The Daily Dog: Why you need more than one.
I know lots of people have only one dog, and that’s cool, but I never could. Ninety percent of the funny things my dogs do involve each other, and I truly can’t fathom how bored they’d be if they didn’t get to play with each other every day. They relate to each other, in ways they can never possibly relate to humans, and I think they need that in order to be “real” dogs.
Can you imagine living your whole life only seeing humans once a week or so when your animal caretakers took you to the Human Park for an hour or two? Maybe every day they put a leash on you and walk you around the neighborhood where you can see other humans behind fences, and you call to each other frantically but you get a yank on your chain for that so you learn not to. You learn to force yourself to ignore those other humans and just be grateful your owners have let you out of the big wooden house-cage at all. All the rest of the time, you have no one to talk to who fully understands your language.
What? Shut up! I’m not anthropomorphizing, I’m just saying. They need each other to be truly satisfied with life; I am quite sure of it.
P.S. I’m not saying it’s mean or cruel to have a single dog, because it isn’t. I just like having at least two because I think they’re happier that way, which doesn’t mean they can’t be happy without each other. It’s all on a scale, is what I’m saying.
You are right, wish I could handle another right now, but that would just not work. I love going to the park, though, and watching the little maniacs wrestle and roll.
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:19 pmHear Hear! I’ve always had two dogs for those same reasons. Besides, if I get to busy to play with them several hours a day, they can play with each other and I don’t feel so guilty!
I thought of the first picture, “My what big teeth you have Maggie!” lol, she looks so vicious, I’m sure Sunny is just laughing her (fat) ass off!
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:20 pm…if only they had thumbs…
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:22 pmHer fat ass is coming off, all right. It looks like she’s lost at least five pounds already. We’re going to miss all that blubber.
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:28 pmMy ex and I had a pair o’ pugs and I think they were happier for having company while we were away at work. I think you’re absolutely right.
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:29 pmI have 2 cats and I cannot imagine how they’d function without one another. They are best friends and follow each other around the house. I love animals. Glad that you blog so much about your “babies.” Might inspire more good people to adopt them. There are too many unwanted animals out there. Maybe if the government didn’t tax us so much, more folks could afford them. (had to get my “liberal’s suck” jab in)
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:31 pmGirl, that is one big buttload of canine dentition there!
My husband and I have five dogs. It’s an insane asylum around here most of the time, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 pmI’ve “only” got one dog, but she definitely gets a lot of other-dog time in. We live downtown, where the houses are very close together and fences don’t exist. On our block there’s probably five different dogs and they all of course know each other. It’s not uncommon at all for them to spend hours playing together outside. You can definitely see how happy the puppy is after that.
My dog is also fortunate enough to go to work with me, where she has no shortage of fun and excitement. And bunny rabbits in the backyard.
I know a lot of people have no choice, but I can’t imagine leaving my dog at home all day. Neither could she - she’s been everywhere with me since I got her at 15 weeks! (she’s a bit over 3 now.)
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:42 pmI used to have three Labradors. They’ve all passed on now, but my motto is the best thing you can do for a Labrador is get it another Labrador.
I had a black female, yellow male and chocolate female.
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:54 pmMy parents used to have two Pomeranians. One died back in 2005 and after that the other one was really depressed. She had been his eyes and ears for so long (he died at the ripe old age of 14 both deaf and mostly blind) that she really missed him tagging along wherever she went.
She’s doing well now, but I think she still misses him.
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:09 pmThat first picture looks like they are singing a duet….or about to rip each others throats out
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:14 pmYou are so right on with this. I have 4 dogs (2 Bassett Hounds, an English Bulldog, a Yorkshire Terrier), a 20 pound cat, a Quaker Parrot and a Parakeet.
My wife and I are their people. They are not our animals. The cat and the Yorkie sleep with us. The hounds have a bedroom and the English bulldog (my only female animal) and the birds have their own room.
We had two huge Iguanas. One died of old age and the other got out and ran away about a month after the first one died.
I love being owned by my animals. They are the greatest joy in my life now that my kids have grown and moved out.
There is no way I could be a one animal person. We all need a companion of our own kind.
I still have one spare bedroom. I’m thinking about adopting a couple more rescue dogs and making that their bedroom.
The animals that own me are all rescue animals. I don’t support pet stores, breeders, puppy mills or the like by buying animals.
I take in the ones nobody else wants. I find these animals love you more than store bought animals do and why not give an animal that would otherwise be euthanized for no reason a good, life long home?
Joe
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:34 pmI have two sons, ages 2 and 4, and I totally agree. Often times I leave them alone for many hours at a time when I go to the bar down the street, and I think they definitely appreciate each others’ company.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:14 pmYepper. Shortly after my wife and I moved into our first house she acquired “our” first dog. HunnyBunny really didn’t want a second dog but I told her dogs are like people, they need their own kind with which to be friends so I acquired “our” second dog and of course Dog One immediately became a happier doggie.
I put “our” in quotes because even Dog Two — My Dog — belonged to HunnyBunny since she fed them. We now have three hammerheads — Dogs Three, Four and Five — and their allegiance is to She Who Must Be Obeyed since it is SWMBO who controls the Great White Food Altar from which Tasty Beef and Tasty Chicken and Tasty Other-Foods-That-People-Eat occasionally fall.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:23 pmWe have three big fluffy doggies and two sad ignored cats. Hubby is ready to get a 4th and I admit to not hating the idea. LOL The five of us (not including the cats) are a pack. When I move into a room the doggies follow. We are their pack leaders.
The cats are another matter and will soon be getting a new home with their grandma. Trooper seems to think that they are a bit too tasty for their own safety.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:25 pmRakil’s argument is right on.
Also her analogy with (to? of? about? apropos?) humans.
That’s why I–Lance de Boyle—have two wives.
It’s so heart-warming to see them (the aforementioned wives) interacting as only humans of the female persuasion can…interact, that is.
All that caring.
The nonstop sharing.
The casual banter.
The ribald badinage.
The inside jokes.
“He’s such a tool, Goneril.”
“Yeah, Regan, tool is right.”
The plots and schemes…
“Let’s stab him in his sleep, Goneril.”
“Or when he’s at prayer, Regan.”
“To take him in the purging of his soul, Goneril,
When he is fit and season’d for his passage?
No!”
“Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent. When he is drunk asleep, Regan, or in his rage,
Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed;
At gaming, swearing, or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in’t.”
“Okay, Goneril, Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, And that his soul may be as damn’d and black As hell, whereto it goes.
[Hamlet III, 3]
Two wives. Not the unmixed revelry it’s cracked up to be.
But, then, as Epictetus pointed out, in that Hickory, NC, nasally twang voice of his, what is?
http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:27 pmI just noticed in the second picture that Maggie looks like something out of The Howling.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:31 pmHeh… Rachel, did I miss something, or does Miss Maggie now belong to you? I thought she belonged to your parents.
I agree that the more animals the merrier (well, usually). I have three cats, all of whom love people, but they don’t like each other.
This afternoon, I stopped in at the local animal shelter. Very sad. It’s not even the height of kitten season yet, and they’re close to being overloaded.
There were two long-haired tortoiseshell teenage mama cats with babies, one of them with newborn babies. There was a third tortie who was short-haired and still a kitten herself. (I’m partial to torties.) For some reason, there are more torties where I live now than in other places, although it’s normally considered a rare coat pattern.
One other cage had 10 kittens in it from two litters… one employee tried to get away with putting only one small plate of soft food in that cage, and all 10 kittens tried to pounce on it. I got another employee to put more plates of soft food down for the little buggers.
There was an adult cat who looked like a Singapura. Another one looked like a lilac point Ragdoll or Birman. There was another cat who was a long-haired, bright-red-and-white female (unusual). And a bunch of others who weren’t as striking-looking, but just as deserving.
And that doesn’t even begin to cover the number of dogs there. They had purebred German shepherds, Chihuahuas, a dachshund, pit bulls and mixes, etc., plus a bunch of mutt dogs.
I wish I could have adopted a bunch of them in order to save their lives, but I have three cats (one over the official limit of my landlady). It was pretty sad.
Apparently, one fall-out from all the foreclosed mortgages is the abandonment of even more animals. This kitten/puppy season is, I’m afraid, going to be even more heart-breaking than the usual, and the area where I live (high desert above Los Angeles, CA) is a place where lots of people abandon animals in the desert anyway.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 pmWell, I have two dogs - a boxer and a lab - until tomorrow. The boxer is going away. I’ve been in hell today because of the decision I had to make, but my boxer attacked my lab. Viciously and out of the blue. She hurt him badly. He now has stitches in his eye, and is very lucky he still has both his eyeballs. This is probably one of the saddest days ever. Luckily, my lab still has three cats to terrorize, and they get along great!
The whole sordid story is here. Makes me want to cry. I love both my dogs, but I have no idea why the boxer all of a sudden went crazy. I did contact several boxer rescues. Hopefully one of them will take her.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:35 pmI don’t have dogs, but I have a trio of cats. When we got the first cat, I was between jobs and was home with him for nearly a month. He was the sweetest, most energetic, happy little kitten. I went back to work, and you can guess what happened. He suddenly turned into an angry, lethargic, depressed kitty. He was…emo. So I got him a sister and he snapped out of it. I completely understand. Every creature needs others who understand them.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 pmThat is a good angle for Sunny, she looks thin (well, normal size anyway)!
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:15 pmNicki,
I can sympathise.
I have a lab/chow mix (older female) and a bassett/any guess (younger female)
They had been playing nicely for YEARS…
I came home from work one day and the lab had the smaller dog by the throat dragging her all over the back yard. There was blood all over the little ones neck and all over the labs mouth. The smaller dog was yelping bloody murder, and it nearly was.
Luckily, I was home in time, and broke it up.
My backyard is large enough that I divided it down the middle with a fence. Each girl has her own yard, and I spend time with both, and they both play with the house dog, a shi tzu.
I spoke with the animal control officer at the shelter about the problem. She said that there could have been a dog fight in the neighborhood, or a dog yelping (like a fight, or injury) and instinct kicked into the larger dog. She IS part chow.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:33 pmThe lab is 10 years old and is my son’s dog, so I putting her down was a last resort. The fence idea was the best option I could come up with, because she won’t be with us many more years.
You just do the best you can do.
We had six dogs when I was growing up. three German Shepherds and three Belgian Tervurens (1 male, 2 femles of each)
Course, we also had three acres for them to run like hell all over but you are right about the fact that dogs are much happier when they have other dogs around.
The only problem that we had was our male Shepherd and the male Tervuren were both serious Alpha males so we always had to have one inside while the other was out.
Plus, we never had a problem with Jehovah’s witnesses or anyone trying to break in.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:58 pmThose two look so incredibly happy! A Dog’s life for real!
==
We got Amber in February 1994 after we moved to a townhouse where we could have higher critters (you know, not cats). Both of us worked, and after the first 8 months (where one of us came home at lunchtime to walk her) she was able to handle the day.
But she was lonely, and started getting a little destructive (though she never approached the cat’s level of damage). So we visited shelters until we found Bonnie in early 1995.
Bonnie was alpha; Amber was not. Bonnie took over the house and Amber spent almost 12 years as the underdog. But she wasn’t alone and I honestly believe she was happier. At least when Bonnie wasn’t nipping at her.
We lost Bonnie last June. Amber has been an only dog since then, and now relishes it, though it took her a couple of months to stop looking for Bonbon (and looking over her shoulder ;)… but now she does as well as a 14.4 year old Golden Retriever can do, a bit cranky and set in her ways, and I come home every day at lunch, just like when she was a puppy.
Sometime in the near future we will be without Dog, and the house will be empty and the Pack diminished, but for now one dog is pretty much OK. In a year or two after that we’ll start over with another pair and the Pack will go on.
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:42 pmNicki,
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:25 amI’m sorry to hear about your dog fight. At the risk of sounding like a terrible human being I’m going to give you my advice. IF you are going to take the dog to the pound please consider euthanizing her instead. Giving her history she is probably NOT going to be adopted and will be put down at the pound. You obviously have some positive feelings for the dog. It would be a more loving decision for you to take the dog to your vet and be there with you than for her to spend several days at the pound and then be put down alone.
Our friends took their dog to the pound for something kind of similar. They didn’t want to put her down because they thought because they thought she stood a chance of getting a new home. As soon as they left the staff put the dog to sleep. They knew she was unadoptable and didn’t want to waste the kennel space for an adoptable dog. Our friends wished they could have been there for the dog.
I hope a Boxer Rescue calls you or you can works something else out. If you want to give it another try I highly recommend shock collars. That is what we are using to control our dominance issues (with the dogs not with me!).
I hope this comes out as a positive resolution for all of you.
I wondered when this would begin.
Heed the advice.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:12 amI agree to a point; I think it depends on the dogs involved.
My miniature dachshund didn’t want anything to do with Bree when we brought her home and never did play with her… Snubbed the pup until the day she died.
When I get another dog Bree will have to come along to pick him/her out, because I’m not going through that again!
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:58 amWe have one very ornery and sweet kitty cat. We have thought many times about getting another cat, but any time there has been another cat in our house or around he is NOT a happy camper. He just doesn’t play well with others.
He is the center of attention at home (he eats Science Diet, drinks filtered water, and has his own room). I think he likes it that way and would be a very offended if we were to bring another cat home.
However, we have said that when it comes times to get another cat (God willing it be about 15 years down the road) we were going to get a pair of them so they would have someone to play with and get into trouble with.
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:05 amI know what you mean - we’d love to get a second dog to keep Lucy company, but I don’t think it is vaible in the condo. On the updside, most days she hangs out at our dogwalker/dogsitter’s place for a big chunk of the day, and there she’s got her best four-legged friend.
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:29 amThree dogs. Two Golden Retrievers — a 12 year old and an approximately 3 year old — and my big goofy Golden/Yellow Lab mix who is approximately 2 years old. The dogs need each other for company. My oldest,Samantha, lost her best friend Nala (the best dog I have ever had and I have had some outstanding dogs)last October. I think she is kind of depressed, she sort of stays to herself and avoids getting too close to the other two but that is probably because they are always tumbling all over each other.
I have had at least two dogs in my home since 1997 and cannot imagine ever having only one dog. They need each other as much as I need them.
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:54 amThe top photo reminds me of the dog in The Mask.
Off topic: The saddest bee mug I ordered from zazzle arrived yesterday … sipping my morning tea from it as I type. Happy, happy, joy, joy. ; )
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:21 amRachel needs to host a page where all her readers can post pics of their own dogs!
We have 4. Inside we have Lucy (Rat Terrier), outside we have Red (Choc Lab), Zoe (Collie Mix), and Callie (Shepherd/Heeler Mix).
We love to sit on the porch and watch them play together and especially enjoy watching them play their “dog pack” games, like seeing who gets to lie down closest to us, etc.
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:07 pmOnce upon a time, we had two dog-aggressive dogs and had to spend our days pet juggling to keep them from killing each other. Those were frustrating, sometimes sad, and often scary days.
Thankfully, those have both passed, and now we have a harmonious pack comprised of three Border Collies and two cats — all of whom love to join us on hikes around the farm.
Yup, the kitties, a.k.a. ‘fourth dog’ and ‘fifth dog’, like going ‘walkies’ with their pack, too!
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:22 pmFunniest. Frickin’. Post. And it got no love….
I have many Danes (the canine variety) in my house. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:24 pmRachel M - thank you for the kind words and the advice. No boxer rescue ever got back to me. None of them. Their sites made them sound so caring… like, “We love animals, we want to help, blah blah blah.” None of them ever got back to me. The shelters around here make the decision as to whether or not to euthanize the animal. They’re given the correct history. She has NEVER attacked or been aggressive with a human being - not as long as we’ve had her. So I really think she’s very adoptable as long as the family has no other animals. She’s healthy, beautiful and sweet to kids and humans. But ultimately, it’s their choice. I feel horrible about it. And I think the labby misses her just a little - between whimpers of pain.
I just love this dog so much! We’ve had him since he could fit in my palm. I couldn’t stand having her attack him.
It’s done now. Time for a cry.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:17 pmJanna, thanks for sympathizing. This is such a horrid thing for me, because I love my dogs so much. The kids were in tears too. But I just kept thinking… what if she attacked Gilbert and it was my little boy in the room instead of me, and he tried to throw her off and couldn’t? Would she have mauled Gilbert to death? Probably so. God, this is just awful.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:19 pmNicki,
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:31 pmI’m so sorry. I’ve been thinking of you all day. This hardened soul (as my in-laws call me) has shed some tears for your situation.
I hope you find peace soon!