I am getting an 8 week old male puppy on March 31. I am thinking of getting his sister too. Is this a bad idea?
The biggest issue with getting two puppies at the same time is that it makes it very difficult to give each one the one-on-one time they need to bond with you. This often leads to behavioral problems due to lack of socialization. Ideally, with a puppy, you want to spend a lot of time giving him the chance to experience new things and helping him be comfortable with them. This is difficult to do when you have two puppies needing the same amount of your undivided attention at the same time. Two puppies is four times the work of one puppy. While trying to stop one puppy from peeing in the house, the other is likely going to pee in the house. While rescueing your shoe from a puppy, you will have another shoe being chewed on somewhere else. The puppies will egg each other on. It is very difficult trying to train two puppies at once and be consistent. While working with one puppy, you have to keep watch on the other to make sure she isn't doing unwanted behaviors. Not every dog wants a sibling. While they may get along great as puppies, as they grow into adults, they may not want to share you or their home with each other. Having two puppies the same age, means you will most likely lose them around the same time. This can be very difficult emotionally. I would recommend getting the one puppy now. Give him your full undivided attention for his first 2-3 years. Then decide if getting a second dog is right for you and him. By that time, he will be settled, grown, and have good behaviors under his belt, so you can put your effort into a new puppy.
Thank you again….you really give good advice! I never thought about the things you mentioned. Yep going to stick with one puppy. Lol. Two sounds way too hard for what I need.
You're welcome. People do two puppies, but often they are overwhelmed by it. Nowadays, you'll hear about "littermate syndrome" - it is simply the result when you have two puppies about the same age and you can't give each the time and attention they need to become happy well-contented dogs.
I had two from the same litter and in many respects it worked very well and they kept each other company. They even got on well with the cat, so a little trio. But! Going on holidays was trickier. Most people are happy to look after one dog, but it's much harder to ask people to look after two.
I was thinking about that…if I go on vacation and stay at anyones house or whatever that it would be hard. I am just getting the little boy. I don’t want to get in over my head.
Having two dogs definitely makes going out and doing things with them more difficult. As for "keeping each other company", that is a two-sided sword: they will keep each other company, but they can cause a lot more damage doing so.
