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HELP! Is now the right time to get another Cavalier???

cy1266

Well-known member
HELP!!! I'm the most indecisive person, and I don't know what to do, so I'm asking for your help! My breeder has a litter of 11 week old puppies, and we went to "look" on Saturday, and of course fell in love with a little B&T boy. He is Miles' half-brother, and looks exactly like him - except that Miles is a ruby. Miles is 10 months old now. Is now the best time to add a second dog, or should we wait until he's a few years old? The other possible option (this isn't definite, just a possibility) is that my breeder has said that she will most likely want to use Miles in her breeding program once he's older and is clear for heart, eyes, etc...I would love to have one of his children, but it's not certain that she will use him.

This B&T puppy has a great little personality, but the breeder describes him as "soft", just like Miles. My other concern is that Miles won't care about us (Brian and me) as much if we get a new puppy. He is just such a little love-bug, I would be so upset if he wansn't that attached to us. I should also add that we both work, and are gone about 8 hours/day, so he currently has the cats to keep him company, although only one of them really plays with him. That is one of the main reasons that we're thinking about getting another one...

Any advice/experiences would be greatly appreciated! We need to decide soon if we want him, because hse has people driving in from Ohio this afternoon to look at the litter. HELP!!!

Here he is...
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Do It

Very cute....my 3 cavalier a year apart and they make great playmates.....and once you get your eye on one got to do it!
 
He is so cute, how could you possibly resist? I agree eight hours is a long time to leave a puppy and housetraining might take a little longer, but you've done it before and it worked. I've also done it twice and it works. Cavaliers are smart little dogs and pick up things quickly.
 
As far as housetrainig, we both work close to home, so between the two of us we would be able to come home a few times throughout the work day to play with the new puppy and let it outside, feed it, etc. That's what we did with Miles and it seemed to work out okay. Right now we only come home once a day around lunch time to let Miles out, but our schedules are flexible enough to come home multiple times a day while we're housebreaking :smile: That's a good point, though...there are lots of things to think about!
 
As far as housetrainig, we both work close to home, so between the two of us we would be able to come home a few times throughout the work day to play with the new puppy and let it outside, feed it, etc. That's what we did with Miles and it seemed to work out okay. Right now we only come home once a day around lunch time to let Miles out, but our schedules are flexible enough to come home multiple times a day while we're housebreaking :smile: That's a good point, though...there are lots of things to think about!

Bingo!
That sounds like it will work out fine.
When Charlie McFarlie was young, we hired a dog sitter (a young girl down the street) to walk him in the late morning. Jody and I had different schedules, so we would be arrive home at staggered times to be with him. It worked out fine.
So, if you want another Cavalier, I say "go for it". :)
 
The breeder also has a little B&T girl available, if anyone would think that would be a better fit with our little boy...any thoughts on boy/boy vs. boy/girl???
 
Is your existing boy neutured?

If so then either sex, I don't think it really matters with cavvies as they aren't generally dog aggressive;)

If you feel you have the time for another pup then I would say go for it, our boys are 8 months apart and they adore each other and I feel that having the 2 has made our family complete (that is until number 3 and 4 come along lol!)
 
I have an 11 month old female cav and a 5 month old male cav. They absolutely LOVE each other! I was in a similar situation as you, Lucky had no one to play with besides the cats, and only one of them actually played with her. She was a little love bug too, but she always wanted my attention. At times, when I was trying to work, it got annoying. Her brother came along and she is still a love bug (but her brother even more so!), and pays plenty of attention to my b/f and I. I don't know what my babies would do without each other!

I say... it's time you get another puppy!
 
I feel there are a couple of questions you need to answer for yourself and this will make the decision for you. (please excuse all the spelling mistakes in advance as I have no brain to day.)

1) can you afford 2, obviously everyday care costs but also possible unforseen events, vets etc this one needs the most serious consideration in my opinion.

2) How well trained is Miles, as soon as you get another puppy to train it will distract the other dog from there training and training is very difficult with 2. If you feel Miles training is as rock solid as it can be for a 10 month old then you may be confident to jump any behaviour type problems that arise, toileting relapse, recall, and just general selective hearing from Miles as his new brother is far more fun to lead astray or get lead astray with than listening to boring human commands.

3)Do you really have time, 2 is obviously double the work and even though there are certain tasks that you dont dont really notice like feeding for example, there are things that do noticebly take twice as long, grooming, training, vet visits and so on.

4)Are you prepared if things don't go smoothly and extra work or care is needed ? Not wishing to be the voice of doom but introductions are not always positive between only puppy/doggie to date and new baby and you need to be prepared for a lot of extra hard work if it doesn't go to plan (even though I'm sure it will if approached properly)

Last but not least do you have enough love to give :p :p :p twice the kisses twice the cuddles there will not be time for any sort of life as you know it !! oh what Joy :luv: :luv:

I would not worry about Miles not loveing you as much, you will still always be his human and he will stay the same after an adjustment period no doubt.
 
So so cute!!! We got another Cavalier when Wesley was about 4 months old, given the Cav we got was 2.5 years old. My only annoyance now is Wesley is 1 and Daisy is 3 and he wants to hump her all the time. It's so annoying and I'm always having to stop him from doing that. (It's our behavior modification we're having to work on right now). Given they're both fixed but still....

If you can handle the housetraining, they really do provide eachother with great company. Good luck!
 
I was going to ask this very question. Charlie is 5 months now and i'd love a little playmate for him but i'm just not sure when!!!
 
Thanks for all of your help and advice, everyone! Well, I got home from work last night and there was a knock at the door. I opened the door, and my boyfriend was standing there with the little B&T boy!!! It was my early Valentine's Day gift!!! He doesn't have a name yet, but he and Miles are getting along really well so far - Miles follows him around everywhere! So here he is, our little 11 week old boy, and Miles' half-brother (name suggestions are welcome!):

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Ahhhhhh, that's the best Valentine's gift ever!

He is absolutely gorgeous..... am very very jealous.
 
Oh how cute!!! I couldn't imagine a nicer gift. I love the name Beckett. You can call him Beck for short, or keep it at Beckett.
 
Thanks for the advice, name suggestions and nice comments, everyone! Cathy T - my BF does have a twin!.... :rolleyes: I have a few more questions - sorry for all of the questions, I've never had two dogs!

1. Miles has free range of the condo all the time (he has since he was 6 months old). Should the new puppy be in a crate or an x-pen during the day? We currently have him in a crate, just like we used for Miles, but I'm not sure if an x-pen is better so he has more room to play. Gating off an area isn't really possible since we live in an open loft. The only rooms we could put him in are interior bathrooms with no natural light, which doesn't seem like a good idea.

2. Do your dogs have their "own" toys and chewies? The puppy was chewing on one of Miles' toys this morning, and when Miles put his face by the puppy's face, the puppy growled at him! :eek: I told him "no!", but should I have done something else? Poor little sweet Miles just walked away from the puppy and layed down, facing away from him :(

3. Are there any puppy pads (we use "Wee Pads" I think) that you have found that your puppy won't shred? Should I just use newspaper in the crate instead?

Thanks for all of your help and advice - I have so many questions since we now have two dogs! Miles is so well behaved, I hope the little one turns out just as good! :xfngr:
 
what a beautiful boy! Just reminds me of my Merlin when he was just a little squit!

How about Guiness - I sometimes wish I had called Merlin that but Merlin can do many tricks so he is a wizard!
 
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