Two puppies

C

charliebrowne

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Anyone any experience of two pups from the same litter. Is it a nightmare or is it worth doing. i wonder does it stop the pups bonding with you cos they have each other? Any advice positive or negative would be gratefully received. I am an experienced dog owner having border collies all my life which I have trained for open obedience shows. Should I or shouldn't I. They would be two bitches by the way.
 
Never.
I have kept two from one litter a couple of times when running on a pup for export plus the one for myself.
Much more work than one puppy.

Some breed clubs actually have it in their code of ethics that two puppies must not be sold together as the problems are well known.
 
I never advise it to be fair, and we never rehome 2 siblings from a same litter from our rescue.
A, as you already suggest they tend to take alot more notice of one another than they do you, it's hard to lend time to train 2 at the same time unless one can be handled by someone else or left behind on training occasions.
Bad habits will be passed back and forth and you generally get the whole one follows from the other whilst the other leads and insecurities/bad habits from one will be picked up by another, so it can be very frustrating at times.
Then there is the whole bonding thing, whereby if they do have to be split for any reason the other stresses.
Saying that if you are experienced and up for the challenge then it's personal preference, plenty of folk do take sibling, some regret it and some don't.
 
I have 2 siblings brother & sister Dobes from rescue, they wanted them to go together and I know its a big no no but adopted them anyway. They were 18months when I had them and were well and truely bonded. All training is conducted separately but I walk them together, they are lovely dogs but I dont think I will ever have the bond Ive had with my previous dogs. They are still young 2yrs 5months and Dobes are slow maturers so there is still hope but if I was buying puppies I would buy from separate litters.

Also I believe that the general opinion is not to have 2 bitches but 1 of each sex or 2 brothers.
 
Thank you for those replies I think it confirms what i already thought and I will now stop trying to talk myself into having two. Will post pics when I decided which ONE to have.
 
Just to buck the the trend, I had two terrier bitch sisters and had no problems, if anything i found it easier. yes they were bonded but they bonded to me as well hardly any squabbles and as terriers go easy to train, no problems with other dogs. I would do it again.
 
I would have had two puppies from the same litter if I had been allowed by OH, but we now have Harry and Obi who were picked up on the same day, both dogs, both very "different", Obi is now squished onto the two seater with me and Harry is lying on OH knee. They were trained together and sleep together and so far fingers crossed get on like a house on fire most of the time! Obi's recall is the only thing we have to work on as Harry is so food orientated it's easy. i've now reverted to the exited shouting and running away waving my arms to get his attention!
 
My friend got 2 from the same litter (her brothers hitched HUGE mistake) they ate a nightmare, I have eventually managed to get some (and I use that lightly) obedience into them but it was really hard work and they will still run away from the yard if they are not tied up.
 
After the death of my FIL, my MIL purchased two bitches from the same litter. I was a tad concerned bearing in mind she was not quite herself but have to say she hasn't had any problems, although they are now a pack of seven.
 
i know youve already decided but just wanted to add,

i always tell people its a bad idea when im asked for advice, however i do know of occasions where its worked out ok.

however, if you are talking bc's again and are going to compete, imho no way. Honestly, you'll never get the same level of work or the same bond with you to work, if that makes sense unless you do absolutely everything separately. In which case it would be better to focus on one anyway. We have 5 BC's at the moment and my pup is 8 months. I still keep her separate from the others - they are in kennels and she is in the house for now. Yes we do walk them all together sometimes but I tend to walk her on her own everyday and of course training is individual anyway.
 
I see you decided on one, probably super sensible. I just wanted to share my experience cos I've done it twice :eek:

I got two springers 8 years ago, brothers. I have to say they preferred us to each other (although they were sweet together but not reliant and didn't care if separated)
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They were trained together, which I think helped as Brig is not super bright and copied his more intelligent brother :D
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When Jake was PTS last year, we got two more (and I don't remember anyone saying how insane we were, for which I was grateful!). One is a piece of cake, easy to train and very bonded to Brig, not his brother.

The other was a blinking trauma and should have been a lone dog so he could have ALL of the attention :rolleyes:. Saying that, they're very bonded to us and would rather be on our knees than together. I've not found the sibling problems and I think it must surely depend on temperament. I think I've been lucky! It was definitely hard work and training will never end. I confess I got very upset at Zak's behaviour sometimes, but he had a hard time as a baby. Now they're 15 months, cuddly little gorgeous things and I'm madly in love with them.
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CT I do think you have been really lucky because most reputable breeders will not sell siblings. This obviously has been known for a long time because when I bought my first Heeler over 20yrs ago the breeder wouldnt sell me 2 from the same litter because of the problems it can cause.

My 2 Dobes do not have a problem being separated In fact sometimes Diesel will chose to sleep in my bedroom whilst Darcy is happy on her own down stairs. But as I said before they are really bonded together but I didnt have them until they were 18months old.
 
I wouldn't recommend two even though I've kept two sisters from my last litter. Generally twice the work and a tendancy to obey each other and not who's calling them but actually this time my two have been the best behaved I've got - except for chewing things they shouldn't lol
 
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