Getting a Second Dog

I would say to get a puppy if everyone is willing to take apart of careing for it. But as far as training it you son should be the you for that.

Go to your shelter.
Look for one there that is docile, frienly.
When you bring him/her home (dog should be fixed if he/she is at the shelter) and when you bring new dog home, have them meet out front. Have husb/friend bring your mini doxie outside to meet new "playmate" dog so your doxie isn't threatened by you bringing this new dog directly into your home. Let them meet on "neutral turf"....your front lawn.
Enjoy.

It is like having a new baby with the training and all but for our family it was SO worth it.

We have 3 dogs. 11 1/2 yr old American Cocker (just eats, sleeps poops), 6 yr old English Cocker (lives to chase her tennis ball), and 4 1/2 yr old toy poodle (actually caught a squirrel last week!!) The English Cocker and Poodle are tight buddies. I still can walk in a room and see all 3 will cuddled up together (so sweet).

We didn't have any trouble with the introductions. We always bought puppies.

It is a committment and huge responsibility but we love our dogs and they are all spoiled rotten. One of our neighbors said that all 3 of our dogs hit the lotto when they got us because they are so spoiled and pampered.

I'd take son to the shelter and see what they have. You know how hard it is to raise up a pup... and since son is going to be in school all day, it will turn out to be YOUR dog, not his.

i have two labs and they are the best children dogs. They love our baby and when she gets bigger she can wear her arms out throwing a ball.

I would really suggest getting a puppy since your dog is well established in your home. A puppy would be dominated by your other dog from the beginning and "pecking" order should be established through dog rough house and play. With an older dog, you never know what you are getting yourself into. Even if the dogs are introduced before hand. Behaviors can develop after coming into your home that can not be seen until some time has passed.
Best Regards,
C.

Definitely a puppy, but make sure that you train it. So many people get a second dog and don't bother to do the same training as they did with the first, and it causes issues.

i would get a puppy so the puppy will always be used to the other dog, and the older dog is less likely to "attack" a puppy vs if it was an older dog...that's what we did and now neither dog whines if we take one bye bye and other which only happens for vet treatments, etc

We have 2 mutts, and we adopted the 2nd dog to give the first a playmate. I do encourage you to adopt a dog, and here are some good tips for testing shelter dogs' temperaments:
http://www.paw-rescue.org/PAW/PETTIPS/DogTip_Temperament.php

A dog is a lot of responsibility for a 12-year-old kid.... I think you need to be realistic that if he doesn't follow through, you or your husband is going to be doing the work with this second dog, and you need to be realistic about how you feel about that.... And if you haven't sat down with him yet, you should do so, and talk about the specifics of owning and caring for a dog (and he should have to accompany you to the vet, and do the other "unfun" stuff that is reasonable for a 12yo boy to do).

We decided not to get a young puppy, and instead adopted a 6 month old, and later when we got the 2nd dog, we got her at age 10 months (both were approximate ages, since they were rescues). At those ages, they could "hold" it longer, and made potty-training so much easier.

we have 2 dogs. we got our second dog when he was approx 8 months old. If we had to do if over again we wouuld have gotten a puppy because our second dog had already delveloped his personality...and that personality involves of being on the 'wild' side. I feel like he is truely a 'dumb dog'(although he is my favorite) he was not good at learning tricks, he loves to be outside all the time and eats poop, and SCARFS his food down. We got him from a show breader and the breader had a bunch of other pups..so our dog had the 'first come first serve' eating habits because it seemed like they did not feed him...so we think he then decided to eat poop which he still does. our youngest dog is now 8 and still does these gross behaviors. we feel that had we gotten him when he was 8 or 10 WEEKS old, he wouldnt have had those kind of behavioral problems.
I DO recommend 2 dogs because it gives your 4 year old Doxie a friend to play with. the dogs really do keep eachother company. The only draw back to having a second dog is I really noticed the shedding...our show dog sheds like crazy where our field beagle barely sheds at all.
Congrats....

We have had many dogs. Our oldest female was about 9 when we got a male puppy and they did really well together. When the male was about 4 we found a dacshund (male). When we brought him home he did really well with the other dogs and when no claimed him after turning him into the humane society we adopted. The thuink he is about 4 years old as well. You can always go to pound and they let you take your pet to see if it gets along well with a dog you are going to adopt before you adopt it. From everythign that I have been told its more of the sex and tempermentn of the dog then the age. Females are really dominant so not to have 2 females, if you have one then get a male (that's why we adopted the male puppy). We had both the puppy work and the older dog work so it reallydepends on the dogs, oh and make sure they are all fixed cause if not then they can get possesive as well. Hope this helps, let me know if you have any more ?s I would be glad to help. :)

I have three. The first was on purpose, the second was for the first to have a playmate and I still don't know why I have the third. She wandered into our lives, someone had dumped her.
Our second was a Beagle puppy. She is the low man on the totem pole of all three. She and my other two get along very well.
Be sure to train your new dog. Even though the other is older and already trained, it is good to take the puppy to obedience training to have her get used to other dogs and smells.
In acquiring my third we really didn't have any idea what or where she had come from. We have since found out that she takes to men better than women and she had been beat. She and my very alpha female shepherd get along for the most part, but if we have a squabble it is between the two shepherds and not the BEagle.
The third came to us as maybe a year or 18 month old dog.
If you do get it for your son rememer he will forget to feed it. He will not pay attention to it and he will groan when he has to pick up dog doo. The dog is still your responsibility.
Hope it works out for you. Mine drive me nuts but I do love them.

I had a chihuahua and decided to get another dog as a playmate, but i wanted a bigger dog. While I really wanted to get a rescue, since my chihuahua was so little I figured it was best to get a puppy so that my chihuahua could establish dominance and i wouldn't have to worry about him. I will say though that I am a worrier and they can evaluate how rescue dogs are with other dogs. If you see a dog you are interested in, you can bring your dog in and see how they get along.

omg how funny i just wrote a post a couple of weeks ago asking the same question...and i have a mini doxie too! (well, 2 now, b/c i decided to go ahead w. the 2nd one). so after getting the 2nd, i have to say, the potty training is a pain. we got a puppy and our 1st dog was great with him, then got territorial and a little aggressive but since the puppy was submissive, is now good with him again. they have yet to curl up together and sleep (the puppy wants to but the dog does not) but they have great fun running around and roughhousing. as long as you don't mind going through housebreaking again, i think a 2nd dog is a good idea since your 1st dog won't be lonely and it really does add a happy craziness to your home. :)