[iamswiss]

Does anybody have a Golden Retriever puppy and then got a small breed dog.
We had to give away our 4 year old Maltese a few months ago and my husband really has a hard time and misses him a lot. He would love to have another Maltese.
Bailey is only 4 1/2 months old and we won't get another dog for several months anyway and really not sure if we will get a second one. \

What would be the best time (how old should Bailey be) to introduce a new puppy to her (if we ever decide doing it) and is it fine getting a small breed like a Maltese?
Thanks for all your help and I am eager to read about your experiences you may have had with this.

 

[SamIAm's Mom]

Hi!
Just a few weeks before we picked Fenway up from the breeder some folks near us had an accidental litter of rat terrier puppies. They were giving them away to any good homes they could find so we took one. So, our situation was a little different than yours in that we had the small dog first, but only for a very short time.

Ours have always done wonderfully together. Granted, they were puppies at the same time so I suppose they are more like littermates than anything else, but the size difference has never caused any problems. They scrap and wrestle together, but the tiny one holds her own and it works out great. Rat terriers are pretty fiesty little dogs though. I might be more concerned about a more timid or fragile breed.

 

[SamIAm's Mom]

Meant to say also...LOVE your pictures of Bailey. So cute!!

 

[iamswiss]

Thanks, she's a cutie and getting really better with the mouthing and jumping up on my clothes.
I love having a large breed dog, although I also miss our little lap dog. Unfortunately he was very agressive to anybody entering our house or anybody approaching us on our walks and we tried for over 3 years to correct it. Neither us nor the trainer could help and after he bit a few friends and almost a little child, that's when we decided that we can't risk it anymore. It broke our heart and we still get teary eyes when we see a little Maltese. It was especially hard because he always was the sweetest dog with us and never tried biting us.
I was just wondering what would be the best time on introducing a new puppy, if we ever would decide on doing this.

 

[Taz Monkey]

I have a lab mix, a golden (both about 60 lbs) and a beagle mix who is about 25 lbs. I fostered a 5 lb poodle mix puppy last year and they did great. It seemed like the big dogs knew to get down on his level to play.
As far as getting a new dog, how can you be sure that the new puppy won't have behavioral issues? My lab mix is neurotic and somewhat of a loose cannon and I do not trust her with most adults, and she hasn't been around a child younger than 12 since she was a puppy because I don't trust her. It's very simple to control though. She just stays home and when we have company she's in the bedroom.

 

[iamswiss]

Sure you can never be sure of any behavioral issues but our former dog was just aggressive towards strangers at a very young age (started at 3-4 months) and we tried with a dog trainer and camps to correct it. All our efforts didn't help and we tried over 3 years.
We couldn't trust him either with any other person and when we put him in another room when we had guests over he would bark for hours... we then put a muzzle on to keep him with us, but even then he was very agressive with guests and tried to bite them with the muzzle on.
We just didn't want to keep him just inside or locked up or avoid people and dogs on our walks. He's now in a hew home and the new owner has another dog and two cats and he's doing pretty good, it might have helped having another alpha dog there. They also don't have little children there which might also be better for him. We really didn't take it easy and we were struggling so hard with this decision but having a biting dog is really very hard and having such an unsocial dog prevents also having people over at the house. We didn't want to have this any longer for our son and us.

 

[SamIAm's Mom]

Sure you can never be sure of any behavioral issues but our former dog was just aggressive towards strangers at a very young age (started at 3-4 months) and we tried with a dog trainer and camps to correct it. All our efforts didn't help and we tried over 3 years.
We couldn't trust him either with any other person and when we put him in another room when we had guests over he would bark for hours... we then put a muzzle on to keep him with us, but even then he was very agressive with guests and tried to bite them with the muzzle on.
We just didn't want to keep him just inside or locked up or avoid people and dogs on our walks. He's now in a hew home and the new owner has another dog and two cats and he's doing pretty good, it might have helped having another alpha dog there. They also don't have little children there which might also be better for him. We really didn't take it easy and we were struggling so hard with this decision but having a biting dog is really very hard and having such an unsocial dog prevents also having people over at the house. We didn't want to have this any longer for our son and us.

It sounds like you made a valiant effort at making it work, and finding a more suitable home is certainly an acceptable option in my opinion. I suspect the dog is happier too, being in a situation where he is more comfortable for whatever reason.

 

[Duke08]

Cam (Golden Retriever) is 14 months old, Oli (18 month Dachshund) and new little Sophie (3 month old Dachshund) all do great with each other! Oli holds his own with Cam with no problems. My DW just picked up Sophie a couple weeks ago and she weighs only 4 pounds. Sometimes Cam forgets there is something that small around him when gets excited and has accidentally "stepped" on her.:doh: Otherwise, Cam is suprisingly gentle when playing with both Dachshunds! I don't think you will have any issues with a small dog around your Golden, just a keep an eye on them for the first few months when they are playing.

Jeff

 

[Bock]

I have a westie with my golden. Although Tysen wasn't a puppy, it has worked out fine so far-but granted, westie's are big dogs in a little dog body. The only problem we have sometimes is making sure they don't play TOO rough because my westie is a lot smaller than my golden.

Besides that they are best friends and often sleep next to each other and they love to play together.