Recommended Age Gap for Second Mini

[GinaG]

Greetings. I am new to this forum. Apologies if this is a repeat topic.

My husband and I have a wonderful 6-month old puppy who is housebroken and fairly well trained. We're still working on a consistent recall, but he is a very pleasant pup who gets along well with other dogs and people. He is currently not much of a barker.

We would love to get a second miniature schnauzer, and we have an opportunity to get a female pup who will be 6 months apart in age from our male.

Is this a sufficient age gap for two miniature schnauzers? We want them both to be attached to us, not just to each other. Will a 6-month age gap cause any problems? We are both recently retired, so we have plenty of time to spend with them.

Thank you for your consideration.
Gina

[zeta1454]

Welcome to the Forum

My advice on getting a second puppy would always be to wait until you are confident that your first has reached maturity and is trained to the point where you are not going to risk the second picking up bad habits from the first. Puppies going through adolescence which is usually between 6-12 months can become more fearful, more reactive and often go through hormone driven behaviours that are a phase but do need careful management at the time.

I am guessing from your post that you are already aware of two puppies bonding closely to each other more than to their humans and that is certainly a consideration with two puppies of the same age. It is not easy to give 100% certain answers to this as much will depend on the temperament and personality of the individual dogs but the younger they are the greater the likelihood they will bond closely - which is lovely and not necessarily meaning they won’t also bond with you but does risk the younger of the two being more likely to be influenced in behaviour by the elder.

You will also need to bear in mind that getting a male and female will mean a decision regarding neutering if you are not to risk an unwanted pregnancy. A bitch can come into season at 6 months when your male will be only a year old and very hormone driven. You would really need to be considering having him castrated and, as this is best done when a dog has fully matured, it would usually be as old as possible and not younger than a year. Your boy is still a puppy essentially and entering adolescence can be challenging which is not what you want when you are needing to concentrate on bringing a new young puppy into your family.

It is great that you are retired and able to spend time with two dogs but I would advise waiting until your boy is over a year before introducing another puppy when you can be more confident regarding his training, behaviour and adult temperament and (if you are thinking of getting a female puppy) at a better stage to consider neutering him.

[mikegoodson1]

I'm almost scared to post this as it goes against (sort of) what Leigh suggested and to be honest, Leigh has tons more experience of owning Schnauzers than me.....but......we also waited two years before deciding to get another miniature Schnauzer, Oscar was just two then. He had been to socialisation classes and obedience classes so he was a good boy and was pretty obedient (I mean not Crufts standard but good enough to sit/stay/wait and was good on and off lead on walks). He was neutered too.

So we got Sasha, a beautiful girl and they got on well and still do. And I think she did learn from him, quicker to pick up obedience etc. But there is this part of us that feels that Oscar resents her a little because he was here first and now he has to share, Sasha bless her, loves him to pieces and follows him around and wants what he has, wants to be where he is etc. They are 5 and 3 now (blimey, 6 and 4 this year) so have been together a fair while and get on really well, I just want to make that clear.

So anyway, my wife and I wondered what it would have been like to have got two together, at the same time. Probably quadruple the work but they would have had, I think, a better bond. It's not like I know because we didn't do that. So I wonder if it is better to get another when the first is younger?

I'm just putting it out there. I guess as everything in life, there are good experiences/stories and bad ones?

Good luck with whatever you decide but having two is great, I wouldn't change it for the world

[zeta1454]

No worries posting your thoughts on getting a second schnauzer at a young age, Mike I don’t think necessarily we are in complete disagreement on this topic but the more viewpoints the better anyway. Although we have two pairs of siblings in our canine family now we have not actually had two pups to train through puppyhood as one of each pair did spend several months between 8 weeks and 9 months in a different home.

You are right that two young dogs /puppies are likely to have more energy and playfulness than an older dog so they may bond better with each other but, as you say, nothing in life is certain and the same for all. Our very first mini schnauzer girl certainly did not take kindly to us introducing a second mini girl when she was just over a year old although I do think that it may have been in part that the second was actually a year older than her, re-homed with us from a breeder. We later got a male puppy when the two girls were 4 and 3 years old and both got on very well with him and played with him just fine. The closest bond though I think with ours was between this male mini and our first affenpinscher, a male puppy we introduced when the mini boy was 7 years old and the two boys were very bonded from the start. Today with so many dogs in our family some of the worries re whether or not they will bond are less since there is always likely to be at least one who loves and plays with a new puppy. Trilby, our 9 year old mini schnauzer tears round the garden playing chase with our 11 month old affen girl and several of the other older affens also play with her. I am not sure whether it is more down to personality and temperament as to which dogs get along and how they interact rather than just their age. I do also wonder whether some dogs would actually prefer to be an ‘only dog’ in a human family whereas others thrive in a ‘pack’ family home, although not much we can do about that with ours now

There is also the consideration (although I don’t like to make too much of this) that having two dogs very close in age may well mean that at some time you are going to have to deal with two losses very close together and that, if a dog passes away leaving a really close bonded companion dog, the latter may well suffer a great deal of distress too. With our first three miniature schnauzers we lost one in June 2009, one in April 2010 and one in November 2011 and it was emotionally very hard to bear including the effect of our male mini passing being really distressing for our little affen boy who loved him.

Having two dogs close in age certainly can have benefits but it does need to be a carefully thought out decision with awareness of the demands on time and patience through puppyhood. I think the general advice against getting two pups from the same litter is good as most people underestimate the implications; with two just a few months apart it may be easier to manage but as regards the OP’s situation, my main worry would be getting a female puppy at a time when the adolescent male’s hormones will be surging!

[Schnauzerluv]

We got Chelsea when Snoop was about 1.5 years old. Snoop was a very mature puppy, very chill and loved to be by my side. Chelsea was much more like a puppy, she took longer to train (for potty) and more playful. She loved to snuggle up with Snoop when he was chilling on the floor, he would get up and move away But the two would play tug together and endless sessions of "lazy play" which was lying on their sides mouthing eachother (open mouths).

We were careful to always give Snoop lots of attention while bringing Chelsea home. I really don't think he minded having a friend at all, he was such a chill dog that got along with everything.

We lost Snoop when he was 8YO . Chelsea never batted an eye or skipped a beat. She soaked up all the love as a single dog. She was our sole dog for 7 more years and I'm happy we waited until after she passed to get another pup.

We got Ozzy in Sept 2020 and we plan to do the same and get a female. We will wait until he's 1.5 years old and if a pup is available for us at that time, we will probably go for it hoping to have a similar good experience. We will access the situation with Ozzy whether we feel he'd like a friend at the time.

Personally I wouldn't get a second dog while the 1st was still a puppy in puppy mode. It's nice when they have a similar energy, but like my Snoop, not every puppy is super playful and I couldn't imagine all the work involved to train both at the same time, that's just me. Honestly I think Snoop trained Chelsea for a lot of things.

I have no experience with it, but there is a phenomenon called littermate syndrome where the 2 pups bond so closely with eachother, they don't bond well with the owner and that would make it really hard train IMO. Even 2 pups close in age (not even from the same litter) can promote littermate syndrome.