# Training 2 dogs together.



## Heagler870 (Jun 27, 2009)

A little background info before I start. Riley is 7 months old while Apollo is 1 year 3 months. Apollo had no training from his previous owners. Just from me. Riley I've been training since I got him. Not as much as I should but he's good. When I try to work with both of them my 7 month old Riley is literally a pain in the A! Even though he's younger than Apollo he is the dominant one. So when I'm working with Apollo and my fiancée is holding Riley, Riley is trying to get to Apollo like a mad dog. He whines like a little baby. Apollo does excellent when they're both together so he's not the issue. When I took them to work with the dog trainer the other day even she said he's pretty bad around Apollo. She had got to work with Riley the a few days before and he did excellent without Apollo there. Yesterday I took only Riley out first to play fetch with a water bottle. He did EXCELLENT. He waits until I say go. I even had a 4 minute phone conversation with my mom and I made him wait the entire time. He did it no problem. Now, If I would have had Apollo out there he wouldn't have listened to me at all. He would have been up Apollo's butt the entire time. I guess what I'm asking is how do I get Riley to focus on me even while his best buddy Apollo is around? I haven't got that far with my trainer yet.


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## ZAYDA (Apr 22, 2010)

I think you have to work on your relationship with Riley one on one and after you have that pretty much mastered then try bringing Apollo into the picture a little at a time.


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## Heagler870 (Jun 27, 2009)

What do you mean by working on the relationship? I mean, like when we work one on one he focuses on me intently. I say his name and make sure he looks at me and he does every command I say. It all goes down the drain when Apollo is there. )+:


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## gsdraven (Jul 8, 2009)

Personally, I think you are expecting too much of Riley at this point. Work on their training separate from one another. They are both still very young and aren't able to focus with the distraction of their playmate. I think that Riley is acting up because he wants the attention on him or wants to play with Apollo which is more exciting than listening to Dad at the moment.

What other distractions have you tried training Riley around?


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## Heagler870 (Jun 27, 2009)

Nothing really. I go to the park and let him off leash. There are usually other dogs in the far distance, he looks at them, barks and then continues to play/learn with me.


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## BlackPuppy (Mar 29, 2007)

Your dogs are both pretty young. I would expect it to be pretty crazy. 

I train three dogs, but leave 2 in a different area while I train the third. If they are too excited, I'll put them in the house, because it can get noisy while they wait. 

Things I do train together are sit stays and down stays. I like to do this in the park on walks. Periodically, I make all of them sit or down. That way they get used to behaving in different environments.


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## kiya (May 3, 2010)

BlackPuppy said:


> I train three dogs, but leave 2 in a different area while I train the third. If they are too excited, I'll put them in the house, because it can get noisy while they wait.
> 
> Things I do train together are sit stays and down stays. I like to do this in the park on walks. Periodically, I make all of them sit or down. That way they get used to behaving in different environments.


Same here, I will do a recall outside in the yard with all 3 but the only thing bad with that is I can't get the pup to come sit directly in front of me.


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## sitstay (Jan 20, 2003)

The key is to train individually until you have the level of responsiveness that you want, then you start training together. For instance, if you want a solid recall at the park, train them separately until their recall is perfect. Then train them together to get the same great response, even when they have the distraction of the other dog there.

Expect some back sliding when you start working them together, but stick with it and you'll get there.
Sheilah


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## ZAYDA (Apr 22, 2010)

Heagler870 said:


> What do you mean by working on the relationship? I mean, like when we work one on one he focuses on me intently. I say his name and make sure he looks at me and he does every command I say. It all goes down the drain when Apollo is there. )+:


What I am saying is your puppy is still very young and working with him will build a certain relationship which you need to make fun and interesting. By doing this I would think after awhile you can bring Apollo into the mix but first you need to work one on one with Riley to show him what you expect from him.


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## Stogey (Jun 29, 2010)

I've only owned two GSD's once in my life. They were brother and sister. I found the best way to work with them were separately at first. As they learned the basics, then I could work with them together as a team, but it was a real pain in the bum for me being a novice owner and not having a forum like this to gleam information from ...


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## Whiteshepherds (Aug 21, 2010)

Our dogs are 6 months apart. When they were younger I would hook ones leash to the shed and give them a Kong to work on while I did training with the other one a few feet away. If the one not training starting bouncing around and barking I ignored them. If they stopped I'd run over and give them a treat/different toy etc. They learned pretty quickly that the leash attached to the shed meant "it's time to watch".


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