# raising two puppies at the same time



## blanca (Mar 5, 2011)

i always read that raising two puppies at the same time is a bad idea, but can anyone share more specific experience?

here's the story. my bf visited a dog breeder 2.5 months ago, immediately fell in love with a white shepherd and brought it home (classic story...). the pup is now 5 months old.

the dog breeder was a lousy and dirty one, and the pup has been having diarrhea since day 1 we had her. potty training is on the way, but the pup is still having accidents almost every other day. other than this, the pup is just great. we host our friend's old big poodle for a week every month, the two dogs get along fine (the old poodle is very well-trained and avoids conflicts, and the two dogs don't interact much).

yesterday, out of the blue, my bf visited another dog breeder site and saw a 2-year old brown labrador which is available for pick-up. we went there, this dog breeder seems so much more professional, organized and cleaner than the previous one. it has beagles, labradors, golden retrievers adults for pick-up and puppies for purchase. the adult dogs don't seem to be in a good shape (they are clearly overweight, have some skin problem etc), but the puppies are just adorable. now my bf is seriously into buying a 2-month old labrador. he almost paid and signed the papers, but i had serious doubts so i stopped him. he's even given the pup a name, and is seemingly wanting to pick up the pup soon.

we live in an apartment, there is a forest within 10 min walk. we had raised no dogs prior to the white shepherd (though we pet-sat well-trained dogs), raising a pup is just a whole new experience for both of us.

would anyone recommend accepting the challenge of having the second pup? it would be a 5-month old white shepherd and a 2-month old brown labrador. 

i'm confused. thanks.


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## Lucy Dog (Aug 10, 2008)

No, it's never a good idea to have puppies at the same time. The pup you already have deserves all of your time and attention. Raise, train, and bond with the puppy you already have. 

The second breeder doesn't sound like much of a breeder at all no matter how much cleaner they are. Beagles, labs, and goldens all ready to go?... it sounds more like a puppy mill than a reputable breeder. I don't recommend you give them a dime of your money now or ever.


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## blanca (Mar 5, 2011)

thanks, paul.

we should have done more research on breeders, but we live in a rather distant town in a foreign country. there isn't much information.

the second breeder wasn't really offering dogs for free. at first i thought it was a rescue for non-profit, coz the website said you could take an adult dog home and donate Eur 100 to the organization. we realized that it was a breeding site only when we got there and saw many adorable pups in clean and very spacious kennels. pups cost Eur 900, and they seem to live in very clean environment.

the first breeder (that we got our white shepherd from) was the worst you could ever imagine. it was just a household with many, many dogs separated in different rooms (living room, kitchen etc), and dogs were not even kenneled. we were in serious doubts, but the breeder offered to let us pay in 3-installments over 2 months (it cost us Eur 800). so we thought at least our pup wouldn't be one of those who dies in a week. it just turned out that we spent so much time, energy, money to deal with her diarrhea problem.

since we got a very bad experience with the first dirty breeder, my bf is clearly impressed with the second clean one. and my bf grew up in a big family and his siblings all have many children. his idea is just that doggies are like human babies, you just need to put them in a household and love them, everything will get fine... he thinks i'm overly worried for no reason.


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## JOSHUA SAMPSON (Feb 21, 2010)

1)to answer your question about raising more than one puppy, the reason is because you want the dog to "bond" with you and not the other dog. this makes it easier to train and raise thepuppy so that they pay attention to your directives and instructions rather than the other dog's. Also two pups will be more likely to "Pack" together instead of integrating with YOUR "pack". again making it more difficult to handle/train them. I hope that answers your question if you want to know further I would recommend reading most of these articles 
Leerburg Directory of Information Homes with Multiple Dogs
http://leerburg.com/2dogs.htm <---- if nothing else read this one

2)secondly as i read your post it seems as though you are saying that you haven't finished off the diarrhea problem yet. I would advise you to seek a veterinarian instead of a second dog. You could have a wide range of problems, starting with thinking of worms or even a heavy giardia load from the dog's gut (from dirty poopie water at the breeder you mentioned) the vet should be able to help you ID and treat whatever the problem is, then when you have treated for a while I would advise some kind of bio supplement, I find that small amounts of yogurt and a k9 vitamin with brewers yeast cna work miracles for most cases and have him/her pooping nice little firm stool's in short order (works for me anyway). Good luck and remember to read those articles, that should point you in the right direction


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## blanca (Mar 5, 2011)

thanks, joshua. 

(1) yup, i read leerburg's ebooks when i first got the white shepherd. and just a while ago i also read his particular article on raising multiple pups. it was useful! thanks for pointing me to that.


(2) thanks for the concern, our white shepherd doesn't have diarrhea anymore. she occasionally has soft stool, esp after she's run crazily in the forest or picked up trash at street. i usually give her steamed pumpkin, and soft stool just goes away easily (but it also comes back easily). we've had her visit the vet very regularly, and she just finished meds early last week. we read that dogs don't do well with milk, so we've never tried yogurt (in fact we're cautious what to feed, and we haven't tried feeding stuff other than her usual therapy kibble, specific dog cookies, pumpkin, pineapple for anti-poop eating, white rice and boiled chicken). but we'll give yogurt and vitamin a try, thanks a lot!


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## Emoore (Oct 9, 2002)

blanca said:


> it has beagles, labradors, golden retrievers adults for pick-up and puppies for purchase. the adult dogs don't seem to be in a good shape (they are clearly overweight, have some skin problem etc), but the puppies are just adorable.


Big red flag right here. They're not a responsible breeder; they're either a dog broker or a puppy mill.


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## GeorgiaJason (Jan 16, 2011)

Take it from me I have a 8 month old Female GSD and a 11 week old Male GSD it is very trying, takes tons of patience, hours of research, hundrads is vet bills, and a fair but firm training plan so that they dont start running you. take all of this and add in my 3 year old little non furry child and my days start at 515am and dont end till 1130pm you have training excercise feeding grooming more training more excercise more feeding playing potty training and it goes on and on and on and dogs dont know that its sat. or sun. its just another day so no sleeping in no breaks...........its a LIFE STYLE and unless you and your BF are ready to live it please dont do it


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

don't get two pups at the same time.
train and socialize the dog you have. once this dog
is well trained and highly socialized then get another pup.
if you're going to buy a pup buy from a reputable breeder.


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## GeorgiaJason (Jan 16, 2011)

oh yeah dont forget socialization so when you think its time for a movie or an afternoon nap uummmm no its time to socialize


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## blanca (Mar 5, 2011)

Thanks for all the responses. I am now convinced that it's just not the way to go. Can't believe that even the second breeder is problematic. My bf was even saying that we will use the second breeder's pet-sitting services because he's so impressed by the clean environment.


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## GeorgiaJason (Jan 16, 2011)

glad to hear that you were able to sit back and take a look at you life situation and make a good sound decision


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## Good_Karma (Jun 28, 2009)

blanca, glad you have decided not to do two puppies at once. I can attest to how difficult it is. Very hard to have patience enough dealing with training and socializing two puppies.


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## BlackthornGSD (Feb 25, 2010)

If your first dog is still having diarrhea and accidents every day--have you had her tested for giardia and coccidia?

If you bring in a 2nd puppy while the first problems are still ongoing, you will likely have two puppies messing in the house everyday--which will be more and more miserable as they get older.

Another thing to think about--if the parents of the lab puppy you like has skin issues, then the puppy likely will too. And skin issues are really difficult to sort out and you can easily spend thousands trying to make your dog more comfortable.


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## blanca (Mar 5, 2011)

BlackthornGSD said:


> If your first dog is still having diarrhea and accidents every day--have you had her tested for giardia and coccidia?
> 
> If you bring in a 2nd puppy while the first problems are still ongoing, you will likely have two puppies messing in the house everyday--which will be more and more miserable as they get older.
> 
> Another thing to think about--if the parents of the lab puppy you like has skin issues, then the puppy likely will too. And skin issues are really difficult to sort out and you can easily spend thousands trying to make your dog more comfortable.


hi christine, no the first dog is not having diarrhea anymore. yes, she still has accidents almost every other day when she's too excited playing fetch. we had her on vet visit regularly, and didn't notice any medical problem. she'll be to vet a few days later, and will consult again.

yes, i could imagine what life will change with the second pup. don't think will get a second pup anytime soon.

good point about skin issues too, thanks a lot. 

(p.s. i'm not the one who's eager to get the second pup, my bf is. on top of that, i dont like brown lab...)


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