Pups from the same litter?

Good grief! No WONDER you couldn't resist the two of them! And Daisy already has such a wise look. I think you'll do fine with these two.

It does seem to be true that siblings tend to have a stronger bond. when my mom got her dog she went with a lady that we knew because she was also getting one. Now shelby (my mom's dog) isn't a big fan of other dogs but when she goes to visit her brother Simba they jsut play and romp and play fight and have a great time and ther eis no barking no growling no noise just playing and then they will fall asleep together. So I think it is very likely that they would form a stronger bond to each other than to the owner if they didn't get a lot of individual attention. but like everyone else said you should do fine especially with kids to play with them.

BTW your puppies are so sweet looking

Pups And Older Dogs

I have several older Whippets who helped me raise several litters of Toy Manchester pups over the years. Anyone who visits my website will see my Whippet Blondie allowing herself to be beaten up by pups. She would lay herself down on the floor just as flat as she could so the pups could get to her.

As far as having sibling pups, they will do just fine as adults. When they want attention they will let the owner know, and demand that attention. After all, dogs are pack animals, and are geared to adapting to a pack situation. I have it made, because my Toy Manchesters just sleep on top of me in my chair when they want attention, rofl.

However.........I must caution that there are many things that are no problem to breeder/exhibitors that might be to a pet owner. Dogs who belong to a pet owner often survive in spite of what the owner does. Many pet owners do not educate themselves before getting a dog. They know nothing about crate training, nutrition, various diseases specific to a particular breed, quirks of a particular breed, etc. And often this ends up being very bad for the dog in question.

Again, just my not too humble opinions.

Okay, here's what we've been doing so far...Daisy and Jedi are being crated trained and each have their own crates. They are right next to each other, not sure if that is good or bad. But at least they have each other when we are not there (which isn't that often!) and at night. We are hoping when they can sleep through the night to put them in the kids rooms.
We have been feeding them separately; we have a baby gate in the family room and put one on each side, but they can see each other but at least we know who is eating what instead of them both going from bowl to bowl. Again, don't know if this is a good idea either.
We have told our kids that the puppies are all of ours but our daughter is "more" responsible for Daisy and our son for Jedi so at least we know they won't both be all over the same dog! And when we walk them they each get to walk a puppy.
Sometimes when we put them in the back yard, we put both or one of them on a leash. This way they are not going crazy and running under the trees and jumping on each other while they are trying to go to the bathroom.
Any other suggestions would be awesome, as would any comments. Again, thanks for all of your help!

Dani, it sounds to me like you've got things under control Just keep on in the same vein and you should end up with two lovely, loving and happy dogs.

Excellent work with the feeding, by the way. Separating them should also help keep them from feeling the need to gobble so fast.

I, at the moment, have four dogs. I got them a few months apart from each other though so they had time to settle in and learn how to behave in the house before we got the next one. That way we didn't have all the dogs misbehaving all the time. Now I do admit that not all the dogs were potty trained but they are doing good now hardly an accident in weeks. Now with this new puppy that we MIGHT be keeping it's going to start all over agian (oh brother)!

My new question is, how much fighting is "normal". For the most part Jedi and Daisy are getting along fine and play fight but sometimes it will escalate and they are really going at it! I know they will try and be dominant but I'm worried b/c they are getting bigger and I don't want my kids (or myself) getting hurt in the crossfire. And I don't see either of them backing down. I know to throw water on them or startle them to stop it, but I'm just really worried about it continuing and getting worse. I'm also going to post on another thread to see if I get any other responses.

... I just couldn't handle two puppies at once. No way.

It's true also that they will develop a closer bond with one another. I have no problem with my dogs loving each other and being buddies, but I don't want them so intuned to one another that they don't have much attention left for me. It's important to me that I have a lot of time to spend to bond with a puppy individually, and if I did that with two puppies at once I would be doing nothing else all day long!

It's extremely hard to take care of two puppies - it's twice of all the puppy stuff - and they'll bond closer to eachother than to you. This is especially strong in littermates. I personally would never get two puppies at a time. I wouldn't be able to handle it and it wouldn't work too well, IMO.

It's taken a while but I think I finally have Jedi and Daisy's picture attached!

I have done this twice now, the first time back in 77 with my Beagle's pup with my friend's Lab, Blackie, and Joe, my yellow Lab. They never really had any problems and to me, it was much easier than a single pup. Joe was a huge "daddy's boy" who was about as cuddly as I thought was possible. I thought wrong. Blackie was an odd dog, she probably had mild seizures her entire life, but we just thought she was spacy. She really was only happy when she was catching, and eating, birds. She wasn't a "player" and had no use for toys.

My present dogs, King and Molly are littermates. House breaking was so easy, it still boggles my mind. Molly was practically instantanious, and King took about a week to get it 95%, and another week to get it down totally. My mother lives with me, and Molly is "her dog", mostly due to the amount of snacks Molly gets from her, I think. Molly eats continuously, an amazing amount, and never gains any weight. King is so into me it's insane. He follows me around everywhere, and if I go outside without him, he will moan and groan and eventually, howl. The whole "bonding with each other" stuff is nonsense, in my opinion.

My cousin recently had to put his Golden Ret down due to cancer, and he decided to get two pups and try two at once, and is totally convinced, "It's the way to do it". He was afraid it would be twice the work, it's about half. The only negative is the expense of two pups, something he can easily handle. They tire each other out, and sleep better, and it seems to help with chewing too, though it's impossible to know how much into chewing they would be anyway.

When it's time for me to get pups, hopefully a long time from now, it's going to be two for sure.

Thanks ratboy; Those are the stories I love to hear!

I guess it just depends on the owners. If they never spend time with the dogs and leave them alone to play all the time, that's never going to be good...

Maybe, but if you spend a lot of time with them, it's a breeze compared to one, IMO. My cousin was shocked as to the amount of time they slept compared to past pups. Of course, they are all different, King and Molly prove that, but in general, I would guess that the "self exercizing" effect equals more sleep, and that means "good dogs".