How many dogs do you think are too many for one family to have?  Is there a limit on the amount of love a familyhas to give to more than one best friend.

I agree with both replies.  Thank-you, this is exactly how we fell.  Sometimes it can get a little upseting when people feel the need to critisize you because of the number of fur kids you have.

We have four teenage daughters and nine dogs.  The majority are what most people would call pet quality.  However we do have four GSPs that we either show or hunt or both.  All 9 are loved equally and live in the house. 

We have 7 dogs and usually 3-5 foster dogs.  Our dogs are our life!  We do both work, but just about every other moment is dedicated to the dogs.  Obedience classes, exercise, walks, vets, socializing.  We have fosters we do special things with to help them become more adoptable.  We feed everyone good food - Canidae - and I realize food is a matter of opinion, I just mean we care for eveyone.  Everyone gets their flea/tick and heartworm meds.  Everyone gets tons of attention and love.  Sure there are some things that are different -- when we go places we can bring dogs we have to pick who gets to go what time.  Not every dog gets a walk every day but everyone gets SOME form of exercise daily.  It is a ton of work, but a labor of love and have wonderful dogs that are well socialized, well behaved (mostly hehe) good with people and dogs.  We work hard to ensure our dogs are wonderful members of our family and our foster dogs are well loved and can move on to bring another family joy.  It's all different, some people can only love one or two some people can have many more.  Money is a huge aspect, the vet bills, food bills, and med bills are large but outside of that  we just spend time loving them and it works for us!

My Husband said to me a few years ago, Just one dog. All we had at that time was a Senior Chese/lab 10 yrs old. She was real slow and low energy. We could barely get her off the couch to go for a walk and my Husband was the same thing.... So I told him our 25th weding anniversary was coming up and I had a big surprise for him. Make a long story short, Rocky was adopted at 12 months old from the GSP Rescue.  Rocky did the trick, got our whole family off the couch and out side playing ball, long walks ect. My Husband got back into pheasant hunting (our Chese/lab was gun shy). Very happy ending. My Husband said that adopting Rocky was the best thing I ever did and he was certainly the right high energy, sparky dog to get us moving.

This topic is a real stickler for me. I've met single dog owners who shouldn't be trusted with a potted plant, and mushers that take awesome care of 20 or 30 very happy dogs. So I don't think there's a cut-and-dried rule.

As a working dog person I also take issue with the 'ideal' home being a suburban back yard, while a well organized dog yard is some kid of gulag. I've seen more than one single/double suburban pet dog horribly neglected, malnourished, unsocialized, and/or unvetted.

I DO believe in keeping the numbers of dogs down to a manageble level, but that's different for different folks and their setup. Right now 3 is definately the limit with my crazy schedule and a toddler, but we've had 4 or 5 comfortibly in times gone by and I think it will come again.

Another thought along Lisa's lines... it also depends on the individual dogs you're talking about. Some demand a lot of time and energy, others are happy slipping into a multi-dog situation without making a ripple, some aren't problematic per se but just don't like living in a 'pack' situation. I'm also a firm believer that if the 'vibe' between the owner(s) and the dog is good, many dogs will readily adapt to almost any living situation... if there's a basic human vs canine personality clash it doesn't matter if the home is the doggie Beverley Hills, the dog will most likely be uncomfortable.

Case study: my uncle was a musher that usually had about 10 or 15 siberians in kennels, with a long chain in a hill out in the play yard for 'the dog of the day'. The dog that got out on the chain for the day thought they were pretty darn cool. Sometime in the 80s he decided to get a Bouvier. A couple years later and he had a few more... they ran in harness with the sibes and did a great job! These were all rescue bouvs that other folks 'had it up to here' with.

One bouv came from a single dog pet home, was just 'too much dog' for the owners to handle. He arrived with a list he described 'as long as my arm' about all his quirks, toys, favorite treats,  instructions, etc. My uncle, ever the pragmatic hard-head, just stuck the dog out in the kennel with the rest... and he LOVED it. Just LOVED it. The big hairball loved being out with the rest of the dogs, loved running in harness, and especially thought the big 'dog of the day' chain out in front of all the kennels was the absolute shiznit. My uncle really took to this dog, calling him 'a real animal' (his peculiar term of highest endearment), and the hairy monster immensely enjoyed a long career in harness.

We have the "Brady Bunch" gang here! I had 4 when Joe moved in with his 2.  5 years later & 2 litters added 3 more to the gang! Only 1 is a pet, the rest are show/FT/HT  dogs with 6 being dual-pointed/HT titled and all have FT points.

All 9 reside in the house with no problems, they take turns going to work with me daily, 5 one day, 4 the next. With 2 being almost 10yrs old & requiring less excercise, and 1 being my sons dog, it's not TO bad!! The biggest problem I have is getting a spot in the bed at night.......

Great point on the dogs you have Meg!  We've taken in a couple fosters that are good dogs and fine with other dogs in a more aloof sense.  Wouldn't run out and attack a dog BUT are not happy living with 10 other dogs.  No big deal in a foster situation, we usually set them up to have extra time alone -- often these dogs PREFER spending their days (while we work) alone and that's cool, we let them have the office or a crate if they are crate trained.  And temporariy that works while they wait out for their forever home as an only dog.  But the dogs that make up the 7 I own live and die to be part of the group.  Honestly a few of them would be either pin heads with out the structure of a pack or so hyper you'd want to strangle them.  Having the group is nice and it is always really hard to let a dog go that thrives in the pack situation.  I have one that we placed a few months ago and she has 1 other dog but is just struggling to maintain her confidence with out a pack.  It's incredible the difference a stable pack can make for a dog with some security issues.  Ours all live inside, but we work full time, we make it work and they are exceptionally well loved.  And I have taken in many dogs from an "ideal" suburban stay at home mom situation and can only shake my head at the quality of life the dog had (or didn't have)

2 is working for me.  I'd like to get more, but it wouldn't serve any additional purpose.  I will get a third to overlap when one is in the later later stages of quality life.  It might give the old dog some joy and the pup would learn the house rules and routine from the old guard.