Five dogs?

[*blackrose]

For those of you that have multiple dogs...how much of a jump is it going from four to five?

Gracie and Cooper are officially ours now, which means we have a total of four dogs. I do, however, still really, really want my puppy. And since I don't think I can survive waiting until one of our current dogs passes away (which will hopefully not be for another six-ten years, considering the oldest is six), I am under the assumption that at some point we will have five dogs. Or that is what I'm currently telling myself so that I don't get majorly bummed out due to no puppy for the next decade.

Gracie is 13 pounds, Cooper is 8 pounds, Cynder is 28 pounds, and Chloe is 50 pounds (but she only eats a cup a food a day, so I consider her smaller than what she is lol). All are easy keepers, all are fairly well trained, and so far it seems like pack dynamics flow perfectly and their won't be any I-don't-like-you-so-I-will-eat-you issues.

[AgilityPup]

Honestly, I found that 4-5 was an easy transition and from there all the others added are like nothing. Of course, all of our dogs are relatively "easy" and there's the standard shake up that comes with a puppy (night time potty breaks, etc.) but overall, once you break more than 4 it's not all that different, I don't find personally.

[PWCorgi]

Do you already have an apartment lined up that will take 4-5 dogs? I have never seen an apartment that would take that many.

Just wondering.

[FG167]

We found going from 4-5 was no big deal. We also occasionally board and train so we have up to 6-8. The hardest jump, for me, was from 2 to 3 then after that it's all downhill LOL.

We have one 95 lb 2.5 year old GSD
One 60 lb 1 year old GSD
One 23 lb 2 year old Corgi
One 26 lb 1.5 year old Corgi
One 6 month old Border Collie
One not born yet sport mix of undetermined size on the way this Fall.

We are renters. It's not easy but we've been able to find places for all of our dogs so far...

[Laurelin]

How in the world do you find places to rent with that many dogs? Honest question because one of the main reasons I'm pushing so hard to buy a house in the next two years is so I can add a fourth dog. So far the MAX number of pets I can find to rent around here is 3 and that's few and far between. Most cap at 2. I'd love to be able to add a fourth dog sooner rather than later.

We've had up to 6 and it's imo not hard but not something I'd want to do again. We had 4 young papillons and 2 old shelties so not hard dogs but still just a lot of chaos a lot of the time. Then we had 5 papillons and Ada a while and that was pretty chaotic but 99% of the issues were because Ada had no training and shrieked 24/7. One thing though is that I would not be able to train as much and do as many classes as I do now if I had that many dogs.

[crazedACD]

I moved out and left my mom with 3 dogs. Took one. She got another dog, I got two more. My move didn't turn out so well after a few months and I moved back in...so there was never a 4-5 jump haha. I doubt we would have gone over 4 if I hadn't moved out. We've bounced back and forth between 7 and 12 (12 was with quickly placed fosters). It's not so bad..just be aware of the commitment you are making. Make sure you place the dogs you intend to place.

Originally Posted by Laurelin

How in the world do you find places to rent with that many dogs? Honest question because one of the main reasons I'm pushing so hard to buy a house in the next two years is so I can add a fourth dog. So far the MAX number of pets I can find to rent around here is 3 and that's few and far between. Most cap at 2. I'd love to be able to add a fourth dog sooner rather than later.

$$$. And private rentals. When I was looking in TX I offered to pay additional deposits. I did find someone that didn't really care and just had me pay a $100 deposit per dog. I put quite a bit of money away though just in case I had to bribe someone. I wouldn't even deal with a rental agency.

[~Tucker&Me~]

I just want to chime in to make sure you have considered what it might be like to have 5 dogs when they are all entering old age. I mean if you have 6 years apart on your new one that seems like quite a bit of time but if you already have 4 that are similar ages that can get really expensive if they need medical help around similar times. This year has been incredibly taxing on our wallets because of 1 dog, 1 cat and 1 bird. All in all... We must have spent ~7 grand, and that is probably on the low end of my estimate. Two were seniors and got cancer this year (both parrot and dog were 8) and the cat had a freak accident. The cat has always been costing us vet bills for injuries but the dog and parrot were very healthy and easy keepers until this year.

I think it is important to just keep in mind that having multiple seniors can get really expensive in terms of vet bills. You just never know when an accident will happen or when an animal will get ill. So besides factoring in the money for food and equipment, definitely consider how much you have to put towards medical care and how far you are willing to go to help them.

[FG167]

Originally Posted by Laurelin

How in the world do you find places to rent with that many dogs? One thing though is that I would not be able to train as much and do as many classes as I do now if I had that many dogs.

The first question is more-or-less answered below. We have resumes on our dogs. They have titles proving they have good behavior and are under control. We crate train and explicitly explain what that means (NO unsupervised free time in the house). We let them meet the dogs if they like and we throw extra $$$ at them as well. Our rental house (we can only rent houses) is currently for sale so we have random people coming through all the time to view it - we've made sure the house and yard are clean and that we haul all the dogs out during the showing. The landlord was thankful enough to sign an addendum that allows us to stay an extra 2 months - we are moving out of state so this was *really* important.

We train a LOT. Luckily both me and my fiance (that's new!) love it so we train every night (unless one of us is sick or something). We also teach dog training classes so that is a good way of making sure several are rotated through. For example, this last week I handled his BC pup and my Corgi at a class and then after class we ran my GSD and his Corgi in the ring on our own time. It just works for us - we know it's unusual though.

Originally Posted by crazedACD

$$$. And private rentals. When I was looking in TX I offered to pay additional deposits. I did find someone that didn't really care and just had me pay a $100 deposit per dog. I put quite a bit of money away though just in case I had to bribe someone. I wouldn't even deal with a rental agency.

Yup, this is what we do

[momto8]

The jump from 4-5 was not hard for us, but we have pretty easy dogs, they are very well behaved The most we've ever had here is 9, our current 8 and a dog we've dog sat here and there for ppl

[~Jessie~]

Originally Posted by PWCorgi

Do you already have an apartment lined up that will take 4-5 dogs? I have never seen an apartment that would take that many.

Just wondering.

This is what I was thinking. I have 5 dogs, but I own my home.

The hardest jump for me was going from 3 to 4. Dog #4 was Rory Dog #5 was Emma. Having 5 isn't much different from 3 or 4, at least for me.