Living With Multiple Dogs: What Actually Makes a Multidog Household Work

I have four dogs, and genuinely, I could never go back to having just one.

I actually think I would struggle to go back to two, I love having a multidog household, watching the different relationships between them and the whole dynamic of living with a group of dogs, but I also think people massively underestimate how difficult it can be.

There is this lovely picture in our heads when we think about getting another dog. Your current dog is going to get a best pal, they are going to cuddle together on the sofa, play together in the garden, sleep in a pile and generally spend their lives being absolutely delighted that you bought them a friend and sometimes that does happen.

Two dogs naturally click and living together is really straightforward, but like we always say, dogs are individuals. They have different personalities, different social styles, different tolerances and different needs.

Two perfectly nice dogs can simply not be particularly compatible. And that doesn’t mean either dog is bad and or necessarily mean you have made a terrible mistake. But it can feel really rubbish when the relationship you imagined isn’t the one you end up with.

Think about the dog you already have before adding another one

One of the biggest things I would consider before adding another dog is the social

character of the dog already living in the house.

Some dogs love other dogs and enjoy certain types of dogs. While some are fairly indifferent to them. Some are social but find very intense dogs irritating. Some dogs like to play constantly, while others would rather be left alone.

Age matters too, personally, I wouldn’t be rushing to have two dogs under a year old, and I generally wouldn’t recommend having two dogs under two if you can avoid it.

You are dealing with two young dogs that are still developing, still learning how to regulate themselves, still building habits and potentially going through adolescence at the same time.

A sensible age gap gives you the opportunity to actually train and establish one dog before adding another into the mix.

I would also look very seriously at any problems you already have with your current dog.

If something is difficult with one dog, getting another dog rarely makes that problem slightly more difficult.

It can make it 100 times harder.

If your current dog has rubbish recall, struggles to settle, guards resources, reacts to dogs, screams when someone comes to the door or generally runs around the house like an idiot, imagine managing that behaviour while another dog is joining in.

Before getting another dog, I would want the household I already have to be working well.

Another dog is not just another bowl on the floor

There is also the boring practical stuff that nobody really wants to think about when they are puppy shopping. Two dogs means more food, more insurance, more vet bills, more training, more equipment and more money if you go away.

• Who is looking after them when you go on holiday?

• Can that person comfortably manage both dogs?

• If one of them develops behavioural problems, can you afford the training?

• If both need veterinary treatment in the same month, can you cover it?

  
  

There is also simply the amount of time involved…walking one trained dog is easy. Walking three dogs with completely different needs can be a military operation. Sometimes they need walking separately and actually I recommend doing this as much as you can.

I absolutely love having multiple dogs, but I don’t think anyone should go into it thinking it is automatically easier because “they’ll entertain each other” that is often the opposite of what I want them doing.

My house is actually very boring

One of the things that helps massively in my house is that indoors is not where all the excitement happens.

I don’t want dogs chasing each other through the house, emptying the toy basket, wrestling across the living room, jumping over furniture or winding each other up all day.

When we are home, I want very low arousal.

Resting. Sleeping. Existing around each other.

Pack drive.

I don’t want prey drive kicking in because one dog has started sprinting through the kitchen and suddenly everybody is chasing. I don’t want constant play that gradually gets rougher until somebody gets annoyed. I don’t want dogs pestering each other when one of them is trying to sleep.

Imagine being absolutely knackered and somebody following you around the house poking you in the face every ten minutes..eventually you would probably tell them to piss off too.

Dogs need proper, uninterrupted rest and they don’t always make sensible decisions for themselves.

This is why I am a huge fan of crates, tethering and teaching dogs how to switch off in the house.

Crates are one of the easiest ways to prevent problems

Every dog in a multi-dog household should be able to have their own space.

That might be a crate, a pen, a separate room or another setup that works for your home, but there needs to be somewhere they can properly switch off without another dog bothering them.

Crating dogs isn’t only something we use because there is already a problem, it can be used way more effectively as a prevention.

Dogs being overtired, overstimulated and constantly in each other’s space is such an easy way to create unnecessary conflict.

If everybody has eaten, exercised, trained and had what they need, there is absolutely nothing wrong with saying: right, bedtime.

Go and sleep.

Tethering is really useful for the same reason, it allows the dogs to be part of normal household life without rehearsing rubbish habits.

They can lie beside you while you are cooking, watching TV or working without wandering around looking for things to do, stealing each other’s toys or pestering another dog.

Good multi-dog households aren’t necessarily households where the dogs are interacting constantly and often, the really successful ones are where the dogs are very good at leaving each other alone.

Be sensible with resources

Resources are another huge one. Food, chews, toys, beds, sofas, people, doorways and even random things that have been dropped on the floor can matter to dogs.

If you have children in the house, for example, somebody is eventually going to leave food or a toy lying somewhere, you need to think about what happens if two dogs reach it at the same time.

Some dogs genuinely do not care and others care a lot. And dogs may have a genetic tendency to be more possessive around certain resources.

The important thing is not to become complacent because nothing has happened yet.

If one dog has a toy and another dog constantly walks over and takes it, I don’t allow that just because the first dog is tolerant, that isn’t fair.

We spend so much time talking about dogs needing to share, but why should they have to?

If somebody repeatedly walked over, took your dinner and ate it, eventually you would probably have something to say about it. Treat your dogs fairly.

If something belongs to one dog at that moment, manage the others and don’t wait until the tolerant dog finally loses its patience and then blame it for growling.

Feeding multiple dogs needs rules

Food is one of those situations where I like things to be really clear, I don’t want dogs bouncing around me while meals are being made. I don’t want everyone barging towards bowls at the same time.

They can wait calmly and be released to eat, or they can be in their crates while food is prepared.

Feeding should be supervised, and if there is any reason at all that dogs may be uncomfortable eating near each other, just feed them separately. There is no medal for having four dogs eating six inches apart.

Management is not failure, it is sensible dog ownership.

The same goes for getting ready for walks.

Four dogs watching leads come out can very quickly turn into four over-aroused dogs charging around the hallway, so again, use crates, tethers, place beds, whatever your dogs understand.

Organisation prevents carnage.

Individual markers make life much easier

Something else I really like with multiple dogs is having individual markers or cues.

For example, if I am sending dogs to toys, I don’t necessarily want four dogs launching towards the same thing at once.

Each dog understanding when I am talking specifically to them makes everything cleaner and avoids unnecessary competition.

That applies to food, doors, toys, getting out of the car and loads of everyday situations.

The more dogs you have, the more useful individual control becomes.

Your dogs do not have to be best friends

I think this is probably the biggest thing owners need to hear, your dogs do not need to be obsessed with each other.

They do not need to play every day or to sleep touching each other. They don’t even necessarily need to particularly like each other, but they do need to be able to live together safely and comfortably.

Obviously, if your dogs genuinely enjoy each other, brilliant. I love watching my dogs choose to interact and seeing the relationships they have built, but I don’t force interaction because I think that is what a multi-dog household should look like.

Sometimes the best relationship between two dogs is simply: You stay over there, I’ll stay over here and everybody is happy.

And that is completely fine.

What if your dogs are already fighting?

If you already have conflict between dogs in your house, it doesn’t automatically mean they can never live together successfully.

Training absolutely can help.

But the first thing I would be doing is preventing them from continually rehearsing the problem.

• Use crates

• Use tethers

• Separate around resources

• Stop allowing uncontrolled interactions

• Look at where the conflict is happening and why

  
  

Are they overtired? Is play getting too intense? Is one constantly pestering the other? Is somebody guarding food, toys, furniture or a person? Is one dog reaching social maturity and suddenly less tolerant than it used to be?

There is usually far more context around a fight than simply saying, “they don’t get on” and the longer dogs practice conflict, the more difficult the situation can become.

Prevention is always easier than trying to repair a relationship that has repeatedly gone wrong.

I still wouldn’t change it

After everything I have just said, having multiple dogs is still absolutely my preference.

I genuinely cannot imagine living with one dog again. Three feels like my minimum at this point.

But I can love having a multi-dog household while also acknowledging that it requires management. Four dogs means I have to think about relationships, arousal, resources, individual training, rest, personalities and fairness every single day.

The goal isn’t to create a house where every dog is best friends with every other dog.

It is to create a house where every dog understands the rules, gets their individual needs met, has space when they need it and can comfortably live alongside the rest of the group.

If you are thinking about adding another dog, I would spend much more time thinking about whether that dog fits the household you already have than imagining how cute they are going to look cuddled together on the sofa.

If managing multiple dogs at home is starting to feel difficult, or you are seeing tension, over-arousal, resource issues or fights between your dogs, get in touch. We can look at what is actually happening in your household and help you put sensible management and training in place before things escalate.