Should we have another one? Pooch that is....

It's no secret I love my dog.  We refer to him as my third child, the obedient one.  And just like when you have your first or second or third child, you wonder whether you should get another to keep them company.  So I've been thinking whether I should get a fourth child so the third one has someone to play with during the day.  That is, should we get another dog?

On the one hand, Sydney is the perfect pooch.  He's small, cute and very affectionate.  He plays fetch with his 'baby' (a toy echidna), doesn't chew the furniture (though he sometimes steals a sock or shoe left lying around) and gets on with everybody (except the odd, big labrador - a puppy never forgets).

On the other hand, since we've moved to this house about a year ago, Sydney has gotten into the habit of peeing on the floor during the night - and the odd poo too.  Not a pleasant surprise first thing in the morning, but at least he does it in the same spot in the lounge room (still trying to work out the best way to get stains off polished concrete).  The old house had a doggy door (well it was actually a cat door because they didn't have a dog door small enough) but the back door here is one pane of glass which is not impossible but expensive and difficult to fit with a doggy door.  So we haven't.

Therefore he is let out every morning before we go to school/work and a few times during the night before we go to bed.  Since we had so much rain last year he won't go out at night.  Can't get our little paws wet, can we?  And yes he does get called a pussy sometimes, usually by The Moneymaker.

So if we get another little pooper, does that just mean more poop to clean up?  Well yeah, but should I get Sydney back to his old housetrained self before even contemplating taking on another learner?  And am I pushing the envelope by getting another canine with unknown hangups and bad habits (because THIS time I'm doing the right thing and getting a Rescue Dog)?

So I can only go with the method of thought we used when we had a first baby.  After 3 years we were asking whether we needed to risk bursting our little perfect threesome bubble with another child but when we realised how much fun siblings were when you're little (and also when we realised Chicken was so shy she would cling to our leg at every party she went to), we decided that she needed a playmate.

This decision is similar but one we may regret (unlike the decision to have Nugget which has been unregrettable - yes that is my word I'm using - except for the times like this afternoon where I wanted to strangle him in the manner of Homer and Bart).

But the deciding factor is will it change the relationship I have with Sydney?  Will it change the way he gazes adoringly at me like I'm the only one left in the world (or more likely because I'm the one who scrapes the dinner plates into his bowl).  Will it change this: