Any help in training 2 puppies at once is much appreciated. I have been trying to take them out one at a time and that has helped a bit but I know its going to be a lot of work to make sure they focus on us and not each other!! We did get them their own crate after a couple nights together. We weren't planning on two but did it and now we have to make sure we raise good dogs. They are such good puppies but need to make sure that they stay that way. Yellow lab Mason 8 wks 14.4 pounds Black lab Dixon 8 wks 15.2 pounds
Hi there, welcome to the forum and congratulations on your lovely puppies. The reason that training two puppies is so time consuming is because you can't train the two of them at once. At least, not to begin with. Training involves marking and rewarding the exact behavior you want at exactly the right time. Your puppies are rarely going to be behaving in exactly the same way at the same time, even if you were capable of observing them both closely at the same time. It just isn't possible. So what you need to do is put one puppy out of the way while you train the other, and then swap them around. As they grow older and you build some duration into their behaviors you can start adding a second dog into the equation. You'll need another person to help you with this. Others on the forum have succeeded and it isn't impossible, but it's quite a challenge! Do let us know if you have questions or need help.
What I'm going to say might sound really negative, but I feel that I have to say it for the benefit of the puppies... It's really not a good idea to get two puppies at once. Very occasionally, it can work out ok - but it is never optimal. Puppies need a lot of individual time and attention. IMO it simply isn't possible to give the puppy the same amount of individual time and attention they would receive in a household where they were the only puppy, if they are homed together. Puppies homed together tend to be seen as one homogenous unit - 'the puppies' or 'the girls' or 'the boys' or 'the dogs' - and not invested in, as individuals, as they would be if they were the only dog in the home. There is such a thing as 'littermate syndrome' which is quite common amongst puppies raised together - as a behaviourist, I see several cases a year of it. The last case I saw, there ended up being one confident dog and the other dog was very timid, especially when her sister wasn't with her. She had attached to her sister and didn't feel safe when she wasn't around. The owner had taken them both out together to 'socialise' them, and together she hadn't even noticed that one pup wasn't really interacting with the world and she seemed fine when her sister was with her. The reality is that her sister had received most attention and the timid pup had been able to fade into the background more and not to be 'noticed'.... until she entered adolescence and became reactive due to fear. The case I saw before that, someone had gotten two puppies which just played together the whole time in rough play. They had taken them out to 'socialise' them, but they weren't very interested in looking at the world and learning about it - they just wanted to get to each other all the time and play. The problem they came to me with is that they were very hard to train and they didn't want to focus on people/handlers - meaning, they just weren't very into relating to people and didn't see that as a reinforcing thing to do - because, at a formative time of their lives, they had bonded excessively to their sibling and had not had a 1-2-1 relationship with a meaningful person or people - it was all about rough play. The case I saw before THAT, was two siblings which had been fine together during puppyhood but had now started to fight in adolescence. The owner returned home one day and found one puppy with a bite wound dripping blood. On adolescence, dogs enter sexual maturity and if dogs are too 'similar' in age - particularly if they are the same sex - they can start to fight because they experience each other as more of a threat. With puppies of difference sexes, it's almost going to force early neutering on you to prevent unwanted matings and puppies - not ideal. And finally, the other end of life: It is likely you will lose both dogs close together in time, because they are the same age. And if one dies before the other, the one that is left is heartbroken because their main attachment figure has gone... And so on and on and on. As a very occasional breeder, I would never place two puppies in the same home and, if anyone asked for two, that in itself would count against them because I would consider them to be a home that hadn't done their research and fully understood what is involved in raising a puppy. As a trainer, I won't take two puppies in the same household, into the same class - because they need that precious time to be alone without their sibling, to learn how to focus on their 'person', to learn how to socialise with other breeds that are not their own - and not to spend the entire class attempting to get to each other. There is more information about littermate syndrome and owning two puppies at once, in these links: http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/is...ems-Adopting-Two-Puppies-At-Once_16190-1.html http://blog.betternaturedogtraining.com/2013/07/18/littermate-syndrome/ So - to end with - every time this happens, I advise people not to have two puppies. If I manage to reach people before they have actually brought the puppies home, I am sometimes successful and they tell the breeder they only want one. If I reach people after they have the puppies, I am almost never successful because people don't want to take a puppy back after they have begun to bond, and can't choose which one to keep. But one can try... So: My advice would be to return one of your puppies to the breeder now and whilst they are still easily re-homable 8/9 week old puppies that can be easily resold. Enjoy your one pup and give them all the time and attention they deserve to get - your full quote of time and attention...
