Are we crazy for getting 2 Discussions

Hello everyone! My name is Kyle. My wife Kristen and I are GSPs lovers. We recently lost an amazing GSP far too early at age 6 due to a congenital liver failure. We've mourned her and she'll never be forgotten but we are starting to feel like it's time to bring another GPS back in our family. Only this time we are actually considering 2 siblings at once. Are we crazy?? We understand the obvious cons, particularly with the energy of a GSP but are we crazy for considering 2 sibling pups at once? Does anyone have experience with this? Would love to hear to crowds experience.

If you get two puppies at the same time, you just need to be able to provide enough one on one attention for each of them. This is the biggest reason getting siblings results in "failure". And is the actual science behind the "sibling syndrome" you'll hear/read about.

If you know the breed well and like the "average GSP" (versus, we only know ours but she was wonderful - which could be that she did not represent the average breed personality/temperament), then I'd say go for it with the following qualifications:

Each of you spend one on one time with each of the dogs. As much asyou would if there wasjust one puppy. This means twice the amount of time. This ensures that both puppies get the necessary amount of socialization, training and bonding. This is where most people fall short - they figure the puppies will keep each other company so they don't have to be as involved. And that creates behavioral problems as the puppuies grow up. So, EACH puppy gets as much attention from you both as you would give a solo puppy. There will be twice as much time standing out in the rain waiting for puppies to potty, twice as much chewing, and four times as much puppy play (that grows exponentially with the number of puppies).

Know that if you get siblings, you are much more likely to lose them both in a short period of time. Having just recently lost your dog and feeling the sorrow and loss, consider this two-fold.

If either or both of those is daunting, then I recommend getting one puppy now. Spend 2-4 years raising that dog, then get another puppy. That way you are only potty training and socializing one puppy at a time. AND, the first puppy will be old enough to help raise the second puppy.

I frequently taught my puppies to heal on leash simply by attaching them to the older trained dog with a "doublet" (attaches two dogs to one leash). That also taught the puppy recall - as long as the older dog comes when called, the attached puppy has to come too - so puppy learns.

Thank you so much for your detailed response and time ToedToes! We will consider all of this. Thanks again!