German Wirehaired Pointer Club of America

[abbyw]

Hi. I currently have a 6 month old female GWP and she is absolutely wonderful. She is certainly a silly barrell of energy! We are talking about getting another one in the next year or so, and we were wondering if it would be okay to get a male this time. We really want Abby to have a playmate, and my husband would really like a boy. Is it better to have 2 of the same sex, or would it be okay to have a male and a female. Abby is being spayed next month, so that shouldn't be an issue. We would plan on having the male nudered also since we don't plan to breed them. Any advice anyone could give would be great! Thanks.

[cmmilach]

Hi,

I currently own three dogs, on aussie-mix you is female (13 yrs old), one 14 month old female GWP & one nine year old male GWP. They all get along great, Doc plays with Sky (the puppy) all the time. The older female is just cranky. Two wires together are great & they keep each other entertained.

Good Luck.

Cathy

[admin]

I would get a male, just to avoid any possible problems in the future. I know there are many people who keep the same sex together, and I have had good luck with it, but every now and again there are problems.

I have two girls who ran together from the time they were puppies to the time they were four or five years old. Then one day I got a call at work from Animal Control. Seems for some reason still unknown to me, my two girls got into a fight in the back yard and decided to try to kill each other. My neighbors had heard the noise and tried to break it up by shoving a garden hose over the fence, but that didn't work so he called animal control instead.

By the time animal control got there, one girl had gotten under the fence, but one had not. They picked up the one that was out and took her in. The other they left in my yard. They then called me at work and told me (and yes I quote) "You need to go home. Your dogs have been fighting. One of your dogs is bleeding very badly. The other is injured and bleeding and we have her here. Please come take care of this situation."

ACK!

So I ran home. Yes indeed the girl in the yard was bleeding (not as bad as they implied) and the other was also not in good shape. They both needed stitches and were covered in mud. They were stitched up and healed fine. A complete search of the yard revealed NOTHING different, out of the ordinary or unusual. I have no idea what or how that fight got set off, but to this day I simply CANNOT put them together. Even walking by each other's kennel they will growl at each other.

Moral of the story... get the opposite sex.. not because this will happen, it's a rare case, but by getting the opposite sex, it is even MORE unlikely this would happen.

BBAdmin

[cheerio]

I am with BbAdmin in this one. I have had uncastrated males together without any problems, ever. They just seem to learn very early where they stand in the pack. But when it came to females, I have had horrible fights. Girls that got along for ever suddenly could no longer stand to be in the same room and yard, some girls just decide they don't like another. No amount of training, rules and efforts can cure it. So unless you intend to keep both animals intact and you do not want puppies, get a male!...