I am a new member, picking up my 2 new puppies tommorrow

Hi I am Maggie, and new to this forum, and so glad I found it. I am adopting 2 new puppies tommorrow from the Human society, we are very excited to get our girls home, they are sisters, lab/shepard mix, went to look at one, and ya know how that goes..lol....couldn't leave her sister there alone...they are being spayed in the morning, and we bring them home in the late afternoon, I am nervous on how to care for them after surgery, any ideas??? I have also heard pros and cons on getting 2 puppies at the same time...I would love to hear some feedback......

 

2 puppies - are you nuts :mrgreen: :y_the_best:
I have one 6-month old GSD pup (being spayed today - now as I type - I'm so nervous) and I can't keep up with her!!
2 - I'd lose my mind.
But I also have cats, a son, husband and work....but you are a very brave person LOL
can't wait to see their pictures

 

welcome! oh boy you are going to have your hands full with 2 pups, but good for you for rescueing them. My brother got 2 golden pups a few years ago and I sent him a great article on how to raise 2 littermates. Because you do train differently than if you just had one I will see if I can find it. There are a lot of cons, many dont recommend it on getting littermates, but again if you are willing to put the time and effort in to the proper training. As for spaying, they need to keep quiet for awhile, you probably need to keep them seperated so they wont play together and rip their stitches out.


I do remember that the #1 thing when you do get littermates is to crate train

here is a good article on crate training

http://ezinearticles.com/?Crate-Trainin ... o&id=12396


And the other thing in I remember about 2 dogs is they tend to rely on each other and dont see you as the leader. I would start basic puppy obediance as soon you get them home, and work with them seperately, oh how old are they??

 

Thanks for the relpies, I know 2 is a lot, but I couldn't bring myself to separate them.I will only be working part time now so I think that will help, plus my kids are all grown and live 500 miles away, so keeping busy will be a godsend.......I picked them up today...whooooohooooooo....they are so darn cute.....They are 12 weeks old, were spayed this morning, they are doing great, Bailey is worn out, and is the timid one, Harley is eating and moving around really good, I think she is going to be the outgoing one. So you think I need to separate them to train them?????I posted there pics on my page....

 

Here is a good site explaining ownning siblings and training them.

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=2043

where are your pics?

 

It's best to separate them when you are training them how to do new things. Once they know the command and can do it fairly reliably, then you can move to working on that command together.

There's a book called "Feeling Outnumbered" that is about multi-dog households that might be helpful.

 

Oh Lord. Two puppies with Lab in them. You have both my admiration and sympathy.
We all want to see photo's of the pups. Let us know if you have any problems posting them here.
I am sure you will be able to entertain this forum with some great stories as those two grow up.

 

Thanks for all the advice

Thanks for all the advice and sites and books to look at, I am doing it all...lol....My girls are busy lil girls, so cute and O my the energy...I want to put pictures up here but can't figure the darn thing out....any help would be appreicated.....

 

I have hug problems posting pics

I dont think my linked worked, so here is the article


Two Puppies or One?


Are you getting a new dog and thinking of adopting two puppies at once? Would that double the pleasure? Could they be company for each other when you’re not home? Does it seem a good way to settle competition between human partners or the children in the family over who gets to play with the dog? More dogs, more to go around—does that plan work?

Not exactly. Expert breeders are careful about placing two puppies together in one home, because they know how much work it is to raise both of them properly. An improperly raised puppy can wind up homeless when the little and cute stage wears off and the defense drives begin to mature. Even dogs who don’t become aggressive can become too rowdy for the family, if they weren’t given the right training early.

Puppies are individuals and each puppy needs a good upbringing. This includes plenty of good experiences with people, places and things. It includes plenty of training and plenty of conditioning to being touched and handled by humans. Much of this work must be done with the puppy one-on-one, away from any other dogs in the household. How is this accomplished?

How to Raise Two Puppies Successfully

Skilled dog trainers and breeders often have the job of raising two puppies at once, so we know a lot about how to do this successfully. Here are some keys to success:

1. Make a careful choice. Dogs who get along as puppies will not necessarily get along at maturity. If you plan to keep your dogs together later (breeders and trainers often keep their dogs routinely separated, all or part of the time), it’s important to choose a pair with the best chance of a happy relationship as mature dogs. Most puppies get along, so that tells you nothing about how they will do later.

Getting dogs of opposite sex is usually the number one criteria for them to live safely and happily together later. In some breeds it’s especially dangerous to keep two of the same sex together, so do your homework if you’re considering that. Nature will take its course later, no matter how much you try to get them to love each other. They can love each other literally to the death, especially two females of certain breeds.

2. If you are going to keep the dogs together, plan to spay and neuter them, spaying the female before her first heat. If you want to breed dogs, they will need to live apart at least some of the time. Dogs need to be supervised during matings to prevent injuries, and females should not be bred on every cycle. Besides that, it’s quite possible your two dogs would turn out to be a poor genetic pairing. A male and female dog may be able to live freely together after maturity if both are altered. They actually have a richer social life that way than when used for breeding.

3. The pups need to be trained to rest calmly in separate crates while they are young. Putting two dogs in the same crate causes all kinds of problems, including excessive stress, fighting, and an over-dependence on each other. If there’s a mess, both are confined in it. Neither can get away from the other, and that’s just not natural for dogs. Plus, they very much need to learn while young that it is safe to be alone. And they need to bond with humans, which is hard for them to do when they spend all their time with another dog.

4. Each pup needs plenty of outings with humans without the other pup. This is an essential part of the pup developing an individual identity and the ability to function without the other one. It also gives the pup a desperately needed opportunity to bond with humans.

All dogs need to go out with you for socialization to people, places and things. The difference with two puppies is that you need to do double outings, ideally one per day for each puppy. This process is best continued at least until a year of age, longer for some dogs.

5. Each pup needs to be trained as an individual. When you have one puppy, a lot of training can happen around the house in the course of the day. Having two puppies complicates things. The outings will give you necessary opportunities to train the puppies away from each other.

Responsibility in dogs is an individual trait, not a group characteristic. A group of people is a mob and a group of dogs is a pack. A pack will do things you don’t want your dogs doing, because their instincts get over-stimulated and a different set of instincts kicks in.

Your best hope of controlling your dogs when they are together is to have an excellent foundation of training with each dog as an individual. Without that, the dogs can get hurt, other animals and people in the household can get hurt, and you can get hurt, too. You need to be able to control each dog with just your voice, not sticking your hands into a situation with teeth flashing.

Each dog needs to go to training class weekly without the other dog (many instructors wisely will not let family members train two dogs from the same family in the same class) and practice the class homework daily away from the other dog. As they become well-trained, you’ll also want to practice working them together so they also learn to obey with the pack influence.

Why It’s Hard

Because of the need to separate the dogs for training, for bonding time with humans, and to prevent them from becoming unable to function apart—it’s actually more than twice the work to raise two puppies at the same time. Things like housetraining can present huge challenges, too, since the scent of an accident from one puppy stimulates the other puppy to use the same spot.

If you get two males, housetraining problems can escalate as they mature. For best housetraining results, try to have males neutered by a year of age at the latest. Research shows it helps at any age, though, so if that time has passed, it’s still worth neutering for housetraining and for other reasons, such as prostate health in later life.

We don’t necessarily think in terms of “identity” with dogs, but it might help if we did. From human twins it has been learned that too much togetherness can make it difficult for each to develop a healthy sense of identity. Like human twins, dogs sometimes must be separated. If they have not learned to function comfortably as individuals, this can stress them at such times as illness or the death of one of the dogs. It is much kinder to the dogs to develop their separate identities right from the start.

Growing up together does not override normal dog instincts as they mature. You have probably noticed that not all human siblings can get along with each other as adults! The same is true of dogs. It’s nature’s way for those with leadership qualities to divide up and form separate packs that are small enough to live successfully on the food supplies in each pack’s home area.

In the wild when the pups grow up and two don’t find a natural pack order with each other, one leaves to join a new pack or form one. But in our homes, our dogs are not free to move out. When they grow up and these problems become apparent, some dogs are not easy to place in new homes. Too many people will only adopt puppies and won’t even consider adult dogs. It also hurts the dog’s chances of adoption to have a history of fighting and possibly scars.

It’s emotionally wrenching for us to give up one of the dogs we’ve grown to love, too. If you start with a male and a female rather than two dogs of the same sex, this probably will not happen. He can be top male and she can be top female, and they don’t have to compete head-to-head. It’s still a lot of work, but at maturity they are likely to get along. (That is, unless you have other dogs in the home—in which case, it’s going to be even harder to make it work bringing in two pups at once.)

One last concern when you get two pups together is that they will be the same age at the other end of life. It’s likely that you will lose them close together. That is extremely tough emotionally on the family. It’s much better to space your dog’s ages out if you can.

One is Loads of Fun!

It’s actually pretty easy to work around the reasons people think it would be better to get two pups than one. The loneliness thing? Dogs sleep about 14 hours a day, often more for puppies. Most of the time you’re gone to work is sack-out time for the pup, if you carefully condition the young one to feeling calm in a safe confinement area.

Being the only puppy in there, Lucky Pup gets to have goodies it wouldn’t be safe to leave with two competitive pups together, even if you need to use a small room or portable exercise pen with Little L at first because of the length of your work day.

Dog walker, pet sitter, day boarding with your veterinarian, friend or relative to watch your pup during the early months until pup can hold it all day? Less expensive for one pup than two, and more friends and relatives willing to do it!

Puppy vaccinations and medical bills? Vaccination costs and some other bills cut in half. Medical bills from one puppy catching something and passing it on to the other puppy cut even more, and ditto for medical costs to repair puppies damaging each other in rough play.

Outings? One puppy can go along where you go much more often, because one puppy is welcome in a lot of places that couldn’t handle two puppies. Like oh, say, your relatives’ house for a family party. So instead of taking one pup along to that and then thinking up someplace else to take the other pup that day beforehand when you’re rushed or afterward when you’re tired, you get it done in one. Plus the puppy is with you, not home with no potty access.

At spay/neuter time, you can easily schedule the procedure for the ideal time for this pup, not having to compromise in order to prevent an accidental breeding. You also won’t have to worry about separating the pups while each recovers from surgery. (Try doing that for two pups at once—it’s like running a hospital ward!)

Bonding with one puppy is easy-peasy when you do the right things. It happens naturally. It’s work, yes, but it fits most people’s lifestyles much more easily than trying to do the process with two. With good handling and training, your puppy naturally becomes a member of the family.

Enough puppy to go around? For maybe two weeks the kids might compete over who gets to play with the puppy. After that, the “new has worn off,” and taking care of the puppy becomes work! The more people in the family to share the labor, the better. Make sure everyone knows exactly what their part is, so people aren’t all hoping “someone else” will do it, and the dog goes untrained and uncared for.

Raising two puppies at the same time can be done, but...are you sure that’s what you want to do? When you do a great job with one puppy, you may be surprised just how much love and enjoyment comes in that one little (but possibly very fast-growing!) package.

Your attention is an important resource, too. Each dog needs time with you every day away from the other dog. Even dogs who fight at times can be extremely dependent on each other, and they must learn to tolerate being separated. They must learn. This is very important. You don't do dogs any favors by letting them get that dependent on each other. It is very unhealthy for them. At first you may need to have someone keep the other dog entertained while you work with one of them, but they will quickly become accustomed to the routine.

At this point, that individual time with each dog needs to be training time. I highly recommend the book Dog Training for Dummies by Jack and Wendy Volhard. Start immediately with each dog on the leadership exercises: the long down and the long sit. You need the instructions to do these exercises, because they are probably not what you would guess they are! If it's more available when you look for the book, the Volhard book The Canine Good Citizen also has this program in it.

Do the rest of the basic exercises in the book, too--with each dog, away from the other dog. Each dog needs a strong individual relationship with you, and training is the humane way to do that. The Alpha stuff, well, I don't place a lot of faith in it. We are often wrong about which dog is alpha, for one thing! If you teach each dog to obey you, you call the shots with them, and you give each dog an equal amount of individual time, you're likely to do much better than with the alpha "tricks." I actually found when I had a strong pack leader dog who tended to be aggressive about food with other dogs if he had a chance, that it was far better to feed him LAST. He was then reminded multiple times a day that he was not in charge of feeding--I was!

Outings are important in bonding with dogs. Obedience class is a great way to do that, and also provide some of the individual time with each dog. I know it's twice as much work to take each dog to class separately, take each dog out to practice separately, and make that conscious effort to spend individual time with each dog all the time. Eventually it won't have to be every day, but I would keep it to at least three times a week for awhile, and never drop below once a week. You'll find a lot of other rewards in doing this, besides hopefully stabilizing the two same sex dogs into a peaceful lifestyle.

 

Thank you thank you

Thank you so much for posting that article, while it was a little hard for me to read all the negativities, it at least showed me what I had to look forward to, if we don't follow the advice.....now I am worried.......but we are working with them separetly, and hope that it will all go well, they are beautiful lil girls and we want a happy, heathly environment for them to be in..

 

Maggie101
Here is the photo posting process
1. You must first upload a reasonable size photo to an existing personal website. If you don't have your own then you can resigter with one of the many photo hosting sites for free where you can upload and share photos. One of those sites is Photo Bucket
http://www.photobucket.com
2. To have a photo show up in your post first copy the exact address to the photo on your personal site. The address would look something like this http://home.flash.net/~jdebess/Photos/dive1.jpg
If you click on that link you will see the photo of Duke.
3. To have it show up in the post first click the Img button. You will see a tag added to you post
4. To see if you were successful click the PREVIEW button below the message box. If you see the photo you can then hit the SUBMIT button to post your message and photo.
If you do not see the photo in the preview then you have something wrong with the adrdress or the IMG tags so recheck that line.
5. Finally, if you get that process down, you can add an avitar to the box that will appear just under your user name. Upload a small 80 X 80 pixel photo to your hosting site then go to your dogster profile page. At the bottom of your profile page is a box to add an avitar. Paste in the address to your small photo and it will now apprea under your name everytime you post a message. You can change your avitar photo anytime.
I know this may be confusing at first so let me know if you have any questions.
Here is that photo of Duke using the above address. All I had to do was to use the tags on either side of the address.

 

"Thank you so much for posting that article, while it was a little hard for me to read all the negativities, it at least showed me what I had to look forward to, if we don't follow the advice.....now I am worried......."


I didnt mean to scare you, dont be worried, You will be fine, It doesnt matter how many pups you have 1 or even 3 there will always be negatives to the postives. its just having littermates is more challenging to raise and train., and this info is good to have. I know people who have littermates and had no problems what so ever.

I think to remember the most iimportant part is training and treating them as individuals, and you said you do ahve a lot of free time to work witth them so that is a HUGE positive.

good Luck!!!

 

One of our girls is sick!!!!

One of the girls is sick, she has diarrea..........they were spayed on tues. everything was fine, then harley woke yesterday sick...and very weak...I know if you change the food there digestive track has a hard time, with the change, we bought puppy chow, they were used to science diet, so we mixed them together........well I am going to just stick with the food they are used to, the science diet and see if this helps, but I am concerned, that it could be something else.......any ideas????? the other puppy is just fine, runnning around and just plan being a puppy, so this is weird.....HELP