Any 3 dog families out there?

I wouldn't do it. We had 2 dogs for several years and 3 kids too. That was no fun. Lots of dog food, vet bills, kennel costs on top of dealing with differing dog personalities (one of mine was a yapper who also peed in the house...other was skittish with sounds and pain, got car sick and dug up my yard). We are down to one dog now (the yapper) and when he's gone that's it as our kids are all in college (2 are 8 hours away) and parents and siblings are all 5 hours away and we like to go to WDW and on cruises alot so it will be nice to just close up the house and go. Now we have to kennel the dog and he's 12 so he doesn't do well in the kennel and comes home clingy and with diarrhea.Oh, and he's now restless at night which wakes me up like having a baby. I would NOT have 3 dogs...nope.
 
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Do you have a fenced yard?

We have gone back and forth on getting a third (or at least fostering), but we have no yard. So I walk dogs... a lot. One of us is out there with them on leash every time they have to potty regardless of the weather. And most of their exercise is from walking so that's usually about 6 miles per day.

The two I have are manageable for me to walk together, but I'm not sure I could wrangle three leashes plus poop bags, etc while leash training a puppy/new dog. So adding the extra dog would double my time spent walking or multiple people in the family would have to commit to walking together.
 
We were in this exact same situation - in fact, I could have written most of this post. :) We had an older lab and got a lab puppy in Jan of 2018. The relationship of the older dog and the puppy were exactly as you described - our puppy was essentially harassing our old dog to play 24/7, and the dog was having none of it. Our older dog wasn't miserable, she was just annoyed most of the time. She tolerated the puppy if the puppy was calmly laying around her, but for the most part she avoided her.

We did exactly what you were considering - 3 weeks ago, we got another lab puppy. So now we have a 10 month old lab puppy and a 10 week old lab puppy, as well as the older dog. For us it's been great - the two puppies love each other and play together all the time (even though one weighs 70 lbs and the other weighs 14 lbs) and the older dog is much happier as well because she's not being constantly bothered. We chose to do it now because we wanted the puppies to be approximately the same age, so they'd have the same energy levels and drive to play.

It does take work, though - DH and I both work full time and we have three kids (an elementary schooler and two middle schoolers). With the kids school schedules and our work schedules we are out of the house for 6 hours each day. We have a dog sitter (a local homeschool high schooler) who comes in twice a day to let them out, play with them, and feed them, and we'll continue that for a couple of months. After that I'll come home for lunch each day to spend time with them and let them out. But with 5 people in the house, we spread out the work a lot so it's not too bad.

Thanks!! Yes, our situation is quite similar, except our kids are a bit older. One in high school (DS14) and twins in middle school (DS11, DD11). Our lives are crazy busy, during sports season for the kids...which is 9 months of the year...I'm often out of the house 18 hours a day. DW works full time too, but works literally one mile from home, so she's home a bit more. Our thought and hope if we did this was as you describe. Give the puppy a playmate let them bond together, and give the older guy some peace and quiet. One of the things that concerns DW most is just having three larger dogs in the house...that's just a lot of dog. No offense to anyone, but all 5 of us can firmly say we're not fans of "toy" or "lap" dogs. It's got to be 40-50+ lbs, we like medium to large dogs.

We have made it a point to give our older dog...he's not an old man yet, he's only 7...peace. When we're playing with the puppy we make sure he doesn't go chase the older one. At night, the puppy is crated and the older dog has free roam of the house as he always has. We also make it a point to give him lots of love and attention. We all love him and that will never change. We make sure he knows that.

We don't have a fenced yard. We live on about one acre in a typical subdivision. Our home backs up to woods that are hundreds of acres. The older dog just goes out on his own without a leash. He doesn't leave the yard, except to go a few feet back into the woods. We're not worried about him. For now, the puppy is leash walk only. If we get a third dog, we'd just get an underground electric fence. We had one in our last home (when our older dog was younger) and it worked great.

Right now, in an odd twist, DW and I have done role reversal. I was strongly against dog #2 but relented for her and the kids. Now I'm the one advocating for dog #3. She's not strongly against it, but isn't necessarily in favor. :D
 


We have 3 dogs. We have a 13 year old 7.5 pound rat terrier, who rules the house. Two years ago we rescued a terrier mix, she turned out to be a major handful, toughest dog I have ever had. At that same time we put a deposit on an aussiedoodle puppy. Took until Feb of this year to get him. So yes, we intentionally got 3 dogs. The older one can be pretty crabby, and she immediately established who is the boss. But the younger two are best buds, getting the puppy has made a HUGE difference in our rescue dog. She is so much better than she used to be. Yes, it's a 3 ring circus, but we love them!
 

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