Dog / Puppy advice, ideas and suggestions

--amadeus--

Hi all,

We have a male 5.5 yr old lab/collie (we think) cross. He's brilliant, fairly well trained, great with the kids, etc. But he's very much "my" dog. I run and he comes with me, I trained him and so he looks to me first, which is natural, I suppose. He mainly lives outside and we have a pretty big, mostly grass and well enclosed yard.

But MrsA has now started pining for a puppy. She wants a dog of her own and since my dog was a rescue dog who we got at 18 mths old she wants to get a baby pup and rear it.

So, questions and advice, if poss!

- Is a second dog wise?
- If so is a puppy wise?
- My dog hasn't been "fixed", I assume we'd need to do that before getting a 2nd dog?
- Is a male or female second dog more suitable if we have a male dog already?
- Any generic advice?

And if a pup were possible any advice on breeds or breeders? I'm assuming rescue homes won't allow you to adopt a puppy?

She wants something mid sized, minimal grooming or shedding and good with kids. No terriers! Something that won't need vast amounts of exercise would be good (otherwose it'll end up running with me and we're back to square one!).

Thanks!

Paul91

take a look here http://www.irishanimals.ie/homes.html I just got a second dog from the pound, she was pregnant, I'd advise you get one from the rescue guys as they foster the dogs and will generally know the dogs quite well

would get your dog fixed first

you can get puppies from the rescue guys - there where some gorgeous collie/staffis crossed on the www.dogactionwelfaregroup.ie site