I have a 5 year old female bullmastiff/cane corso mix, Maizey, who is the LOVE of my life. She's amazingly sweet and loving, just the best dog ever! We also have an 11 1/2 year old male bullmastiff, Jasper, and he gets along GREAT with Maizey. (We got Jasper when he was six months old from our son, who couldn't keep him). Last winter we lost our 5 year old male, Bowser, who was Maizey's litter mate, another dog adopted by my son, who turned him over to us when he was 2, which was probably the worst possible age to integrate him with Jasper. Bowser initially fought a lot with Jasper, but our vet discovered he was severely hypothyroid and once he started treatment, he mellowed out a lot, became really sweet and loving, and the fighting with Jasper stopped. (Although Jasper has made it clear that he's MUCH happier now that he's the top dog again). Bowser always LOVED his sister, however, they adored each other, and they became so bonded that we actually had to seek professional help to teach them to listen to us instead of each other. We were all so devastated by his loss (except for Jasper, of course), we always assumed he would be around as Maizey's and our companion after Jasper passed.
So, the background story aside -- now we are thinking of getting a new bullmastiff puppy, and a local breeder has 5 females for sale and we are planning to go see them tomorrow. Maizey was basically socialized by our neighbor's female American Bulldog, Chloe, who was the best dog in the world, and she helped us raise Maizey and socialized her right, and they were best friends, but they never lived together. So we really do love the females, but now I'm really worrying about introducing another female to our pack, but I also don't want to introduce another male with Jasper being a senior male -- and I'm thinking it might be best to wait until Jasper passes and then get a male puppy? It would just break my heart if Maizey and the new female puppy had problems when the puppy gets older, but on the other hand, we've never had problems with dogs we've raised ourselves from puppies, our older dogs generally teach the younger ones to respect them and their seniority, so there's no problem, and we always spay and neuter our dogs.
So I just wanted to ask what experiences others have had with adopting a female bullmastiff puppy with an older resident female? I read so many scary stories on the internet that right now I'm inclined to be happy with the dogs we have and not get another puppy yet.
Thanks!
Effie
So, the background story aside -- now we are thinking of getting a new bullmastiff puppy, and a local breeder has 5 females for sale and we are planning to go see them tomorrow. Maizey was basically socialized by our neighbor's female American Bulldog, Chloe, who was the best dog in the world, and she helped us raise Maizey and socialized her right, and they were best friends, but they never lived together. So we really do love the females, but now I'm really worrying about introducing another female to our pack, but I also don't want to introduce another male with Jasper being a senior male -- and I'm thinking it might be best to wait until Jasper passes and then get a male puppy? It would just break my heart if Maizey and the new female puppy had problems when the puppy gets older, but on the other hand, we've never had problems with dogs we've raised ourselves from puppies, our older dogs generally teach the younger ones to respect them and their seniority, so there's no problem, and we always spay and neuter our dogs.
So I just wanted to ask what experiences others have had with adopting a female bullmastiff puppy with an older resident female? I read so many scary stories on the internet that right now I'm inclined to be happy with the dogs we have and not get another puppy yet.
Thanks!
Effie
