Emma and Will at eight weeksThurs. Jan. 8, 2008
When we were a one-dog family, we were always thinking that it would be good to have another dog to be a companion for Tobie, our long-loved border collie. We also thought it would be nice for each of us to have a dog with us on our frequent walks and forays into the countryside. When we had our son’s dog with us for a time, it was not difficult to handle, and was actually fun to go for walks with both of them. I could even handle the two together myself with no issues. These were both adult dogs at the time, however.
We went looking for a pup not planning to get two of them. We had set our hearts on getting a female, mostly because that is what we had before, and we loved her immensely. It was when we saw the litter of fluffy little black and whites that my husband looked at me and said "Should we get two?" I guess the idea stuck and from that moment on we were fixated on which of the boys in the litter should we get. Since there was only one little girl, and since she seemed to pick us, we knew we were set with Emma. But there were two little boys that weren’t spoken for yet, and it was a tough choice between the two of them. Neither one of them was overly energetic, and both settled into my arms comfortably. The choice was made by me, with Jim actually stating it out loud, of the little boy that looked like he would resemble his father, Joe, who I had fallen for the moment I laid eyes on him. He was a beautiful, full-coated black and white border collie, with the softest eyes and most gentle face. I saw this in Will, and still do.
The puppies were only five weeks old when we chose them, so we had to wait till they were seven weeks, at the minimum. December 14 was the earliest date they could leave their mother, being fully weaned by then, and able to leave for the comfort of their new home. We weren’t actaully able to pick them up until eight days later than that, since it was a seven hour drive to the farm where they were born, and we had to plan around time-off and Christmas travel back to Canada.
In the meantime, we had oodles of time to explore the internet and books at the library on all kinds of puppy issues. One of those issues involved the raising of two puppies at the same time. Upon googling that term, I came across a website that proclaimed that all who attempt to do this must be near crazy, or stupid, or even insane. All comments on this website made us feel like we were the dumbest of the dumb to expect that this could be done. It was disaster from the word go, according to this supposed expert. There was more of the same on a couple of other websites, but there was also some reassurance and words of advice on how it could be done. Primarily, like the breeder had told us, it was most important to keep the puppies separate in separate crates, fed separately, go to training classes separately, and just about everything else they do should be independent of one another. Of course, this seems like it contadicts what we want - that is, two dogs that can be together and keep each other company. But now we realize, that will come later, once they are trained and have established themselves independently.
After reading all this doom and gloom, we both had second thoughts on what we had decided, and I emailed the breeder, who wrote back reassuring me that it is highly possible. She also said she had just discussed this very issue with someone who had purchased two siblings from her and said she would never do it any other way, since it has been such a good experience for her. She also reassured us that she would be there for us, if we had any problems or issues. So, we decided to stick with our plan to get the two puppies, and to do our best to follow all the recommended procedures to raise these pups as strong and independent dogs.
The Challenge of raising two puppies
So far, so good, but I do have say it is like raising twins, which I guess they are. The difficulty is that every trip outdoors to do ‘duties’ is done twice, every meal is prepared for two, every playtime must be split between two. It is easy enough when two of us are home, but when it is just one of us, which so far has been mostly me since I am the chief caretaker while Jim is at work, it is a fine balancing act.
It’s a matter of getting into a routine. The biggest time consumer is the duty walk. At this age, (ten and a half weeks) a puppie’s bladder can only hold urine for about two and a half hours, according to the books. On average, a pup can hold it for the number of hours equivalent to his number of months of age. Well, I might agree with this for our little girl Emma, but for our big boy Will, I would say that he hasn’t read the book. He goes when and almost anywhere he feels like. I think it’s the instinct that males have to mark their territory, and he started this even at eight weeks when we first brought him home. So, as the book says, we need to take them out every hour, on the hour. It is almost this often, but we don’t actually wake them if they are sleeping. We take them out as soon as we wake up in the morning, even if they’ve done their business in their pen. They are getting used to going outside to go, and are even getting better at going almost as soon we take them out. We were in the habit of standing or walking with them until they went, but have decided the cold winter days don’t allow for this. If they don’t go within five or even ten minutes, in the house they go, to come out again in a few minutes. Yes, this means many trips, but it is starting to give them the idea. Emma, as I said, is getting the hang of it and has had more good days than Will. As I said before, Will has longer to go, but it gives me hope to remember that one day they both will be trained, and they will be able to go out together. These weeks (or perhaps months) which seem endless now, will pass before our eyes. There is something to be said, however, about getting a pup in the springtime when you don’t have to bundle up and put your snowboots on every time you go out!
The next biggest challenge for us now is their playtime together. We really noticed that after about a week they would playfight in more and more of a vicious sounding way. We thought that we should not let them play with each other for awhile so we kept them apart for about five or six days. We re-introduced them to each other, and of course the playfighting continued with a loud sounding growling, and lots of pulling at each other and biting fur and shaking heads like they wanted to twist off the fur. We used some treats and tried to teach them to ‘settle’ when they got too loud. This seemed to work to slow them down, and to get their breath long enough to come up for air. We feel like we have a little control over them with this command. Now we let them be together about two or three times a day, and under supervision, they playfight to their hearts content, or until it starts to get a little too violent. We’ve been told that they need this time to ‘work it out’, but we want to let them know that we are there to monitor and to protect if it does get too rough.
We are trying to determine who is the alpha dog, and from the start it seemed that the little girl is really the one who’s aggressive and less submissive. She has the loudest growl, and grabs the tightest. Will seems to get into a submissive posture more often, and when he is on top, he uses his size and body mass to just hold her down. He is only a few pounds heavier, but seems a lot longer and wider than Emma. He is more gentle, but still has a tight grip and knows that he can garner a yelp if he grabs a wiggly tail as it tries to escape. Emma knows that her teeth are her best defence, second to her growl. She also is the more wiry and wily one, and will find a place to hide to escape her big brother. It does seem that the thing they love most is to play with each other, even if to us it seems like they are trying to kill each other.
We went looking for a pup not planning to get two of them. We had set our hearts on getting a female, mostly because that is what we had before, and we loved her immensely. It was when we saw the litter of fluffy little black and whites that my husband looked at me and said "Should we get two?" I guess the idea stuck and from that moment on we were fixated on which of the boys in the litter should we get. Since there was only one little girl, and since she seemed to pick us, we knew we were set with Emma. But there were two little boys that weren’t spoken for yet, and it was a tough choice between the two of them. Neither one of them was overly energetic, and both settled into my arms comfortably. The choice was made by me, with Jim actually stating it out loud, of the little boy that looked like he would resemble his father, Joe, who I had fallen for the moment I laid eyes on him. He was a beautiful, full-coated black and white border collie, with the softest eyes and most gentle face. I saw this in Will, and still do.
The puppies were only five weeks old when we chose them, so we had to wait till they were seven weeks, at the minimum. December 14 was the earliest date they could leave their mother, being fully weaned by then, and able to leave for the comfort of their new home. We weren’t actaully able to pick them up until eight days later than that, since it was a seven hour drive to the farm where they were born, and we had to plan around time-off and Christmas travel back to Canada.
In the meantime, we had oodles of time to explore the internet and books at the library on all kinds of puppy issues. One of those issues involved the raising of two puppies at the same time. Upon googling that term, I came across a website that proclaimed that all who attempt to do this must be near crazy, or stupid, or even insane. All comments on this website made us feel like we were the dumbest of the dumb to expect that this could be done. It was disaster from the word go, according to this supposed expert. There was more of the same on a couple of other websites, but there was also some reassurance and words of advice on how it could be done. Primarily, like the breeder had told us, it was most important to keep the puppies separate in separate crates, fed separately, go to training classes separately, and just about everything else they do should be independent of one another. Of course, this seems like it contadicts what we want - that is, two dogs that can be together and keep each other company. But now we realize, that will come later, once they are trained and have established themselves independently.
After reading all this doom and gloom, we both had second thoughts on what we had decided, and I emailed the breeder, who wrote back reassuring me that it is highly possible. She also said she had just discussed this very issue with someone who had purchased two siblings from her and said she would never do it any other way, since it has been such a good experience for her. She also reassured us that she would be there for us, if we had any problems or issues. So, we decided to stick with our plan to get the two puppies, and to do our best to follow all the recommended procedures to raise these pups as strong and independent dogs.
The Challenge of raising two puppies
So far, so good, but I do have say it is like raising twins, which I guess they are. The difficulty is that every trip outdoors to do ‘duties’ is done twice, every meal is prepared for two, every playtime must be split between two. It is easy enough when two of us are home, but when it is just one of us, which so far has been mostly me since I am the chief caretaker while Jim is at work, it is a fine balancing act.
It’s a matter of getting into a routine. The biggest time consumer is the duty walk. At this age, (ten and a half weeks) a puppie’s bladder can only hold urine for about two and a half hours, according to the books. On average, a pup can hold it for the number of hours equivalent to his number of months of age. Well, I might agree with this for our little girl Emma, but for our big boy Will, I would say that he hasn’t read the book. He goes when and almost anywhere he feels like. I think it’s the instinct that males have to mark their territory, and he started this even at eight weeks when we first brought him home. So, as the book says, we need to take them out every hour, on the hour. It is almost this often, but we don’t actually wake them if they are sleeping. We take them out as soon as we wake up in the morning, even if they’ve done their business in their pen. They are getting used to going outside to go, and are even getting better at going almost as soon we take them out. We were in the habit of standing or walking with them until they went, but have decided the cold winter days don’t allow for this. If they don’t go within five or even ten minutes, in the house they go, to come out again in a few minutes. Yes, this means many trips, but it is starting to give them the idea. Emma, as I said, is getting the hang of it and has had more good days than Will. As I said before, Will has longer to go, but it gives me hope to remember that one day they both will be trained, and they will be able to go out together. These weeks (or perhaps months) which seem endless now, will pass before our eyes. There is something to be said, however, about getting a pup in the springtime when you don’t have to bundle up and put your snowboots on every time you go out!
The next biggest challenge for us now is their playtime together. We really noticed that after about a week they would playfight in more and more of a vicious sounding way. We thought that we should not let them play with each other for awhile so we kept them apart for about five or six days. We re-introduced them to each other, and of course the playfighting continued with a loud sounding growling, and lots of pulling at each other and biting fur and shaking heads like they wanted to twist off the fur. We used some treats and tried to teach them to ‘settle’ when they got too loud. This seemed to work to slow them down, and to get their breath long enough to come up for air. We feel like we have a little control over them with this command. Now we let them be together about two or three times a day, and under supervision, they playfight to their hearts content, or until it starts to get a little too violent. We’ve been told that they need this time to ‘work it out’, but we want to let them know that we are there to monitor and to protect if it does get too rough.
We are trying to determine who is the alpha dog, and from the start it seemed that the little girl is really the one who’s aggressive and less submissive. She has the loudest growl, and grabs the tightest. Will seems to get into a submissive posture more often, and when he is on top, he uses his size and body mass to just hold her down. He is only a few pounds heavier, but seems a lot longer and wider than Emma. He is more gentle, but still has a tight grip and knows that he can garner a yelp if he grabs a wiggly tail as it tries to escape. Emma knows that her teeth are her best defence, second to her growl. She also is the more wiry and wily one, and will find a place to hide to escape her big brother. It does seem that the thing they love most is to play with each other, even if to us it seems like they are trying to kill each other.
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