hi im zena (new on here) i have a 2 1/2 year old shihtzu and a 5 month old jackrussel cross,my question is am i thinking of getting another small breed pup,but should i wait till the youngest is older,and if so how much older.Or should i go ahead and get all the puppy trainning over and done with in one go. many thanks zena

For lots of reasons it's best to leave a couple of years between dogs. The most important reason is that the two youngest will bond with each other more than with you and egg each other on to all sorts of mischief. It's also harder to housetrain two pups as when one has an accident inside the other may copy. Another thing to consider is that they will all be old together and you may lose them close together which is hard to bear. I like to leave 2 or 3 years between dogs so that the older ones are fully trained and I can concentrate on a new pup, pup will also copy the older dogs so it's handy if they're only passing on good traits

Definitely in my opinion.  At least two years and preferably three.

The smallest age gap I have had between mine is the two youngest that are only 19 months apart and that has been a lot less enjoyable/harder work.

I agree with the previous posts & just to add if you have another pup now, in a years time they would be 3.5, 17 mths & 13 mths, the 2 youngest will be a handfull & what if you want another then...very easy to collect. You would also find it could stop you from having any much later.
My youngest is 4 the next is 6, then 8, then 12, with the oldest being nearly 16. I am hoping to have a litter from my youngest next season & am pleased there is a nice gap between all of mine.

I've 5 dogs, at 5 1/2, 4, 3 1/2, and 2 x 2yrs.  The latter 2 are litter brother/sister but I hasten to add NOT raised together, the boy I've only just acquired.  I didn't set out to have 5 dogs this young, it's just the way it worked out. What I would strongly advise is to have a minimum of 18 months between dogs and more if there is still training to be done.

It makes sense to get a dog fully trained, and to also enjoy it to it's full before introducing another dog.

Enjoy your young 5 month pup whilst you can. It's not fair on him to bring in another dog requiring lots of time and you're going to miss so much with the JRTx.  Waiting until he (or she) is older, means you are also much more equipped to cope with the next pup and it's training.

You've already got 2 very young dogs, enjoy them whilst you can ... wait a while before adding another. This is from one who knows!!