For a long, long time(12 years) I have had only one dog. And never wanted a second, because of my job. I used to work in a lunchroom so odd hours. I was very fortunate to have my mother to dogsit for me. Shane kept me busy as he was a hgh energy dog.
It wasn't untill a friend of mine got her puppy, that puppycravings came around. Seeing her do all this fun stuff and new stuff with her dog, made me want to do this aswell.
But my Shane was getting old and blind, so there was a lot he simply couldn't do anymore.
Then we got Cooper and I felt that things fell in place. Two dogs made my family complete.
Well, we had let Shane go(at almost 17 years) and he left a huge empty space. In the house and in my heart. And there were the puppycravings again.
Cooper just wasn't interested in the things I was interested in... frisbee, obedience, only in for tricks when HE wanted to. So here came Jinx. And again, my family feels complete.
I guess, I wouldn't have gotten Jinx, if Cooper had been more of a workaholic.
What I feel is difficult about having MY two dogs is, that I can't take Cooper with me when I go to work(dogwalking), because of his dogagression. So I have to go and walk him when I come home after walking dogs for 3 or 4 hours.
This would, ofcourse, be different if I had two social dogs
And taking one dog along on a trip or while visiting friends is easier then two dogs.
Something that is difficult over here, is planning a vacation. A lot of holidayhomes allow only one dog. To me, that is so strange!! I know a lot of people who have two dogs!
Anyway, we always go on holiday WITH our dogs, so it takes a lot of searching for a good place.
But I love having two dogs. They are so different from eachother.
But I wouldn't go further than 2... I simply don't have the space, time, or money to have three...Not the way I have dogs.
I stopped taking Cooper to the dogschool, because he really doesn't enjoy obedience. He loved agility, but he can't do that anymore because of his backproblems.
But almost 2 years ago I went to the dogschool 3 times a week... twice with Cooper(obedience and agility) and once with puppy Jinx(obedience)
Now I take Jinx twice a week, for agility and obedience. I would love to take frisbee lessons and do dogdance and go herding... But I don't have the money to do it all at once
In spring, when the weather is better, I will start frisbee, though. A friend of mine started teaching it and has invited me to join her very first class!! No costs, because I tipped her on a frisbee teaching job(wich she got) and she asked me to groom her two Bearded collies for her.
So that's a good deal!
Another thing, i just thought of, about having two dogs is... If you already have a grown up, well behaved dog, he/she will help in raising/training the other. I find I can't beat Cooper correcting Jinx. He only needs one glance and she knows she has to stop
That is the advantage, but on the other hand, they can take over each others bad habits as well