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It's
exciting to think about the prospect of a new puppy.
Careful
research and planning are necessary to ensure you get
the right type of dog that will suit your family and
lifestyle, and preparing your environment — readying
the back yard and home, purchasing a crate, new puppy
toys, etc. — is done before the puppy arrives.
Then
comes the dilemma: You're at the shelter, faced with the
possibility of saving two lives instead of one, or the
breeder's home, looking at the last two pups in the
litter, which the breeder agrees to give you a deal on
so as not to separate them.
You begin
to wonder, "Why not take two?"
Most of
us don't take on new puppies very often, and chances
are, the details of the trials and tribulations that
went into raising your last puppy have faded. The
reality of nearly around-the-clock care and supervision
kicks in as soon as you bring a puppy home, and the
effort required nearly doubles when you bring home two.
Of great
concern is the need to treat each pup as an individual
and develop a relationship with each puppy separately.
Competition for your time and attention can cause
puppies to squabble with each other, and create a
stressful atmosphere. It is important that each puppy
learn to be relaxed and confident without the other.
Training
and the majority of play with you should also occur with
one pup at a time, so this means double the time spent
with basic house manners and training overall.
Pups need
their own identity, so similar names should be avoided
— Rex and Tex would not be good choices, but Skippy
and Dash are unique in both sound and syllable. Puppy is
taught his name in the absence of the other by saying
his name and acknowledging his eye contact with you in
response.
Although
puppies will share a bowl at mealtime, this can create
competition over food, which results in stress and
conflict between pups, resource guarding and too much or
too little food consumption. Separate bowls, located
away from each other, work best.
Puppies
need the benefit of a crate — to sleep in at night,
and as a training aid in house manners. Siblings should
not share a crate, no matter how much they enjoy each
other's company. Crate time is for rest and relaxation,
and practice at being comfortable while alone.
I believe
that having two dogs can be of benefit to the entire
family, but raising two puppies at the same time is not
something I would ever recommend.
Plan
carefully, choose wisely and devote all of your
available time to properly raising and educating a puppy
through adolescence into young adulthood. And if you
still have the energy, funds and stamina after all of
that, then it's time to look for compatible puppy No. 2.
———
Lisa Moore's
pet-behavior column appears once a month on the Weekly
Pet Page. Write to her in care of LifeStyles,
The Modesto Bee
, P.O. Box 5256,
Modesto
95352.
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