Allowing your dogs to interact

[mitchm]

If you have a 19 month old male and a 11 month old female should you keep them separated or can you allow them to be together? Winter is coming and temperatures get nasty here so I plan on having them inside during the extreme temperatures.

Come next spring I will be starting my male, he'll be two years of age, so my question is, will allowing them to be friends under my supervision affect or hinder my males willingness to start, his performance, his attitude? Will this also affect my female when she's ready?

One friend says they should be kept separated while another says he doesn't see the harm allowing them to interact. I've read about good working dogs that were friendly with other dogs in the yard but knew when to flip the switch when hunting. I don't have much experience with young unstarted dogs and don't want to hinder my males or females mindset in any way.

Hope this wasn't a dumb question, any opinions and thoughts would be appreciated.

[S_B]

Let the dogs dictate their own tolerance to each other. Most bulldogs can distinguish between friend and foe. I personally don't see anything wrong at all allowing two mature bulldogs who get along to be together, so long as there is supervision.

They are your dogs, ultimately you know what is best for them.

S_B

[mitchm]

Thanks S_B, yes they would be supervised. I keep thinking that if my male gets along with the female it might affect him mentally and his instinct to turn on. Thanks

[gotap_d]

Not a dumb question. S_B hit the nail on the head. Just because your male gets along with females or say pups doesnt mean he will get along with another mature male. I've seen some dogs that just disliked 1 dog in particular. He got off his chain and ran past 7 adult dogs(males and females) just to hit 1 dog he didnt like.

[Nut]

It doesnt matter at all bro. Let them be friends under your supervision. Just wanted to throw an extra vote

[Officially Retired]

I have always let my dogs interact, and it doesn't affect anything.

Dogs are smarter than people realize (and humans are dumber than we realize )

I have had many females that could be in "groups" ... 3 on the couch ... with 1 male.
(Every so often, I have dogs that just absolutely won't get along with anything, and they are ALWAYS stupid dogs, and never my best.)

Never tried to put males together, as that just does not work, except in 1 instance with Silverback and Phoenix.

Phoenix was an elderly dog, and I brought him in during his last years, and Silverback was my favorite and therefore my house dog. Phoenix was actually the trouble maker, growling at Silverback constantly, whereas The Gorilla ignored Phoenix. At first, Phoenix would be in a crate, with Silverback out with his "harem." Then, I would rotate Phoenix and put Silverback in a crate. Phoenix would always growl at Silverback.

Over time, they got used to each other, and Phoenix stopped growling at some point ... and was so enfeebled I don't think Silverback took him seriously. I had 50 acres and would always let the 4 go out (3 bitches, 1 male) and then let the odd male out by himself. Eventually I let them all out together ... and they didn't even notice the difference. They had gotten used to each other.

Phoenix was deaf by this point, and slow. He would just kinda wander around, and I would waive him in with hand-signals and he would come back. Silverback was such a good dog, in so many ways, he began to care for Phoenix. He would clean his ears for him.

All this from a dog that could kill another dog quicker than any dog I've ever seen, except Stormbringer.

Jack

PS: Even with all that socialization, if you faced Silverback in the pit with a strange male, he would be over there killing it as quick as possible. You know the difference between a friend you're familiar with, and an enemy looking at you with hate, and your dog does too. I mean, just think about it: if your dog knows you, and is happy to see you, that doesn't mean he won't attack some stranger walking into the house

Again, dogs are not stupid. They recognize and can differentiate between other dogs, and their body language, same as they can recognize who's their owner and who's a stranger.

[mitchm]

Thanks guys for all your input!

Jack, it does make sense when you think about it.

I had them together today for an hour and everything was good. It was a little intense for me, I cleared the living room and tied a short leash to the leg of the sofa just in case things went south but the dogs were good. It will make winter much easier on all of us.

[Black Hand]

TFX had an interesting thread about basically raising dogs in a pack. cant recall an update on how it was going for him. I let dogs go together but it just seems like no matter how much they appear to get along eventually an accident will happen. Could be due to my dogs all being young that I try it with and they are all piss and vinegar. Maybe that's just how MY dogs are naturally. I still keep them together as long as I can. Have two litters I raised together right now and you know which ones can't be with the others pretty soon. It's good to let them experience and learn how to be dogs.

[EWO]

Another factor is how much time they can be together. Keeping them apart all day and letting them interact for a few minutes after the work day will only last so long.

The second is like Jack said with Stormbringer, some dogs just have no social skills. Life is about the family business, and the family business is about killing shit. Mims Ch. Charlie would kill anything he came in contact with, big or little, male or female, sick or healthy

Ch. Angel has multiple box RIP's but could be taken off the chain and she would run the woods and river with two Australian Shepherds, and would do the play fight with them like dogs do. I waited for ten years for the horror story about the Australian Shepherds but it never happened.

The best chances would be to start them early and maximize the amount of time for each interaction.

And always be within helping distance when one of the dogs decides on another plan. EWO

[HAMMER49]

I to have allowed dogs to interact just like others have stated. The only issue that arose was when I had two bitches living together and one came into heat. The other lit into her ass one day, and from then on would not maintain a level head towards that bitch. Other than that case, dogs have done fine until they began to play rougher than I would like.