A multidog household

Question
I recently lost a male GSD to Degenerative Mylopothy and his sister is 12 1/2 years old.  We take our dogs with us everywhere.  They have been to almost every beach between Los Angeles and the Oregon border.  Layla (female) is finding it hard to go with us on trips. Is it too soon to thing about a puppy?  When we decide to get another GSD, will it be harder trying to raise 2 males?

Answer
Hi Gary, It's not harder to raise to males unless you leave them both unneutered by a year of age.  Then nature will take its course, and one of them will want to be leader.  If the other one doesn't just immediately given you can have problems that can arise to aggression between the two of them as they resolve who is actually going to be boss.  If either one or both get neutered you will lessen this affect dramatically.  As far as too soon, that is really a personal choice.  A puppy might help the older one as a puppy can sometimes bring the youth out in an older dog.  I have seen it happen a lot where it makes an older dog act a little younger (and possibly feel a little younger too).  Hope this helps.

Dawn