[Dailydrool] Gender Issues

[Elsamarie5 at cs.com]

Hi Kimberly,
Enjoyed your post. I was always a single dog person until a few years ago, 
now I can't imagine living with just 1 dog. In my experience I have to agree 
with your hubby. A male and female seem to bond better, one takes the lead 
(freq. it's the female) and the other submits enough to keep peace. It also 
seems to make a difference which dog is new and whether it is a puppy or 
not. My min. doxie was 6yo when I brought in the male basset as a 3 mt old 
puppy and she set him straight right from the get go. She grabbed his ears and 
bit him, treated him awful, but I stayed out of it and she eventually came 
around. He has let her be the boss every since, even now that he is 65lbs. and 
towers over her, guess he thinks he's still that little puppy. LOL
I've had multiple females but it can be tricky, one has to submit to the 
other and if you get 2 dominant bitches, you will have problems. I did have 3 
females at one time and it was ok until the 3rd one turned out to be 
dominant and at about 2 years old, she started challenging the older but smaller 
diva. I finally had to get rid of the 3rd dog as she would not give up trying 
to challenge the others, I couldn't trust her when I was gone.
I'm like you though, I marvel at how so many people have multiple dogs that 
seem to get along fine, but I notice they will occasionally mention 
growling, bared teeth or the need to separate them at mealtime, etc., maybe their 
definition of fine is different from mine, or maybe they have a secret they 
don't share with us novices. It may be too that with larger groups of dogs, 
they tend to partner with others and make a sort of sub-pack agreement among 
themselves, who really knows???
Either way, if you have just 2 dogs, it might work out, one may bond more 
with you and the other with your hubby.
Please keep us posted so we can all learn along with you. It will be 
interesting to hear what others have to say about their experiences.
Tail wags and thumbs up from Judy, Archie (hen-pecked Basset) and Elsa 
(Doxie Diva) in Fresno

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