You’ve gone to the shelter, excited about the photos they posted on social media of a big litter of pups that look like just the kind you’ve been waiting for. It’s near closing time—you couldn’t get there until after you got off work!—and the shelter staff is clearly buttoning things up for the night. It turns out that the litter was popular; there are just two puppies left from which to choose! As you approach their pen, you see that the littermates are entwined in a small single dog bed. They blink at you sleepily, and then approach the front of the kennel to greet you, almost as one—and the thought of taking one home, leaving the other completely alone in the cold concrete shelter kennel, brings tears to your eyes. They are clearly so bonded! How much harder could it be to raise two dogs, you think to yourself? If we adopt both, they can keep each other company at home!
STOP! Don’t do it! Whether the idea of adopting two puppies just occurred to you, or you had been planning to adopt two all along, every trainer I’ve ever met would advise you to think twice and adopt just one. Because training and socializing littermates well is more than twice as difficult as training and socializing one puppy.
There have been littermates in several of the group puppy classes I’ve taught recently, and in every case, the family who adopted them looks overwhelmed and sounds regretful about the decision they made to adopt two. It’s noteworthy, also, that each family has told me that if they knew then what they know now, they would not have adopted two. They love their dogs, they are working hard to make it work, but they had no idea that certain things would be so difficult. Things like:
- One pup is anxious and a little reactive, which the other is generally very calm and takes new things in stride. But when the anxious dog barks and growls at new sights and situations, it makes the other pup bark and grow suspicious also—and increasingly, both dogs bark when they see new people or something unfamiliar!
- You are crossing the living room when you realize your sock is wet. You discover a series of wet, urine-soaked spots on the carpet. Which pup is having trouble with house training?
- You find some vomit in the puppy pen. Which one isn’t feeling well? Which one may have swallowed a sock and potentially needs to be taken to the vet?
- You’re trying to train both puppies the basics: sit, down, stay, etc. Except one puppy leans fast and dives for all the treats, and the other is disinterested in competing . . . So, as time goes by, one pup knows a few things, and the other hasn’t really learned anything at all.
- One pup had to go to the vet and you’ve discovered that the other is petrified to go outside without his brother. You thought that this pup was just a little less confident without the other, but it turns out that without his guide, he’s terrified of everything!
- Or, one dog had to go to the vet—and that’s when both dogs starting howling, panicking in their crates, tearing at the crate doors with their paws, vomiting—in an utter panic at being without their littermate. Who knew they were that bonded?
If that last scenario doesn’t give you the shivers, consider this: What if some disaster befell your family, and you had to rehome the dogs? It’s hard enough to find a good home for one adult dog; who will possibly take on two dogs who can’t be separated?
Don’t just take it from me: Here are two articles from the WDJ archives written by professional trainers who have seen it for themselves:
“Are Two Pups Better Than One?”
“Problems with Adopting Two Puppies Simultaenously”
