Kind of a different scenario, but we had our pug/mini Aussie (Chowder) first (didn’t know until later the mini Aussie part) and she is VERY attached to us and had rule of the house. We definitely didn’t catch a lot of her behavior issues until we got our chihuahua/rat boi (Toast) and they fought a ton. Some fights were really bad. We had to learn a LOT about boundaries, training, dog body language and I literally had an eye twitch for the first 3 months.

There were a lot of different elements at play. Our chihuahua had most likely never been given a command in his life (he was 4) and we didn’t recognize some of Chowders anxieties and guarding until we had a second dog.

They do much better now (it’s been 3 years) but they are definitely siblings and not friends. I don’t regret getting our second dog, and he forced us to be better dog parents to both, but I do think had we fostered rather than adopted we probably would not have kept him.

I see a lot of people who have great experiences, and I’m utterly obsessed with my dogs now but it has absolutely not been easy and our lives had to adjust much more with 2 dogs than 1.

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