Do you have multiple dogs?

Remember the Lays Potato Chip commercial? The tagline was “nobody can eat just one!” I know the ad dates me, but that should be a comfort and not a surprise for you youngsters who didn’t have the luxury of growing up in the saturated fat world of deep fried potato-y goodness.

People think this applies to dogs, too. The more the merrier seems to be the prevailing mantra for many dog owners. The problem is that living with one dog has its own demands, and living with multiple dogs does not alleviate those problems; it compounds them.

Why Multiple Dogs Are Not Easier Than One

Multiple dogs do not simplify dog ownership. They multiply the training, management, competition, and potential for conflict.

A great deal of dangerous mythology surrounds multiple-dog ownership. The notion that ‘they’ll be great company for each other’ is compounded by the fiction that multiple dogs will somehow train themselves or variations on a theme that involves one dog taking charge of the training and education of the new, potentially younger dog.

That’s not really how that works.

The Myth That Dogs Will Train Each Other

I do acknowledge where these myths may have arisen. Back in the day when humanity actually depended on dogs to facilitate hunting, herding and guarding tasks, we had them in numbers, and they were assimilated into functional groups where older, more experienced dogs were used to emulate certain desirable behaviors. Hunting dogs learned to mimic the more accomplished dogs, guarding dogs learned what and why to sound the alarms, and the herding dogs learned how to drive hoofstock at the heels of more finished workers.

However, it’s not that they didn’t have human influences throughout that learning process. Of course they did. That overzealous stock dog got clapped for mouthing his stock too much, and that hunting dog was taught what game not to chase. The guard dog learned what not to harass from the human, just like his compatriots did. Because dogs are not capable of those refined cognitive mapping skills without appropriate feedback.

It’s easy to see where the notion that dogs would keep each other company was given legs, because dogs lived in small groups with humans as they hunted and gathered their way into an agro-industrial society that needed them less and less.

But we’re here now, in the 21st Century, and with precious few exceptions, our dogs are companions, not employees. The rules that govern dog behavior have not changed, but our comprehension of it has diminished as we distance ourselves from the practicality of requiring any understanding of the wolf at our feet and on our couches.

Because multiple dogs are more than the minimalist understanding that we accord them. Because nobody can eat just one. They should come in pairs, like shoes, because of course it’s easier to take care of two. They take care of each other right? RIGHT?!

I often ask these people if they have siblings or childhood friends that they argued with, fought with or battled with. My sister and I fought like animals. We threw punches at each other, pulled hair, used weapons. Although it was never a healthy relationship to begin with, the point is the emotions that run hot in such confrontations color that relationship until it ends. All because of some perceived slight or oversight. Lives are ruined. Feelings are hurt. Nothing is ever the same.

Why Multiple Dog Households Create Competition

Dogs do not have to be deprived in order to compete.

Food is a resource, but so are toys, resting places, doorways, access to the owner, physical attention, freedom of movement, and preferred locations within the home.

They only have to value the same thing.

The more dogs you add, the more opportunities there are for those interests to overlap. That does not mean conflict is inevitable, but it does mean the humans in the household need to recognize what has value before the dogs decide to negotiate access to it themselves.

Dogs exist outside any concept or understanding of morality. Their participation in linear social hierarchies is exceedingly transitory and tend to favor their placement or rank advantage, as opposed to the placement of others within that group. Call it what you want, but the pack dynamic lives.

In a multiple dog household, it is expected that these animals integrate in a way that is unnatural and rife with consequences.

In the wild, the ‘pack’ is essentially an extended family group comprised mostly of a mating male and female, older siblings, including pre-adolescent and adolescent males, and the occasional non-breeding adult male. The core wolf family is very similar to the traditional nuclear adult family.

In a domestic home, the new dog is waltzing into an established dogs’ household and the established dog is expected to accept this without question.

It simply doesn’t happen that way.

It is very rare that the established dog is so accommodating that there are no immediate issues. Even when there is no outward sign of conflict, I can assure you, they are telegraphing information to each other that the average human is too disinterested to look for or recognize. When you add even more dogs, you are creating a cauldron of potential conflict that answers to a much more primordial law of governance.

I know many professionals that have multiple dogs in their household successfully. One in particular has a collection of unrelated animals ranging in age from 16 weeks to about 14 years, all of whom are allowed to intermingle, but not without human supervision, and not all at once. They are grouped in controllable numbers so they can be supervised by an individual that is greater in strength to their strongest member. Because there can be only one.

All of them have a reliable degree of off leash obedience and some of them have ‘histories’ as problem children.

In another, a generational group of intact bitches that cohabitate nicely. They are useful stock dogs with careers in S.A.R. and live a fulfilling life where their days and minds are occupied with meaningful work. They have been genetically selected for their proclivity to the task, and their impressive ability to live communally.

Each of these groups reflects cognitive decisions made by their respective owners, and each of these groups are managed in response to the requirements of each individual animal.

Dogs Do Not Need to “Get Along” the Way People Imagine

In the average human household, all of the mysticism and fairy tales take precedence, but none of the practicality or logistics of multiple dog ownership, and the burdens such an endeavor might entail.

Compound that with the average human’s inability to read the intricacies of dog behavior and pretty soon your tranquil, picturesque vision of the peaceable kingdom is shattered by multiple thousand-dollar vet bills and potential harm to the human members of the home.

When the reality of multiple dogs doesn’t match the mythology that surrounds them, the clashes can be pretty spectacular. Owners that have the misfortune of having to deal with multiple personalities are somehow always shocked to learn that they are suffering from the doggie version of multiple personality disorder. Because… Multiple personalities…

They are even more surprised when I tell them the dog with the most outward symptoms is rarely, if ever, the problem.

The Dog Showing the Most Aggression May Not Be the Problem

The provocative behavior of dog A is likely a response to the often imperceptible signals telegraphed by the other dog or dogs in the household.

The dog barking, lunging, snapping, chasing, or fighting is the dog everyone notices.

That does not necessarily make that dog the instigator.

Dogs communicate long before most humans recognize that a conversation is taking place. A stare held too long, blocking another dog’s access, hovering around a resource, crowding, controlling movement through space, or simply refusing to yield can all precede the behavior that finally attracts human attention.

By the time one dog erupts, the argument may already have been underway for quite some time.

That is why identifying the dog making the most noise is not the same as identifying the source of the conflict.

It’s a power play after all. Either one is establishing their role in that linear hierarchy, or someone else is questioning it. Either way, owners with multiple dogs don’t have a ‘one-dog’ problem. They have a multiple dog problem. Add more dogs. Add more problems.

The answer is always more thorough training, to a high degree of reliability (and yes, this is obtainable) and better management. There is absolutely nothing stopping anyone with more than one dog from being successful, except commitment and effort.

Are there extenuating circumstances that prevent success? Absolutely, but they are so rare they represent an insignificant percentage overall. Certainly, an aging dog and emergent illness as that linear hierarchy begins to shift to more dynamic leadership is possible, but most often it’s too much competition for a limited amount of resources, just like it is in the wild.

Because people can’t judge dog needs without coloring their interpretations through that human lens of emotion.

Why Conflict Rarely Comes “Out of Nowhere”

“He’s being protective of me!” No, actually. He is defending his right to the optimal access to resources. How does it feel to be your dog’s bitch?

“We have enough toys for everybody!” Carnivores don’t share. Haven’t you ever watched a Nature special? They will kill each other over food resources. It’s a survival tactic, so deeply encoded in their DNA that it is inescapable. In the Nature Is Raw, In Tooth And Claw department, it transfers to our well-fed, well-loved domestic dogs in the form of ‘resource guarding’ and defensive behavior over access to resources.

“But they have always gotten along!” No. No they really haven’t. Sleeping together in the same room isn’t getting along as much as it’s ‘not sweating the small stuff’. Just because there has never been a contest over resources doesn’t mean that they ‘get along’. I guarantee ya, put the right kind of resource between them if you reaaaaaaaally want to test that theory. If you have multiple dogs and allow them to sleep on the Big Giant Dog Bed that doubles as your bed, I guarantee you’ve seen what I’m talking about.

“I have never seen this kind of behavior before!” (or it’s annoying cousin) “This [insert behavior] came out of nowhere!” Neither of these statements are even remotely true. I can assure you if you were running footage of every day of your dogs’ lives for the last however long, you would be able to see the subliminal messages being thrown around like gang signs between them.

What Successful Multiple-Dog Households Actually Require

The solution is not to make dogs love one another.

The solution is to establish enough training, structure, and predictability that they are not continually required to negotiate the rules among themselves.

Each dog should be trained well enough that you can influence its behavior independently of the group. Each should be able to respond to you without needing the participation, permission, or presence of the others.

That means training dogs individually before expecting reliable control of them collectively.

Assuming responsibility for even one animal is a monumental task. Assuming the health, safety and welfare of more than one at a time is a balancing act of temperance, common sense and a serious commitment to learning how to control each individual effectively before ever expecting to control them en masse.

Humans have an obligation to become more than spectators in their dogs’ behavior. Owners need to become active influencers instead of passive participants in the outcomes those same behaviors facilitate. It is not a lot to ask or to expect our dogs to “get along”, but first, abandoning the fiction of some shibboleth from the deep recesses of time is as good a place to start as any.

Your dog is your responsibility. His behavior is, too.

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