Greetings all!

Arrrgh! This be a long post so 'ye be warned!

Thought I would share my expieriences raising 2 GSD Shutzhund prospects in the same house.

This is my first time raising 2 pups at once.

Ill say this its not easy!

If you dont have the time and resources dont bother. You also need to have a lot of energy and be in good shape, Ive already lost 10 pounds!

Be prepared for sleep depravation and to have a swivel installed on your neck.

You need to absorb as much information (this forum and Ed's e-books are crucial!) as your brain can hold. My other sources are my breeders, my Shutzhund club and books and videos.

For a while when I was a kid I lived on a farm where a vet practiced (I helped him all the time) and Ive raised everything from goats and sheep to ferrets. Ive had a lot of dogs and cats as pets so Im not unfamiliar with animals at all.

I have raised other pups including a GSD although I have never owned a working dog.

I have 2 working line (Czech) GSDs in my home.

My Female ISIS is 15 weeks old.

My Male Panzer is 9 weeks old.

First of all I work out of my home and have put my career on hold until the pups are mature enough. So I have ample time to spend trainning and raising them. My wife is very cool and supportive of me in this endevor ( very Important).

I have 3 kids ages 5, 8 & 10. I live in Alaska on 4 acres.

I have joined a local Shutzhund group, I train with them at least 2 times per week with both dogs.

I Keep the pups seperated almost entirely. Today was the first time I let them play together, I let them romp for 15 min.

When things got out of hand I stepped in and corrected the female for biting to hard. She quickly learned I would not tolerate any agression and only mouthed on the smaller male after the correction.

I spend about 75% of every day with them. I split the time based largely on thier specific needs and ages. I keep both of them in crates, I pull the crates outside now that the weather in getting nicer and the snow in just about gone.

I get up at 6am every day I take them out seperately and then feed them seperatly. I turned the deck off of my kitchen into a puppy play pen. I feed the female outside on the deck and the male in his crate inside.

I drive my kids to school most days I alternate which pups gets to go and I walk the pup around the school and let them socialize with the kids and adults.

I pick my youngest girl up everyday from kindergarten at 2pm so I alternate the dogs everyday.

The thing is to be creative and look for oppurtunities to work the dogs trainning into your schedule. ("problems are oppurtunities dressed in work clothes!")

Things seem to be going good. I learn a lot every single day.

My female ISIS is progressing wonderfuly she has amazing drives, especialy prey! She is really a terror on the leather! She is easy to oB trian and tracks like a champ, never lifts her head up, I expect great things from her.

I put the young pup Panzer in his crate outside and he watches us do bite work. It seems to get him going. Hes coming along, although hes not as driven as my bitch was at his age.

With my male pup I have to work to wake up his prey drive. He plays fetch like a champ though and is really easy to train. His food drive is high so I can motivate him with treats.

Somedays are hectic but most are awsome, like everything, you get out what you put in. I look at this situation as a challenge one that will affect my life for the next 10-12 years and beyond.

Im not a dog expert or professional handler or whatever, but I have high expectatons of my dogs and I am willing to do anything to make sure they are healthy happy and well trained.

Ill let you know how it all plays out as the saga continues!

---

"Don't take the fence down, until you know why it was put up."- Robert Frost

Uh, yeah, your saga *will* continue, on and on...HAHA!!! Your post made my neck twank. One pup and human child is good for me, but love to hear about your experiences and appreciate your insight.

Nice post glad 2 hear there are others like us! We are currently raising two Mals a male and a female from the same litter. They entered our home six weeks apart and we crate them all the time except while they play seperately or work separately. They are training at the Schutzhund club also and we expect the female "Blaze" to be a cadaver dog and our male "Bosco" to be a drug dog. I am in the process of hooking the dogs up with local work (reserve sheriff) because they are sooooo busy. My wife is invovled a lot and handles/trains as well and does awesomely. Two heads are always batter than one. She is very good at pointing out the Elusive Obvious to me and perhaps vice versa. Both dogs track to half a mile and will track food, kids, pseudo-cadaver and pseudo-narcs. We take them everywhere. I work only 10 days monthly and have adequate time to train but, IT NEVER SEEMS LIKE ENOUGH and my dogs let me know about it. Bosco and Blaze go out together but ONLY with two seperate handlers. We are not real big on the whole having the public pet our dogs. They are socialized well and that was good enough. As wise LEERBURG states, we don't want our dogs to think of people as petting machines. Good luck in your training and lets keep this thread going. Regards, Lon and Katrina Bartoli http://www.nevadacanine.com

Hee hee, this is my life, minus the kids but plus 4 more dogs for a total of 6.

It's great ain't it????

Jason, you need to find a grizzly bear cub to raise up with everything else.....just kiddin.....

 Quote: Lon Bartoli

.... I work only 10 days monthly ...

Are you hiring?

 Quote: AnitaGard

 Quote: Lon Bartoli

.... I work only 10 days monthly ...

Are you hiring?

seriously :laugh:

oh, the things i could do with my dogs with a little more time

Jason, good luck with your pups...sounds like you're doing an awesome job (full-time job that is :wink

Thanks for giving us a glimpse into the life with 2 working GSD's -- granted a lot of work, but as you say it will result in many, many years of great companionship and pleasure/pride "working" with them.

It sounds like Isis is well on her way to recovery and is going to be your little spit-fire -- all in a good way!

Look forward to more updates from you on both Isis and Panzer.

So glad to hear I am not the only one pulling my hair at times,always running around with the kids ,the dogs...I sleep damn good at night...

katie, don't you love dogs that love water.i swim with my dogs all the time ,they love it...Cool picture

No kids here and only one GSD and I still think to myself at times "if I didn't have to work I could spend so much more time training". There is so much to learn and train/develop in raising a Schutzhund working dog...but I have to admit I love every minute of it...I think Jason does too.

Angelique -- yes, Ellie loves the water -- I really encouraged her in and around water as a pup because I love it too. By the way, you remember I am multiple-GSD envious.