I recently purchased two puppies only one month in age apart, yet we've had the male for about 3 months the female one week. She only has tended to bond with our male pup and knows her name somewhat, I guess by us correcting her or stopping her from chewing, but is very shy with us, runs away from us when it's time to walk her and is very stoic. The other pup,he is playful, friendly, excitement pee included with all greets, and is a bit more trained, knowing a few of his basic commands, sit, come, his name, stop and go he's still learning, but I'm having difficulty trying to train him and show him more while also just trying to get through to her so she won't be shy at the same time. How could I train them together, get her to like us and not just our other pup? I appreciate any advice, please and thanks!

Hi,
I would keep the pups separated, and work them individually. I would get a ball on a string and start doing drive work for just a couple minutes at a time and about two or three times a day.........this will help build the bond. By keeping the pups separated, they will focus on you and not on each other........you should be the center of their universe, not other dogs.
John

Thanks! I've been thinking about seperating but they love one another so much, but from all of the other emails I've read it seems like the thing to do to have them focus on me and not one another. They seem to easily become distracted with one another and the little female, Kaylah is very distracted outside with other pups where she won't even do her business out side. I will do this but should I keep them seperated only during their training/play time with me and then let them go back to playing with one another afterwards or is this all of the time while training and not?

The pups should be seperated almost entirely.

I still think that you'd be better off finding another home for one of them . It'd be better for both the dogs and you in the long run, but that's your decision to make.

I now have 2 dogs and it is twice the work. I don't want them to bond so EVERYTHING is done one at a time with each dog! This includes feeding, playing, bathroom breaks. I leave one in a crate and bring one out. Then after I'm done I crate the first dog and bring out the second. It's much more labor intensive, but it is the ONLY way for each dog to establish his bond with the handler. When it's their turn my dogs want to be with me. Raising 2 dogs can be done, but it is a lot of work. Puppies especially need a lot of quality time alone with their handler to bond. Bonding is important for a number of reasons including good obedience.

Lee

If you decide to keep both pups, then John Hohman said it the best.........it is a lot of work, but both pups need to be worked, fed and bond with you individually.........and if you want to make it easier, then I would do what Will said and only keep one pup......it's much easier to do it correctly with one pup.

Hey Lee,

I've recently gone through a similar situation. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done because two pups demand (and deserve) so much attention.

If you're committed to doing this, then I hope you have some help.

First of all, hang in there through the tough times. The house-breaking, night-whining and furniture chew WILL end, if you are persistent in your obedience training. Just make sure you have the right training. A routine schedule helps. And discpline means showing them everything about everything. For instance, if you don't want both dogs rocketing off when you open the door, show them both NOW to sit until you release them. Little things that you forget now will be harder to train later. Especially for the little one, because sometimes you might take for granted that she did not have the same early attention.

About your little one, Ms. Stoic No-Love. I've found that feeding all meals by hand is the fastest way to get love from a pup. They learn to trust you and know that you are a good thing. Feed by hand for the first six months, throwing a little bit of training with means (sit, down, stay) and trust me, they'll bond like glue. The other thing is playing with her one-on-one, that's also a great help if your pup slumps on food drive.

Because I've been through it, my advice is to not worry so much about how much your dogs bond to each other. But be very aware of how little they bond to you. So long as they both understand that you are the key to happiness and their guardian, the pack-leader, head honcho, big cheese, then the rest will be fine. In order words, concentrate on being a good leader rather than worrying about who likes who better.

Get the ball-drive started early (this was one of my few mistakes with my younger one which is proving harder to correct). If you have two dogs, focus is going to be even more important. Teaching prey-drive is (in my mind) more about teaching focus and confidence than anything else. Its a great bond building tool. Funny thing is .. sometime I wonder if the bond is to me .. or to the ball! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Now the good stuff .. having two pups can be a lot of fun. When my wife and I go to training, we can both have a dog to work with. And as they grow up, they keep each other company. They stick together when the yard is invaded by deer or stray animals (their pack instincts kick in).

I like knowing that they are at home together and have someone to play with. When I let them out in the back, it much nicer seem the who of them run off in search of adventure. I've been to too many homes where only one dog is in the backyard bored lacking any companionship.

So Lee, you've made a tough tough decision. Its going to be a lot of work for the next few months. But don't sweat the little stuff. Get advice from people (I've wouldn't have survived without this board). And enjoy your pups!

- David C

David,

Thank you so much for your warm words of advice. I have since seperated my pups and have seperate times to give them both attention. Kamau, the male is doing great, still friendly and learning wonderfully. Kaylah, Ms. Stoic/no love is still as is, we have tried crate trainign her and she still poops and pees in her crate, we made the crate smaller she wails and barks non stop noon and night, she even woke up our neighbors once, s especially last night, we woke them again, so we let her out and confined her to the kitchen. She crawled over the gate, pooped and pee'd in our dinning room and kitchen, tore our bathroom trash barrel and trash apart and even after I walked and fed her as per usualy "routine" an hour after, she did the same, pooped and pee'd in our kitchen and dinning room. We are at a loss for words with Kaylah but still want to keep her and be persistant in trying to get her to budge., She wont even look at us still even on our one on one times and fights us if we try to make her look at us. She seems so unhappy and now am wondering what we are doing wrong with her or if something happened to her before we got her. I want her to get evaluated but it sounds so stupid to have a trainer come in, plus we can't afford that right now, but I still want to be persistant and help her overcome what seems to be her not being happy nor liking us & the pooping and peeing indoors. I am still being persistant and have my Fiance to help. We've been reading up on books and now I guess we're going to move onto the educational tapes.

Your female sounds so much like my male was as a pup. HE never looked at me or let me hold him, he was crate trained but still would wander downstairs and poop and pee on the floor even at 8 months old. As a youngster I never let him out of my sight or off leash but as he got older I thought he would be fine. He would growl and snap when I tried to touch him or handle him but what I did was correct him for doing so and petted him and handled him while feeding treats. It took a few months but he made a huge turn and he now loves me very much and looks me in the eye all the time. He has become so loving, he will never be a lap dog but I am able to handle him, every part of his body I can touch and he is happy. Keep working with your girl. By the way getting him nuetered was a huge help.

Julia,
I feel beter by doing some research on line and reading all of your comments and advice. I am glad my dog isn't/wasn't the only one. I am definitly going to start feeding her out of our hands to get her to trust us and eliminate water intake after a certain time to help that, I am just not sure what to do without crate training her. I don't want her waking up our neighbors anymore. I know she didn't do anything over night in the bedroom with so I might revert back to having her sleep in our bedroom. (Though one day she did pee in there too, during the day... not sure if that makes a difference...) Thanks for all of the support - EVERYONE - David, Julia and ALL - I don't feel as frustrated and am ready with new ideas to try on Kaylah. Wish me luck.