I need some advice, so I'll explain the situation.
We live in the country in a mobile home subdivision. It is necessary for several reasons to have a dog in the yard. We love our pets, but our dogs are outdoor dogs only.
Our 10 year old dog, Sasha, has cancer, in the form of growths just under the skin. She had surgery two or three months ago to remove the first two; one on each side, which was very hard on her. One was an agressive cancer, the other benign. Within two weeks, others had appeared, and now she has more than a dozen; some of which are fast growing. Because of her age, with the veterinarian, we made the decision not to torture her by "chasing" growths, and didn't have Xrays to see if there are growths within her body. Canine chemotherapy was discussed and decided against. So far, she still eats well, is active, and doesn't appear to be in pain, though she is slowed down some; which is probably partly because of her age.
When we get another dog, we want to start with a puppy so it can be trained to leave the poultry alone. We got Sasha at 3 months from a neighbor who has always had guinea fowl running loose, as well as some chickens. Sasha has to be contained during the day because she will chase and kill the guineas and chickens. We let her loose at night in our 2 acre, fenced yard, which is about half wooded.
The advice we need is regarding when to get the puppy. My thinking runs toward going ahead and getting it fairly soon, now that the weather is getting more comfortable and before it gets too cold at night, and so she can be a companion to it during its early weeks here, which should help it adjust much faster. Our concern is how it will affect her. She likes other neighborhood dogs (she used to get out of the yard fairly often at night), and has been friendly to any neighborhood dog that has managed to get in the yard. She is protective of the yard when strange dogs or people are around, but very quickly makes friends once she is shown that they are OK.
Advice anyone?
