Hey there, Bella. Not sure if Claire will have a chance to respond, but I wanted to address a few of your questions.

1) No, it isn’t weird to take your dog to meet other dogs you may be considering adding to your pack. In fact, it is generally a good idea. Just be sure to speak with the breeder beforehand to discuss safety (you’ll need to know about the vaccination status of the pups, etc.) and logistics. And you probably don’t want to introduce your dog to an entire litter — just try to introduce her to the puppy you are considering purchasing.

2) As for knowing when you’re both ready, well, there aren’t any easy ways to do so. It’ll just take a lot of soul-searching on your part and some dog-mom intuition as far as your rattie is concerned.

One last thing: I thoroughly appreciate your willingness to invest the time, money, and space necessary to take care of your little lady. Given that, you may want to reach out to a certified dog behavior consultant. He or she could meet your current dog (perhaps only virtually, but still…) and give you some guidance.

We wish you the best of luck with your new addition!

I just stumbled across your article, which has been super helpful. To give you some background, I was a 2 dog house hold for the last 15 years with a wonderful aussie mix and rat terrier who got along beautifully. Both were females and I had my aussie mix first and then when she was 3 I added the rattie. Sadly in November of 2020 we lost our aussie from CHF. We were devastated. About 3 months later, we added a second rat terrier puppy. My elderly rattie was very tolerant and did love having a second dog in the house again. They played quite a bit and enjoyed cuddling. Sadly, in August, we lost our older rattie. I definitely have spent time grieving. One of the issues with my almost 2 yo rattie, is she seems hesitant of other dogs, and is cautious of people. It was right at the end of quarantine so it wasn’t the best idea getting another dog, but she is so sweet to all animals and people in the household, “pack,” I’ve been working on socialization more, I take her everywhere. I’m not afraid of the cost, space, and time commitments, I work from home and I regularly take my my dog out, play breaks, training sessions, and I know what it takes to raise a puppy. I was thinking about adding a second female rat terrier puppy from the same breeder I found my current rattie from. I’m so use to having a two dog household, but I also want to be fair to my current dog and myself (because let’s be honest grief is fickle and when you think you’ve reached a good place maybe you haven’t). My current dog has started following around my male cat and they constantly engage in play, but I think it can be a bit much for him at times (they thought he was 5 when I adopted him 5 years ago). There are some puppies I’ve been thinking of going to see but I’m nervous, I worry. What is the proper way to handle this, how do I know we’re both truly ready? Secondly, is it weird if I take my dog to the breeder to interact with potential puppies? How do you introduce in a place with so many puppy smells. Thank you for your input.

Hey there, Heather.
You won’t really know for sure until you let the pooches interact and see how they get along, so you may want to arrange for a playdate or two before adopting the new dog.
Your current dog’s reactivity may be a bit of an issue though (unless it’s completely limited to human reactivity), so definitely proceed cautiously.
Best of luck!