# Adding a third puppy?



## sghannam95 (Apr 7, 2018)

We got ourselves into a pickle. We have a 2yo male GSD and a 1yo female GSD.. both are great pups and well trained (aside from over-excited guest welcoming and some bone guarding). The not so problematic problem is the GSD puppy we are fostering. He’s about 7-8 weeks old and is just a joy. WE LOVE HIM. My heart wants to adopt him into our pack but my head tells me no way. How crazy would bringing a third into our home right now be? There are enough people at home to contribute, we are an active family of 5 (kids all over 16 years old). The foster pup is already loved by both of our dogs and snuggles up with our female to nap. Their together-time is always supervised and the big dogs do so well with him. It seems like it would go well, but what should we expect in the future if we go through with this? Anybody else have three dogs this close in age?


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## JessicaR (Oct 25, 2016)

As long as you can handle it why not!
I have 6 dogs, 5 are mine while the 6th one is a puppy we are raising to be a guide dog for the blind. 4 are shelties ages 14, 11, 9, and 7 years old then I have my 13 month old GSD the guide dog pup is a 7 month old golden retriever. When the golden goes back to the guide dog school, we will be raising another puppy, hopefully a dobe! Gets a little chaotic in the house when the weather is bad, the young ones could probably use a little more exercise right now, but Ohio weather sucks lol.
So yeah lots of people think I am crazy but I can handle it so... whatever lol


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

Listen to your head; the sanest voice of all.


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## Shepdad (Oct 24, 2017)

First off, there is no guarantee that when the puppy matures, the two males will get along. In fact, with GSDs there is a good chance they will not get along because it is a naturally dominant breed. So you might end up rotating kennel and crate time. Some people are ok with that, some people are not.

It is fun to have 3 dogs close in age when they are young (although a lot of work). But consider when they get old. It is not so much fun to be taking care of 3 senior dogs that may have health issues. When they start passing away, it is also a big emotional shock to the system to handle. I had 3 GSDs pass away as seniors in 3 consecutive years and it was one of the worst times in my life.


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## konathegsd (Dec 3, 2016)

I would wait unless you are 100% confident. I’m about to add a 3rd as well. One is 3 and the other is 2


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## mnm (Jan 9, 2006)

With your current dogs being 2 and 1, I would suggest waiting a couple years. Mentally both of yours are still pups, and at that age still need training, mainly enforcement. Adding a third young one, which requires a lot of training individually to bond to you and not the other dogs is extremely important. The other thing to keep in mind is that when one dies, the other two will be shortly behind (hopefully not, but realistically..) and if would be better for all to be spaced out further apart.


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