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Is it difficult raising two puppies at the same time?


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Hey, I'm just wondering if you think I'll be able to handle two puppies at the same time. Is it too hard raising two puppies at the same time? Should I just stick with one? I am not going to get puppies soon, I'm just wondering for the future. With their energetic personalilty and their good brains, will two be way to much to handle? Thanks for your help.

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I would never raise 2 pups together for "fun." The only reason I would take on littermates is to double my chances of getting the sort of working dog I want from a particular breeding. I raised littermates together, they are teenagers now, and it was challenging. I would not say I enjoyed the experience of having multiple young pups and there were days I questioned my sanity. If I was home all day it might have been a different experience.

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Hey, I'm just wondering if you think I'll be able to handle two puppies at the same time. Is it too hard raising two puppies at the same time? Should I just stick with one? I am not going to get puppies soon, I'm just wondering for the future. With their energetic personalilty and their good brains, will two be way to much to handle? Thanks for your help.

 

I went through this myself and if you do a search Im sure you will find several threads pertaining to this exact subject.

 

One of the best arguments for NOT doing two pups is the fact that they live relatively the same lifespan. Having two die so close together is probably the worst thing I could imagine so getting them spread out a bit might help you cope with the inevitable loss that will one day come.

 

However, I took the leap of faith anyway and I havent looked back since. I have a BC pup ready to turn 6 months old on the 7th and my adopted BC pup 11 months on the 10th. Truthfully it hasnt been that much harder once I got the routines down and they did too. Consistency is the key I would say.

 

The biggest thing is that you have to train them apart from each other but it offers good distraction for being solid when the other is around. I have found that I only end up with a ball in my lap 250 times a day rather than the 500 before adopting Zak. They keep each other entertained quite a bit but at the same time they both crave my attention and its wonderful to be smothered in black and white fur :D

 

So no, its not more difficult really and in many ways it has made things easier. It seems that I have always raised the BCs in my life with a partener when I look back. At least when the pup was in the household he had a senior to look up to. This is the closest I have had in age but Zak is more like an adult and mellow for his age. I would say wait until your dog is about 2 and then bring on the pup for best results. Just make sure you have the time to commit to training both of them and I say you are good to go. I will say that if your current pup grows up and learns his manners he will most likely impart those somewhat to the younger. When my Skyler (who is now passed on) would get into trouble as a pup, his senior BC Jackie would correct him for me much of the time. Its amazing how smart these dogs are!

 

Also, consider it double the vet bills (and if one gets sick the other may get it too if its catchy) and double the food bill. Zak is a big hog so mine trippled :rolleyes: Good luck with the potential pooch and post pics if you get one!

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It really depends on how much you can handle. If you have a a real good amount of training experience and time then I could see it being reasonable but personally, not something I will do, ever. Personally, I feel that one pup at a time on top of our current dogs is enough at a time, our dogs are spaced a few years apart. Having one pup allows me to focus on that particular pup's needs.

 

One thing I would remember if you do decide to get two at the same time, would be not to compare them apples to apples, even though they are both border collie, doesn't mean they have the same personalities, bidability, drives etc.

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I've done it several times over and actually enjoyed it, however that being said I'm home all the time with the dogs, spend tons of time playing with and exercising them on my 8 acres and they accompany me around doing farm chores (in other words, they are very content and tired pups at the end of the day). In other circumstances such as having to go out to work every day and leave pups alone I'm sure it would be different, though at least they'd have each other for company and playtime when you're away. Probably the hardest thing I found was the house-training stage, trying to get both pups outside when they woke up etc. before any accidents occurred. Recall can be difficult too if they decide to go in different directions and not listen, probably best to spend a lot of individual time training that. With mine, my pups are never my only dogs they are part of the "pack" so they learn recall very easily by following the other dogs around (plus with 8 acres we've got a large safe area for them to run).

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This topic was covered recently here. It's a good read--even though the topic is about littermates, much of the discussion is about raising two pups together, whether or not they are littermates. This is such a recent post that it might explain why you're not getting a lot of answers to this post.

 

J.

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If you look up the word "masochist" in the dictionary, you will find one of the definitions as follows: "A person who voluntarily chooses to raise two puppies at one time; the term is particularly applicable if both puppies are Border Collies."

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