Going from two to three dogs...

[R2sweetboys]

Are we crazy??? We have two 80 lb lab/hound mixes that we rescued a few years ago. They are wonderful dogs and pretty mellow at this point. DH and I were talking recently about "maybe" adopting one more smaller dog. I realize that this technically constitutes a pack so I'm wondering what others' experiences have been having three. Our two get along great, the female is the alpha dog and our male is perfectly fine with that.

I ran into the rescue woman who we got Abby from and she was telling me about this wonderful little dog that she is going to be fostering soon. He's a chihuahua/schipperke mix, about 15 pounds. Honestly, I've always been a big dog person, definitely not into little fluffy ones. There's something about this little guy that is so endearing though and he wouldn't take up much space. Here's his Petfinder profile...

http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/21859651

Thoughts?

[KLD313]

I have three dogs. My first is a male bulldog, my second is a female Akita and my third is a female bulldog. The first two got along well most of the time. The Akita became the dominant one. When the third came it upset the balance of the house. They started to fight and it was the third dog who would start the fights with the second but then she would pick on the first. It was odd. Through lots of training on my part they now all get along.

If you have a make and female and are adding a male I think you may be ok. I would not recommend adding a female. My females are in a constant power struggle.

[flashy09]

I had 3 - mother, father and daughter. I don't know if it was because they were all "family", but it was a great mix and not any harder than two except when traveling or going for walks on leashes.

[drako]

We have had as many as 5 dogs at a time (yikes). The only time we had trouble was with two males. Our females have always gotten along and never had the alpha troubles although that can happen. I think a lot has a lot to do with the breed, their dispositions/temperment, and how you are with the dogs and how you train them. We currently have three dogs, two females and one male and they get along great (for now anyway :-)