I nearly got a CAT yesterday - luckily it had already been adopted. (Combination of ginger+affectionate+female+the name Poppy had me melting!) My next pup won't be coming until October - it feels like a looong time! .
I had five dogs together at one time but we did have the space for them all , I loved it. Having one is good, having two is twice the fun and not much more effort , most of the time
My two are very different when together than when I have them apart. When I have them one-on-one, they are far more focussed on me, very switched on and stay really, really close. When I have them together, they don't necessarily interact too much with one another, but they will definitely have the confidence to roam farther - although still close compared to many dogs, I think. The closeness when we're all out together is something I'm constantly working on - but I have to work on it, which I don't when I have just one. They're also hard to "turn on" to me when we're out; again, not that they're distracted by one another, but I think just the fact the other one is there acts as some sort of confidence crutch for them, whereas they look to me more for guidance otherwise. I couldn't say if this is influenced at all by them being litter mates, or simply of the same age.
With Benson, he hasn't appeared to have altered his behavior one bit that I can tell. He is exceptionally tolerant, probably due to his young age and personality. I have crate trained Bramble, and this has worked well, Benson can have a break, whilst Bramble is quiet and comfortable in her crate. She can get overtired very quickly being young, like most pups at her age, so whilst having Benson as her playmate is great, we have to watch carefully to ensure she is not playing too much with him. Benson can get a little fed up, but doesn't give any obvious signals to her -well none that I can tell! Casper now 7, makes it very clear when he doesn't want to engage. He is happy for her to snuggle up, just not keen on being jumped on! I suspect this is mainly age related. I haven't much experience with them both outside of the farm, we have access to quite a large area, and I have noticed that Benson does embolden her somewhat! Our puppy trainer has advised that we do take Bramble on solo training walks so she relies on her own choices and not influenced too much by Benson at this stage. At the moment she will happily follow Benson anywhere! Whilst Casper didn't appear to have much impact on Benson, Benson has had a huge impact on Casper, to the point of a mild separation anxiety, but that is a completely different scenario! Brambles first eight weeks was in a large family home, with young children, other dogs, cats, and her siblings. She is predominately working line, and you can see that in her sensitive nature, very different than Benson as a pup who was bombproof from day one. She is very eager to please, almost anxious. It was important to us that her early weeks were in a busy household and not kennels. I think also that having 2 calm dogs here will help her going forward, it is lovely to watch her interact with the boys, she is so comfortable with them, and any other dogs that have visited. My gut feeling is that there may be a slight risk of her developing a more nervous disposition.
Very interesting, Kate, Fiona and Mags - @snowbunny, @Beanwood, @Boogie Charlie is different walking with other dogs he knows well, he is more confident - which is good, and bad, depending on the scenario. Good because he is boosted in dealing with all the horrors Wimbledon Common can throw at him, bad because I think a little caution is a good thing. I've stopped him walking with a dog walking pack, and now just arrange for him to walk with one dog at a time to make sure he has some company on the Common. It's ok so far....
I have the same with Benson and Casper. To the point I just work on very simple things if they are out together. If I do anything which means I switch to Benson...a retrieve for example, Casper will disengage, if I lose his focus I run the risk of him becoming too distracted.
It's funny, though, when I have my beautiful assistant (J ) and I get to do more formal training with the two of them together, they act the same as if we're in a one-on-one session. So I know they can work well for me when they're together, but obviously when we're more bimbling than working, they switch off to me a bit. I know if I had more discipline (myself, that is), I would be able to keep them sharper together, but they definitely pick up on my body language and can differentiate between work mode and walking-with-interactions mode. Which is good to some extent, I suppose. It's nice they can switch off and have a bimble, too, as long as they don't roam too far and keep an eye on me, but also know when it's appropriate to be "switched on".
Charlie is terrible at this - his behaviour is strongly linked to places, not cues from me. In my training field in Cornwall, he is a dream dog. Ignores other dogs, default walk at heel, he even only pees on cue at the edge of the field for goodness sake! It's quite, quite, wonderful. This is all because we do not 'walk' there, we only work. I can't get this anywhere else. Not even at class.
