2 Females in Home

[ernstlaurie]

I was wondering what the feeling of two FEMALE bouvs in the home was....I have always heard that you do not want two females in the same home if they are not related because you are at risk of them fighting.
I have an almost 11 year old female and I am looking to get a second bouvier. I have been in touch with a reputable individual who will allow me to adopt her 3 year old female. What are your thoughts? Is there anyone who owns 2 females that are not related? We are not going the puppy route as I have two small children, thus an older dog. Thanks for thoughts and insight.

[Sarah Alling]

Hi. I have always had multiple female dogs in my home of vaying breeds, and have not had any problems with it. However, you need to be aware of each dog's personality and what they will tolerate. I would intoduce the two dogs on neutral ground, and, at the beginning,and until I saw how the dynamics were going to work, I would not leave them alone together unattended.
I've had two female Bouviers at the same time (one was 11 yrs when the impish pup arrived), and I have two retrievers (one 14 yrs, one 5 1/2 yrs) that will be joined by another impish Bouvier pup in a few weeks.
If you bring in another dog, make sure the older dog does not get pushed around by the new youngster, if the older dog is not a pushy personality.

[Mike]

As Sarah said, personalities do play a large part. If there is a clear pecking order, it's no problem. But when you have one that is the true boss, one that wants to be boss and a couple that want to be 2nd in command (for a boss dog that doesn't need a 2nd in command), it can get real interesting.

We've had 5 or 6 females at one time and it was the humans that didn't take the correct corrective actions when anything came up. Most of the time, the dogs will work it out amoung themselves and it's more noise than anything. Our Caprice and Echo had a game for some years (that we didn't think was funny) where Echo would give Caprice the evil eye and Caprice would some times give back and sometimes just ignore her. Sometimes Echo would jump at her and Caprice would jump back and for anyone that hadn't seen or heard it before, it would sound like they were killing each other... but they rarely even muffed each other's hair. After Caprice died Echo tried to play the same game with Dusty, but Dusty has never been a game player like that and she quickly learned it wasn't fun playing with her. They do give each other the evil eye now and then though and Dusty won't go past her into the bedroom if she's laying at the foot of the bed and nobody goes past Dusty when she's playing stair troll and is laying across a stair half way up them. It's funny watching the dynamics sometimes... as long as you know and don't let it escalate into something more serious.

Mike

[billera]

I had a Bouvier, since deceased, and a Cocker Spaniel. Both got on very well with each other. They both had issues with my male Bouvier, also since deceased, who was definitely "the boss". The Cocker is alone now but I am looking for a male Bouv.