Creating Intentional Multi-Dog Household Harmony #14
Shaped by Dog with Susan Garrett
DogsThat
4.8 • 679 Ratings
🗓️ 24 July 2020
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Visit us at shapedbydog.com
If you live with more than one dog or want to live with more than one dog, this episode is for you. We need to be intentional about creating harmony for multi-dogs in our homes for everyone's comfort and safety.
In the episode you'll hear:
- The advantages of having one dog.
- What needs to change when your household becomes multi-dog.
- My "5 Stages of Togetherness".
- What to do, and what not to do, when bringing in a new dog.
- How I intentionally set my dogs up for success.
- What disrupts multi-dog harmony.
Resources:
- Blog Post: Second Dog Syndrome - https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2010/02/second-dog-syndrome/
- Crate Games Online - https://get.crategames.com/
- Blog Post: All About Dogs Sleeping in the Bedroom - https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2020/03/dogs-sleeping-in-the-bedroom/
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody. Welcome to Shape by Dog. I am Susan Garrett. Do you have more than one dog |
| 0:16.7 | living in your household? Or are you thinking of getting another dog for your household? If so, |
| 0:22.1 | you are going to want to pay attention today. I am going to be sharing with you the intentional |
| 0:30.3 | way I set up harmony in my house for my dogs. Now, I am on the verge of adding a sixth dog to my household, which is really crazy for me |
| 0:41.7 | because I think my sweet spot is four dogs. I love the flexibility I get with four dogs. |
| 0:49.6 | Those of you who have one dog, there's a lot of benefits to just having one dog. Visiting family and |
| 0:56.3 | friends is super easy because quite often if that dog's well trained, if you've been through |
| 1:00.3 | our recallers program, then your dog will be welcome anytime you show up at anybody's house. |
| 1:06.3 | Now, with me being soon to be a, well, depending if you count tater salad, five to six dog household, |
| 1:15.6 | I can't just pack them in a car and show up somewhere. |
| 1:18.5 | So there's definitely advantages to having more than one dog, but there's, you know, |
| 1:22.7 | some great advantages to having that one dog. |
| 1:25.1 | But when you go from one dog to a multi-dog household, |
| 1:29.9 | things change. And they need to be intentionally changed. Sometimes it works out if you |
| 1:37.6 | aren't doing this with intention, but sometimes it turns out disastrously. And let me share with you what I mean. Some dogs, I see the dogs |
| 1:48.6 | that I've shared a house with over the years, there's five stages of togetherness, let's call it, |
| 1:54.0 | that I've observed in these dogs. Now, some dogs have the top stage of adoring. They adore each other. So, when you have |
| 2:02.7 | one dog and you bring in another rescue dog or a new puppy and you don't intentionally set |
| 2:09.0 | that all reinforcement comes through you so you get a transfer of value and you just say, hey, |
| 2:14.9 | Sally, I brought you a new friend. It's Henry. Hey, you guys are going to be great friends and you just say, hey, Sally, I brought you a new friend. It's Henry. Hey, you guys are |
| 2:19.7 | going to be great friends and you kind of just let them work things out and be BFFs. Very |
| 2:26.5 | quickly you're going to learn that although Sally you had first and you trained her really, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from DogsThat, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of DogsThat and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.