From: ianhogg@milli.cs.umn.edu (Ian J. Hogg)
Subject: Re: 2 dogs vs 1 dog
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, CSci dept.
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 18:15:36 GMT

In article <1993Jan21.193821.14709@nas.nasa.gov> blake@wk60.nas.nasa.gov (Matthew W. Blake) writes:
>
>My question:  What are the advantages/disadvantages to 2 dogs?  How about
>comments on these:
>
   We've got a female lab Sasha who will be 3 yrs old in May, a 2 year old
male lab and who knows what else mix Bo, and a six month old human male 
Derek. 

>Advantages
>----------
>-Dog companionship during weekdays(or evenings) when humans gone

  This could be an advantage. But for us it isn't because we don't trust Bo to
be left out when we're gone.  Luckily my wife works evenings so he is seldom
left in his cage for very long.

>-Could leave the 2 dogs a bit longer (overnight?) than one dog 

  We don't leave the two dogs any longer that we did one and we've never left
them overnight.  Luckily my in-laws will take them or my sister -in- law will
sleep at our house if we're gone overnight.

>-More dog exercise with less human required time
	It takes me a lot longer to play Frisbee with two dogs since each 
of them is only going after it 1/2 the time.  This gets to be important
when it's 11:00PM and below zero.

>
>Disadvantages
>-------------
>-Double all costs (food, medical, kennel, etc)
>-Double work (more poop, 2 baths, double flea battle)

>-harder to take 2 dogs for a walk,run, rollerblade
  Our two do pretty good being walked together although neither likes being the
one on the outside.

>-Harder to take 2 dogs on trips in car, visit art/wine festivals, etc.
  This is definitely true.  When the whole family goes somewhere we either
take 2 cars or put the dogs in their kennels in that back of the truck.  Then
we're still stuck with 2 adults and a baby set in the front seat of an Isuzu
Pickup.
>
>Questionable
>------------
>-Dogs more in tune with each other than humans, ignore humans?
  We worried about this but it hasn't happenend.  We thought that Bo would
bond to Sasha more than to us.  Bo is the one that is always under your feet.

>-More destruction by playing together and banging into things in house?
  This hasn't been a problem for us.

>-Less destruction since they play instead of dig/chew?
  Sometimes it appears that talk each other into doing something wrong. Kinda 
like Larry Mondelo and the Beaver.

>-Happier regularly, less worried about being left behind?
  Unless your going somewhere that only one dog can go to.  You should have 
seen the look on Bo's face before he started going to flyball practice with
Sasha.  My wife says we would whine, stand by the front, and get excited 
everytime a car drove by until we got home.

>
>
>What do people that have had 1 and 2 dogs think?  Which is more convenient
>for the humans and how much happier are the dogs with a dog companion?
>
I think its alot like having 2 kids.  There are advantages and disadvantages 
but I can't imagine not having both of our dogs.

--
===============================================================================
Ian Hogg						ianhogg@cs.umn.edu
                                                        (612) 424-6332
Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs