Taking on a second rescue?

[MollyMoo]

Hello everyone, I could do with some honest opinions and advice please!

Molly has been with us 6 months next Wednesday, she came to us for rehoming following a nasty divorce. She is a wonderfully easy dog and a real sweetheart. She has settled quite easily, needed very little work apart from teaching her sit and stay, leave and curing (mostly!) her selective hearing when asking for recall. The lady who placed Molly with us was in the area today and popped in to see us. She had heard that we would quite like another little one and has offered us a black boy, 3-4 years old. He is with a 'failed trainer' who until this lady contacted him was disposing of his dogs via a bullet to the brain....Now he is much better and can generally be relied upon to contact her so she can home them or if there is no other option have them humanely PTS. This little boy has been kennelled throughout his life so is unlikely to have much idea of how to behave within a home. The rescue lady has kept one of his dogs for herself and said she soon learnt and settled down to a domesticated lifestyle.

As I say we would like another but I am keenly aware how lucky we have been with Molly, whilst a worker she is quite happy and healthy on 2/3 walks of between 35-60 mins a day and plenty of stimuation between. I wonder if we might come a cropper here with a different worker, particulary one who was bred to actually work. Likewise I'd like some advice on how confident you'd be that you could take a kennelled dog and toilet train him etc, especially as we live above our pub so have to go along the hallway and down the stairs for Molly' s wees and poos- would this be too much of an ask if we were establishing toileting routine? Furthermore, those who have had dogs come from a similar background can you tell me, as I say we have a pub and we like Molly to spend as much time as possible down at the bar socialising, do you think this would be rather too much?

Sorry to ramble and sorry if I've not made myself terribly clear! I would dearly love Molly to have a play mate (she was formerly paired with a lab) and we would love to provide another dog with the TLC they deserve but I have to know this is right and that neither dog will suffer, least of all my darling Molly. If anyone has any similar experience I'd love to hear it. I know I can provide all the love a dog could want but I am always aware of my limited training abilities! Thank you!

[LilahLoo]

What a dilemma. I can understand how you're feeling.

Delilah is an ex-breeding bitch and was kennelled for the first 6 years of her life. She has adapted very well to life indoors. I've recently been thinking I'd like another but she's been so easy I'm convinced the next would be an Antichrist in cocker form - slight exaggeration!! But I can't believe i could be so lucky twice.

I'm sure there will be people along with practical advice but it sounds like you're going in to this with your eyes open and that's good, it can be easy to let your heart rule your head in these situations.

Let us know what you decide - whatever you decide will be right for you and Molly I'm sure.

[minimoo]

 I would say that there is no guarentee when taking on any dog even when people get a 9 week old puppy , there are plenty of posts on here about having problems with them, the most important thing in my opinion is being committed to taking on a second dog , i had two wonderful cockers up until last year who were no trouble at all one was a 2 year old from a breeder who didnt breed her and the other was a puppy farm 6 month old pup who it took a year to sort out saying that he ended up being the cleverest most wonderful dog ever , but i did wonder what i had taken on , i took on another 2 1/2 year old bitch from a private rehomer who was very over weight and incredibly good at stealing food and still is a challenge sometimes, the most recent thing she did was last week jump on someones knee whilst they were sitting in their car with the door open she was SOAKING WET  , ive also got 2 boy dogs aged 2 and 1 , and they are a handfull being so close in age and will wind each other up alot, saying that i knew that they would so i cant complain , i would say if the dogs get on well the hardest thing you would have to do is house train him though he may already be clean, though every dog needs time to get into a routine as they are taken from their hoes to strange people and places and are sometimes expected to "get everything right " in a week , i would say go meet this dog and see

[HeatherandBenjy]

I read this earlier today and have been thinking about it. I think that as Minimoo said, your committment to a second dog is paramount but from your post I don't doubt that you have that.

Taking on any rescue dog can be difficult, especially for the first few months as they settle in. Having shared our home with 8 (now 6) rescue dogs over the last 5 or so years, I can honestly say that for the first few weeks, for most of them, I spend a lot of the time thinking 'oh my goodness, what have I done?!' That said, I've also been involved in a lot of homechecks and assessments for nessr and if I'm honest, I'm not sure that this sounds like the best match to me.

Taking on a kennelled dog to live in a home environment isn't impossible, but is hard work. Living above your pub won't make it any harder than if you lived, say, in a block of flats, but you will need to be certain that you can manage the toilet training ie taking him outside every half an hour and praising him like mad if he does a wee or poo but ignoring it if he has an accident in your house. Our first dog, Benjy, was a 10ish year old ex working dog. The first thing he did when he arrived here was to cock his leg on the sofa. You would need to be prepared for him to be unneutered (unless the rescue lady has organised this).

So, yes it could work, but it will be hard work.

The other option is to take on a different rescue dog who perhaps is more used to living in a home environment and therefore may fit in easier to your home. I think what I'm trying to say is that just because this dog is available and needs a home, it doesn't necessarily mean that he is the best dog for your home (or that your home is the best match for him). I understand fully how you feel having been offered this dog, but there are lots of cocker spaniels in rescue waiting for the right home and although I think you could make things work with this dog, there might well be another dog out there better suited to your home / pub environment.

I hope this helps.

[Helen]

In all honesty I think this dog will be poles apart from your girl - if he's a failed worker then I'd say there's a high probability of a really high working drive  and you'd have to be prepared to put a lot of time and training in to keep him from being bored 

[MollyMoo]

Sorry I haven't replied before now- internet here has been playing silly whotsits! Thank you all for your responses. We've given ourselves the past few days to really think about it and weighing up this, that and the other! We've said we may be interested but would like some further details so we'll see what happens from there. I'm cutting back my hours now for various reasons so I know I will have plenty of time to devote, rest assured if we do take this dog I'll be dedicating my all to him. Will let you know if anything comes of it, in the meanwhile thank you all for your advice!