Why Two Dogs (& Cats) Are Better Than One
I have two cats and two dogs. Everyone thinks I’m crazy, but hear me out — two cats are better than one, and two dogs are better than one.
Now, if you’re in a tiny one-bedroom apartment and living paycheck to paycheck, I’ll never recommend two over one, but if your lifestyle allows it, it’s a beautiful choice, and here are a few reasons why.
Cats Can Be Friends (contrary to popular belief)!
“But cats are solitary creatures!” You’re not wrong.
Here’s the thing, though. Like humans, no two animals are going to be 100% perfect for each other, but like humans, they learn to love or at least cohabitate with each other.
When we got our second cat, we kept them separated for about two weeks, only letting them sniff each other’s toys and letting them catch brief glimpses of each other. Through that slow introduction, they learned to not see the other as a threat. Once they were comfortable with each other, they played together like toddlers, chasing each other around the house, eating next to each other, and even grooming each other. Well, maybe toddlers don’t groom each other, but you get the point.
It’s true that cats are territorial and won’t always want another cat around, but I’ve even seen feral street cats walking around with each other.
When you think about it, cats are born in large litters. The kittens (usually, unless something is wrong) stay with their mother for about 12 weeks. For 12 weeks, those kittens are playing with each other, learning from each other, and definitely getting used to having other cats around. When those kittens start to venture off on their own, it’s all about survival. The mother cat can’t hunt enough to feed a whole litter! It’s time for the kittens to start hunting on their own to survive.
Cats become territorial because they need to have their own hunting grounds to survive. When a cat has a bowl of fresh food placed out for them every single day, they don’t need to hunt. They know that they are going to get the same bowl every day, so they might not even mind sharing!
It’s similar to those neighborhood cats I saw running around together. Those two both probably know that there is plenty of food in the neighborhood for both of them. I’m sure they each have their “grounds,” but they don’t mind walking around together once in a while.
Dogs Travel in Packs!
“But dogs don’t always get along!” You’re not wrong.
From the dawn of time, dogs and their ancestors have traveled in packs. Unlike cats, who went after smaller prey, wolf packs would hunt down large mammals, like caribou. One wolf vs one caribou is a much more difficult hunt than two or three wolves vs one caribou. Then, that one caribou can feed the whole pack! There’s no need for the wolves to worry, because there is plenty to go around.
Granted, a wolf is probably not going to share his kill with a wolf from another pack. That’s why wolves (and dogs) do sometimes mark their territories to warn off other wolves. They’re saying, “this is my family’s turf.”
When we got our second dog, our first dog was definitely territorial of her food bowl, but for the most part, welcomed the friendship. She was cautious at first, sniffing like crazy every time the new family member waltzed into the room, but just a few months later, the pair now sleep in the same bed together!
Leaving Two Dogs at Home
This friendship also makes it easier for us to leave the pair alone. Before, Gaia (our first dog) would get anxious whenever we left for work or even to go to the store for a few hours. Gaia has never cared much about her toys, but she loves interacting with her “hoomans” and considers wrestling with “dad” to be the best playtime there is. So whenever she was left alone, she got bored and anxious and would watch out the window until we got home.
Now that Atlas (our second dog) has joined her pack, we can leave them for hours and they’ll either nap together or play together until we get home.
Not only is this a healthier environment for Gaia, but it keeps us sane. We can go to work without worrying about our poor lonely dog at home!
Cons of Having Two Dogs
If you ask me, I don’t think there are truly any cons. However, we do get a lot of questions from concerned friends and family members.
“Doesn’t two dogs mean double the cost?”
Yes, and no. It certainly means double the food and double the vet bills, but we are able to reduce costs by keeping them on the same diet and coordinating their vet appointments.
Actually, when we only had one dog, we wasted food. Since Gaia is not very food motivated, she didn’t eat very many treats. We would buy bags of treats and have to throw away half-full bags because they would get stale and then she wouldn’t want them. Now, we don’t waste ANYTHING.
We don’t have any new toy costs, because they share all their toys. Technically we buy a lot of toys and treats because we like to spoil our dogs, but that’s on us and is not necessary. They have more toys than they can play with.
“Wow, double the responsibility?”
Eh, kind of. It’s MORE responsibility, but I don’t know that it is as much as people think, as long as you get everything done at the same time.
For example, we were going to have to bathe our first dog and then clean the bathtub anyway. It takes an extra ten minutes TOPS to bathe and dry our second dog while we’re at it.
The same goes for walks, trips to the vet, etc…we were going to have to do it once anyway, so adding the second dog doesn’t change much!
“Are vacations harder?”
Not really. I suppose it can be a problem if, for example, you have a friend or family member who is willing to watch one of your dogs for you and not the other. But on the other hand, many boarding facilities offer discounts for multiple dogs.
We’re lucky to have a family member who is more than willing to take in both of our dogs when needed.
Most of the time, we like to stick both of the dogs in the back of the car and take them wherever we’re headed anyway!
“How do you walk two dogs at once? Isn’t that hard?”
A few thoughts on this: 1) It’s not hard once your dogs are trained to do it and you have a double leash, and 2) It’s kind of nice to have two dogs to walk when you have two adults in your household. I can see how this would be a challenge for a single person, but for us, it means we each get to walk a dog when we go out!
Cons of Having Two Cats
If you want my honest opinion, it IS easier to have two cats rather than two dogs, ONLY because cats have so much less energy.
With our cats (and most cats, I imagine), sometimes we don’t even know they’re there. We’ve spent hours running around the house panicking because we couldn’t find one of them only to discover him sleeping on top of the kitchen cabinets.
Still, we had a lot of raised eyebrows when we brought our second cat into the mix. These are some of the questions we got.
“How will you go on vacation?”
It’s really no different than having one cat. This is also a huge difference between our cats and our dogs. We barely have to do anything for our cats when we go away.
Now, I fully understand that this is not the case for all cats. Some cats have special medical needs or can’t be trusted to feed themselves, but since our cats are young and are grazers (we leave food out all day and they nibble every couple of hours), we just pay someone to check in every few days.
The longest we’ve ever left our cats was a week, and we paid someone on Rover to check on them every other day. We left large bowls of food and water, so every time she checked, their bowls were still half full, but she topped them off. She also scooped out the litter boxes for us so they wouldn’t be nasty by the time we returned.
We also leave a bunch of toys out for them, but cats spend most of their days cleaning themselves and sleeping, anyway.
“Your litter box must be gross.”
Just like having one cat, as long as you clean it often enough, it’s really not. It also depends on the cats. Some cats will kick the litter everywhere while they’re trying to bury their feces. Others are more graceful and clean.
You can also invest in an automatic litter box that pushes the feces into a disposable bin, so that the smell is hidden and all you have to do is empty the bin regularly.
Our Crazy Family of Six
The bottom line is that we are as happy as can be with our two cats and our two dogs (technically we are a family of seven with our hedgehog, but that’s another story I won’t get into today).
The “double the fun” method may not make sense for every family, but we’re strong advocators for adopting two dogs and/or two cats if it is plausible for your situation.