Thinking About Getting a Second Yorkie: Need Advice
 

I have a wonderful 5-year-old Yorkie baby named Becca. She is smart, loving, affectionate, playful...everything you could want from a pup. That said, Becca has one flaw. To be blunt, she is, bar none, the most selfish little dog I have ever come across. So long as it is all for and about Becca, all the time, everything is fine. If I pick up the cat, she will scream and cry hysterically. If he goes near her toy, even if she doesn't want it she runs over and takes from him. Fortunately, he is a big old docile Ragdoll cat who lets her get away with it.

A breeder I've known for years has a puppy that I want very badly. I'm just afraid that Becca is not going to be so willing to share her mommy, her home, her anything with anybody and that it won't be a very good decision.

I have always been in a multiple dog family and it has never been an issue before, I'm just afraid that this one is meant to be an only child.

I need to let the breeder know tomorrow.

I hope all of this makes some sense. I'm just very nervous about this and would love some feedback.

Thanks!

I think it could be good for Becca if you did have a 2nd yorkie. Im sure at first it will be difficult but in time I think she will come around and enjoy having another yorkie as a companion

Sorry, I disagree. I think the time to add another puppy is past. Becca, has had your home all to herself for 5 years. She is comfortable with the situation. You know she won't like a new pup in there at her things, her home and her Mommy. You want the new puppy for you not Becca. If you do decide to get her anyways be prepared to have to keep them separated at all times and the possibility that you might need to rehome the pup at one point.

I have to concur with mysweetpups. Some yorkies are just "only children" and are much happier that way. My Lexie is definitely one of those. I think it would be a big mistake to inflict a new dog on her at this point in her life.

Maybe if Becca was much younger, it could work, but you could be asking for a major headache introducing a new pup into her environment. Surely, I could be wrong, but seriously think on this and trust your gut.

unfortunately i agree, after 5 years it may be difficult to have a new puppy with a 5 yo who is set in her ways.

you will need time to see if they can acclimate, this could go either way

sorry i would have gone to 3 years as a cut off for a new puppy on all breeds. i have done it with rotties at that age but no later

Thanks everyone. You confirmed everything my basic instincts were telling me. Becca comes first. She is going to stay an only pup.

I disagree, Ella was an only child for almost 4 years before she had her sister Lily. She didn't immediately accept her but today they are friends and play together all the time. Nobody likes to share their mommy, she'll learn.. But do what you feel is best.

my first yorkie was sort of like that only not even very selfish, just did not like other dogs, I did not listen to my husband and got a small bichon. My original dog turned into a completely differnt dog, he went from being with me always to hardly ever coming out from under the bed, he also became more aggressive and one time bit me pretty hard when he thought the other dog was getting more treats then he was. I gave it close to a years and finally rehomed the Bichon, slowly Reggie became his old self again. I wasted a lot of money on that venture, between the purchase price of the dog, the vet bills, the neutering, plus he was hard to train so I sent him to a training school for four weeks, where he only came home on weekends. The people that took him got a crate, food, some sweaters and they paid me $100.00 not that I was looking to make money, I just needed to know these people really wanted him.

I agree and Im glad you posted

something you could think about if you really wanted another dog is to talk to some rescue groups in your area to see about fostering a pup, after several weeks of being a foster mommy you might get a good idea of how it will work out. Sometimes the foster pups are older and not so wound up like a puppy so they would be more inclined to give your girl her space until she came around, good luck with whatever you decide.

Well when you have an only child in the home for years and have another baby they have to deal with it too, like it or not..I think you should do what YOU really want....I wish you all the best whatever you decide though, ... :)

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I think this is a time when there is no right or wrong answer, As Lap Princess said, you have to go with your gut. While I think that it can certainly work bringing in a second dog after five years (my parents did it successfully twice), each situation is different. I just think Becca's personality screams "only dog". It's probably why I haven't gotten a second one yet. It could work but I think it will be a pretty big risk.

I have literally felt sick all day wrestling with this.

You know Becca and your situation better than any of us. Im glad you have made a decision and you dont have to worry about it anymore

Have you ever had other dogs over to your home? That would be the first thing I would check out. Your dog has been an only dog for 5 years so it is not as though there is no chance of her having an issue with a new comer. Bring another dog to the house and see how she is. Does she want to play with the dog or does she want to bite and snarl?

If she has a bad reaction then proceed with caution. The description you gave of Becca sounds much like many small dogs. They have their territory and they tend to claim all possessions. My Gracie is very good at taking all the catnip toys and putting them into her toy collection. She hates it when anyone pets the cats instead of her. Yes, her little world is very me centered but she is just so loveable! Most of them have the mentality of a 2 or 3 year old anyway.

I once had to re home a dog that we got as a puppy because she decided she wanted to rule the roost and badly dominated my male who was 7 years old at the time. He had accepted her very well and she was very mean to him. You just cannot predict things like this. It was a very upsetting experience so I hope you check out all aspects of getting a new puppy.

Gracie sounds just like Becca!

Let me give you all some history. I had two Maltese for years. Emma and Meckie were about two years apart. Emma was 6 months old when I adopted Meckie at 1 1/2 years. They grew old together, joined in later years by Fletcher the Ragdoll cat. We lost Meckie first and I got Becca about three months later. Emma was already quite old and frail. Becca, who was about a year old, took remarkable care of her. Would lead her around, cuddle up next to her. There were no problems between the two of them. The problems would happen if I picked up Emma. Becca would start to cry. If I put a sweater on Emma, Becca would literally try to take it off her. By that point Emma no longer had an interest in toys so there was no competition there. I could only imagine what would happen if a puppy tried to take one of Becca's precious pig ears!

I was always sure I would get a second one when we lost Emma. Something--call it gut instinct--has stopped me.

I can tell you it is a really difficult situation when you have two dogs that don't get along. I went through it for a year and then decided it would be best for everyone to re home her. She went to my mom's house and lived a very spoiled life as an only dog. Still I have been hesitant to get another one also.

Have you thought of trying to foster a puppy? That would be good way to test how things would go. Sometimes a puppy can even wiggle it's way into the heart of a grown up baby.

Merlin was the only one for 6 years and I so wanted another little baby and had looked at yorkie pups on the Internet daily for nearly a year we just went for a "look" needless to say we came home with little Molly and Merlin was not best impressed at first he would just grumble anytime she was near him this lasted nearly a week and had me in tears countless time thinking "oh what have I done" then out of nowhere I caught him playing with her that was a little over two years ago they have just had a litter together and we also have Milo who is 9 month and we have kept one of the pups little Mickey. My only regret is that I left it so long, they get along great and even though every now and then they all have there "it's all about me" moments they are happy

I too have a boy yorkie for six years. Decided on a new girl pup last year. My boy was upset at first, ignored her for a month or so, then realized she wasn't just visiting, but staying for good. Lol, now they are best pals. They play, go for walks, stroller rides, and share a large car seat together. They just love each others company. Plus they snuggle together and keep each other warm. I'm sure your dog will adjust, it just takes time.

I have 5 Yorkies and fosters come and go. Rubin is 10 (although I wrote 13 for some weird reason) Gracie 5yrs, Ginny and Abba around 2 yrs and Julia not a year old yet. Each would have been fine as an only Yorkie. Each of them accepted a new member because the new one just stayed. It took more time for Gracie to fit into the pack (family group) than any of the others who all came as very young puppy. They moved from litter to another pack. Gracie was an older rescue. Most the time things do work out if you know how to manage a pack. But there are times when a dog really needs to be placed in a one dog home. I would say follow your heart/instincts.
When I have a hard decision to make, I pray and sleep on it.

I so wish that I wasn't being rushed into a decision. If I don't say yes tomorrow, the breeder is going to move on to the next person on the list.

One other thing that I wanted to mention is that my dog is a female, as is the puppy. I gather that can also be a problem. Of course, that could just be a Yorkie myth.

I can see that I'm headed for another sleepless night.

I want to thank you all for your advice and for helping me to make a very difficult decision last night.

I e-mailed the breeder first thing this morning and said no.

Of course, I'll never really know if it would have worked out but I really believe I made the right decision.

I believe you made the right decision. If you end up regretting, I think the suggestion of fostering a dog was a great one. Then if that works out you can always find another puppy. That's one thing. There is never a shortage on cute puppies.

I'm sure there will be other pups out there if you change your mind. I know there are many here on YT that have multiple female Yorkies and it has worked fine. I think the problem may occur more when they are whole females than with a spayed female.

Even though Gracie is a bit "me" oriented I am eventually going to get another. She loves other dogs and people and what ever moves and breathes really. The more the merrier seems to be her outlook.

I never meant to come across as harsh, but I think you're gut was telling you something. I also speak from experience. I had two female spayed beagles that grew up with each other. Beagles are pack animals and I have had multiples before, well at 10 months one decided to turn on the other. The fights started getting really bloody. I had a friend who was willing to take the aggressor because she wanted an older pup. Still I was heart broken and it was such I hard thing for me to do. I was going through a lot of medical issues that prevented me from being more of an alpha myself. So I shoulder a lot of the blame.

Still though I just adopted two yorkie pups into the same household as the one with the previously bullied 4 1/2 year old beagle. I did this because I know my Ruby and at no time did I ever question if she would accept another dog into the household. That said it has been more work than I imagined. Ruby my docile, lazy beagle, now has a 5 month old yorkie who never sleeps and is constantly on the go at her non-stop. They are the best of friends when they are outside but when they are inside Ruby just want to lay on the couch and be left alone.

In the end I did what I believed was right in this particular situation. Have I been regretting it all day? Absolutely!

As I said last night there was no right and wrong answer her. Every dog and every circumstance is different.

Everyone here loves our fur babies. If an overwhelming majority said I was being overly concerned, to go for it, I might have been swayed. The fact that the responses were so mixed just reinforced what I was already thinking.

If you were still uncertain then you did the right thing. Obviously not all dogs get along. I think it is not a thing that happens all that often but when it does it is a terribly difficult thing to deal with.
Now you can look into having dogs visit your little girl and watch her reactions. As I said Gracie is a greedy girl. She even has a hard time returning her favorite balls when we are playing fetch! I have to use the Chuckit balls that she is not so fond of to get her to give up the ball. But she loves other animals and people. So far I haven't seen anything that would make me think she would have a hard time with a puppy. I am still having her interact with dogs and hope to have a young puppy to foster again soon. I stopped fostering for a couple of years but am about ready to start again. We will see how it goes.

I haven't been around for a long time, but I'm going to chime in on this too. I had my Max for only 2 years (and we got him at 11 weeks) before I 'got' Madison. I had been thinking for some time of getting a female Yorkie (Madison is not female) for awhile, but was on the fence with the "will it be a good thing or a bad thing" for Max question. Madison came to me by being found out in the middle of the CA desert, starving, matted and incredibly sick. I took him only b/c I was SURE that he must have been lost or stolen and got away and was SURE I'd find his owners. HA! I ended up getting him on a decent diet, vaccinated, medicated and eventually neutered and of course, by then, he was MY dog:).
Max was NEVER enchanted by Madison and it's been 4 years since then, and still, I wouldn't call them great friends. Max would be quite happy to be the only dog here I'm pretty sure. Madison seems to be pretty happy to have Max around, but Max really isn't too interested in Madison. They do sit together in the front window when I'm gone, watching for me; but other than that, they're not really buddies.
If Madison had not come into the picture being so needy when he did, I probably would not have gotten another dog, but sometimes when I'm gone for several hours, I'm glad that they at least have each other if they get lonely.
I think you've made the right decision for Becca and as much as I love Madison, I think Max would be happier if he weren't around.

Sorry...I wanted to add that before I had Madison vetted and neutered and chipped, I DID do extensive searches by phone to vets, shelters and online searches at Petfinder sites to try to find his owner, but came up with nothing:(. The shelters and vets told me that he probably had been part of a puppy mill operation somewhere in the desert and b/c of having a "roachback" probably wasn't sellable, so they just dumped him out in the desert:mad: (there's a big population of "dumped dogs" out there:( ).