimo Spitz was spayed before she had her first heat, around 5 months. Toby, a year old JRT was neutered the day before he was rescued, preventing euthanasia at the pound. The only one I have not had fixed seems to have been spayed after having puppies and was left abandoned on the streets. We had to trap her because she was so fearful.
Yes, we have five dogs! Two was easy, we knew then we would always have two. Three was tougher, lot’s of stairs to the back door, a dominant female, mostly because she was not socialized in the first 8 weeks, a critical time for puppies. Number four is the most affectionate dog I’ve ever owned, and number five (stray) has been the hardest work I’ve ever had to do because of her fear issues. That said, she has NEVER messed in the house. And she has waited 10 hours in the house for me to come home. We think it may be unnatural for her to pee in a house because she lived on the streets so long. Five is a lot of work, lot’s of watching, and lot’s of learning. The more I know about dogs, the easier it gets to care for them.
800 dogs die every hour US shelters. In order to prevent these senseless deaths, it’s crucial that we spay and neuter our pets!
we just had our dog spayed . but my sons dog got pregnet at 6 mons old and 3 diffrent vets told us it could kill her to have puppys so earley. so we had her spayed and they took 5 puppys . but how is this gonna efect her not haveing the puppys . how will afect her mood . and he had a nother one spayed and durning her recovery shes recoverley shes been grouling at the other dogs . why is she acting that way? i thought spaying dogs will make dogs clam.