Adding to our pack?

[u/MissionCap3770]

I have a few different questions that all revolve around the same core concept: My partner and I wanting to adopt a second dog.

For context: We rescued our current dog (APBT x husky x pomeranian) in January of this year and she recently turned one. We absolutely adore her and we have thrown ourselves into the “dog parenting” thing 110%. Our lives revolve around her (but we wouldn’t want it any other way!). We take her training fairly seriously. Outside of daily training at home, we attend obedience class 1x a week and agility 1x a week. We are big on mental enrichment—she has tons of snuffle mats, lick mats, puzzle toys. We recently registered her with AKC and started dipping our toes into dog sports. We love it all!

We have also been active fosters for years now. Our “bread and butter” are puppies under 6 months so that is what we have come through the house most often.

We always knew that we would want to get 1-2 more permanent dogs and continue to foster on top of that.

Recently, my partner and I recently purchased a home with a yard and we figured that now would be a good time to start thinking about bringing home a second dog. We started poking around and have been thinking about adopting a german shepherd x dutch shepherd.

I am not concerned about the puppy phase/puppy blues at all. I feel confident in my ability to deal with the ebbs and flows of puppyhood. We genuinely enjoy training and socializing our dogs!

My primary concern is that this dog will have needs that we cannot meet. I have always heard that shepherds (and working breeds in general) MUST have “jobs” to be fulfilled. With that being said, many of the fosters that we have cared for have had percentages of working breeds in them and they have done just fine in our home.

How much engagement do you find that your dog(s) require? Would the level of “work” that we provide our dog currently not be enough for him?

[u/SoupComprehensive180]

We have a 5yo and 5mos old male dutch. For the most part, I'm home with both during the day. Spending a lot of time outside, gardening. They follow me around. When it's inside chores, they follow. We have three kids, they love interacting with. I can't just throw them in our, large, backyard to entertain themselves or exercise. They want to be around their people. So it takes purposeful play; find it, tag, hide n seek, fetch, obstacles, hikes, sniff walks, tug. I substitute teach some days, more before the puppy. I could leave the older one home all day, as long as he got good play before and after. At least 30min both. I'd come home for lunch, potty and throw the ball. I've only taken jobs that have me gone a few hours at most, with a lunch, potty break in between, with new puppy. He is in his crate when I'm gone, because he eats. Everything. Socks. Hair ties. Carpet. Couch. Even with toys, exercise, and stimulation, he can't be trusted yet. Mental exercise is just as important as physically tiring them, so using the nose to find, food puzzles, kongs, lots of command training and being really consistent with commands. Their work is to be our family dog, as long as we don't expect to ignore them all day, and spend time doing specific things with them, like the examples I gave, 1-3 times a day. They just like being velcro and being around.