[Hobofan]

Congratulations on getting another yorkie in the near future!

We added a boy (puppy) to our household this year. He was 12 weeks when we got him and our Yorkie-poodle mix female was 2 1/2 years old.

I had spoken with the breeder about the temperament of my girl "Hobo" who does have a few personality issues (timid of people and other dogs as well as very attached to me) and she began evaluating her puppies for who would be the best match. She did an excellent job.

We received Nanook (who we named Rowdy Yates) from her and she stayed to see the interaction between our two dogs. I will warn you that our older dog would NOT look at the puppy and would physically turn her body when we tried to take a picture of them together. She wasn't mean or threatening to him which we all took as an excellent sign.

We did crate the puppy some during the day but I'll tell you his personality was just so happy go lucky that he did not mind and would contentedly chew his "special" toy that we only gave him while in the crate.

I did feed him 3x a day so I fed him in his crate as my older dog is a glutton. She also has some food issues and I didn't want that to escalate.

Now I feed them both 2x a day and I have them sit in the den while I prepare their food, then call them and they just go straight to their personal bowls and eat their meal without incident. Hobo (the girl) is now 3 and Rowdy is 9 months.

For potty training, my girl trained easier- she was potty trained very early. He caught on fairly quickly, but it seems he just gets so busy playing that when he realizes he has to go, we have about 2 seconds to get the leash on him and out the door. 99% of his accidents occur right at the door!!! He runs over there, but the signals seem to hit his brain later than our girl's did. I think this is more of a personality issue than a boy/girl thing though (and his personality is very laid back- more of a "better luck next time" dog-haha).

Marking from our boy puppy did not occur UNTIL my next door neighbors dog went into heat- our boy was almost 8 months old. He then marked on my bed and on the Christmas tree. He was also ringing the windchime at the door to go out every 5 minutes and would try to mark on the bushes surrounding our house. I just kept saying "No" and pulled the leash (and called the vet to schedule a neutering appointment!!)

Although I like to wait until 1 year to have the dogs spayed/neutered I took him last month (2 days after the Christmas tree incident). We've not had another incident in this past month and I noticed that he still squats when going outside. He also has not tried marking on the bushes since then.

It is a ton of fun watching both of them play, fetch, etc. I also love seeing them snuggled up in the dog bed together. Having a second dog has had a very calming effect on my girl dog. She would get very anxious when we left her and that seems to have decreased SIGNIFICANTLY since Rowdy came into the mix.

I think adding a second dog was one of the best decisions we have made.

Good luck to you- I'm very happy for you!