Do Dals Get Along?

The answer is YES. Most Dal owners keep multiple dogs who can run together, and many of them keep additional breeds as well. Whippets, Parson Russell Terriers & Cavaliers are among the breeds that commonly live with Dalmatians. For some reason, Whippets are especially popular with Dal owners. In this picture which was borrowed from a friend, are two champion male Dals who live together, a champion female Dal and a female Whippet. I have several good friends who have kept both Dals & Cavaliers for a long time together. Many Dals also live with cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and other small critters.

Being good with other dogs is partially inherited and partially the result of how the dogs are raised. It's a requirement that the dogs here get along - running separate shifts of dogs is way too much work and I do not want to get caught in the middle of an argument. We've brought in new girls on several occasions and they have fit in well as Josie and Coral are very good about "sharing Ron" with others. Although I could bring in a young male, it might would not work to bring in another adult male Dal unless he was pretty mild-mannered, but because Watson & Argus are good with the dogs they meet it might work. A young male who was raised here would fit in fine. I've kept as many as 4 adult males at a time with absolutely no problems.

There are many things that can be selected for when you do a breeding, and this is one of them. Several stud dogs in this breed were known to be dog aggressive, and tended to pass that on to a certain percentage of their sons, no matter how those dogs were raised. I once bred my Eloise (whose sons had previously all been very good with other dogs) to a dog-aggressive dog and several of the dogs in that litter were really bad with other dogs, even though they were properly raised. That was enough to convince me, and one of my goals as a breeder is to produce dogs that can share the house with others!

Dals were originally stable dogs and lived together in the stable with the horses. They were expected to guard the carriage and the horses from stray dogs, but certainly had to get along with their stable mates.