A relationship wouldn't affect my numbers, unless we were married. My sister was in a relationship for 7 years, and they broke up, and they sort of had "joint" dogs. Which... made things really tough. Of course, I guess that could be a problem no matter how many dogs there are- people get attached, and then who gets to keep them? Anyways- if I were married, living on the right property (lots of land, maybe some sheepies), I might have up to 6 or 7. Many more than that, and I think I'd have too many dogs to really work with individually.