Looking for Advice

B and I each took a vacation day yesterday to extend our weekend.

It was supposed to be a "lazy day" but turned into a "finish the projects started over the weekend day." No complaints though, the weather was gorgeous, we got a lot done, and it was great to have an extra day not behind a desk.

One of the things we did was visit the local animal shelter. B and his bf went there last week to get a coupon to get bf's dog fixed, so B wanted me to go check out the other dogs (side note: we previously decided to consider dog #2 after getting a fence (check!) and wanted to consider adopting).

We pulled out 2 dogs to walk around with. Dog #1 was a medium sized golden dog with cute ears. She didn't bark like most of the others. When we got her outside we discovered that even though she was half the size of Scout (who by the way is now 90 lbs) she was just as strong as him. She could also jump to where her head was above ours. Adorable dog, but we decided she probably wasn't the best fit for us.

In the kennel next to her was Dog #2. This dog was a 2-3 year old lab/retriever mix that was almost white. She was very calm and loving and sat sit and beautiful when you said her name. We introduced Scout to her and within seconds they were playing with each other like they'd known each other forever. We almost took her home. We did not yesterday, however, because we need to get a couple more debts paid off if we're going to take on more expenses and as practically perfect as she was, something in my gut said the timing was off.

We called to tell both sets of parents about her... they both responded negatively because of the extra expense and one set not particularly being "in the house" dog people. We told our neighbors (1 with a golden retriever and blind great dane and the other with a black lab and golden doodle) about her and both responded with well why didn't you get her?

There was nothing wrong with the Shelter dog; we just didn't need to spend $$ on all the start-up costs yesterday. Shortly after getting our tax returns back we'll be in a much better position, and if she's still looking for a home I'm pretty confident she'll have one with us.

I'm curious what you all think.... would you take on the responsibility of two labs in your home? Have you had any particularly good or bad experience with having 2 dogs at the same time? Do you have any advice on raising 2 dogs together?