Question for multiple dog owners

[My Peanuts]

Ok, I've had Harley since August 1st, but when I leave the house I still separate him from Sylvia. They never need to be separated when someone is home, but I'm still afraid to leave them together when no one is home. They play and wrestle in a friendly way, but I don't want it to go to far when no one is there to break it up. I feel like I can leave them together now. I know all dogs are different, but I was wondering how long it took some of you to leave your dogs together when no one was home. Sorry this is kind of a paranoid question

[lovemyshiba]

We have four dogs, and enough room to separate all of them, if needed.
Kito and Abbey do not stay together--they had a fight once, which resulted in her getting stitches from a really bad bite he gave her, so I do not trust the two of them alone together. The fight was over a bone, which they do not get anymore, but I still do not want to risk it.
Abbey and Riley stay together in the basement, and Jada stays with them, but in a pen--we've only had her for 2 weeks, and I just don't want to risk anything yet.
Kito stays upstairs alone, and he loves it!!


What you are describing from your two dogs probably sounds like how Abbey and Riley play together--they wrestle a lot, but would never hurt each other. Obviously you know your own dogs best, so use your best judgement. You could start out by leaving them together for short periods, and see how they do. If one is older, he or she may need a safe place away from the other one, to take a break once in a while, or maybe not. Our best tool was our video camera, but I realize not everyone has that option.

[Kfamr]

Simba and Nala are angels together and play nicely. No matter HOW long i've had them together, I'd NEVER leave them alone together. I just don't want to take any chances. You never know what could or would happen.

Simba has free roam of the house and Nala stays in her cage.

[My Peanuts]

Thanks for the video camera idea, I'm going to try that one. Harley is 1 and Sylvia is 6 months, so there isn't a significant age difference.

[Pam]

Originally posted by lovemyshiba
You could start out by leaving them together for short periods, and see how they do.

This is what I did when we first got Ripley. Since I didn't know anything about his past I was a little worried. It didn't take long for me to leave them alone since there was never any evidence of a problem. I think they usually either just sleep or watch out the window. My next door neighbor says they are always in the window!

[mugsy]

We play it by ear. It's been awhile since we got a new one, but, we generally crate them until we are sure they are ok. We have started putting most of the dogs back in our bedroom and leaving 1 or 2 of them out to guard the house and they are fine.

[anna_66]

Ours are always together, always have been...of couse except when Roxey was a wee pup, then we crated her. But when she got older her & Angus were always together.
And when Huney came along she fit in so well, so there was no need to seperate them.

[stacwase]

I've started leaving Max & Jake together alone, but I make sure all rawhides, food, and toys are put away first so that they don't have anything to fight over. They're not real fond of eachother, but they haven't hurt eachother since that time when Max bit Jake right after we brought him home. Now they just ignore eachother. We've had Max about 4 months and Jake about 7 years.

[Tonya]

I leave my big dogs alone together. I have from the start. Teddy is only 6 lbs opposed to my big dogs are about 60 lbs so I do not leave him alone with them. I think he'd actually be ok, but I do not want to chance it. Your dogs don't seem like they have a drastic size difference, so I bet they'll be ok.

[pitc9]

If I could leave them out of crates together, I would!! They have been the very best of friends since Buddy came here. They play like Crazy Dogs all the time. But they chew up to much in the house! And they LOVE to play tug of war with anything they can get there paws on (bras.. towels... etc..) Both are still puppies at 2 and 1 1/2, so I HOPE (oh God PLEEEEEEEEASE) they will grow out of it!! Sierra already did grow out of the chewing stage, but when we got Buddy... she was then reminded of how fun it was!!

I wish I could leave them both loose in the house, someday..... maybe I'll be able to!!!

[tikeyas_mom]

I am going to say this once.. My dogs LOVE eachother hahahahaha, I have a shih tzu and a sibe, and they get along soooo well. We got oscar as a pup after we got tikeya She was 3 when we got oscar. Tikeya took to him greatly. She was a lil shy at first of the lil fluff ball running around peeing alol over the place loll. but she loved him within a day or too.. . I will always have 2 or more dogs around!!

[Rachel]

I started out separating them when we were not home, but Tucker just couldn't handle being *alone*, even though there was just a board that kept him in the kitchen. So after a month or so they were both allowed the freedom of the house together. It was a leap of faith and to help Tucker alleviate his separation anxiety. Fortunately, it worked out well. They have had just a couple spats where they had to be separated in the years they have been together, but those occurred while I was home. I think that when we are gone, they are more inclined to sleep.