Bringing Home Two Dogs
Hey you guys!. Thank you so much for listening. It means a lot to hear from so many of you on how this podcast is helping you and your puppy in training. In whatever work you do, it's always nice to know that the effort you put in is making a difference for someone, and I know many of you experienced that same feeling in the work that you do in the world. I love that we can help each other and learn from one another, and technology makes us able to connect from around the world, which is so cool.
Today's topic is all about bringing home two puppies or training two puppies at the same time. I’ve done a podcast in the past on helping multiple dogs in your household get along. Today I want to add in a few additional tips if you find yourself in the situation of bringing home two! So this will be a mix of review plus a few bonus tips. I want to discuss the initial meeting, setting up your home for two, and how to train two at the same time.
First, let's give a shout out to April for today's podcast topic, thank you for sending it in. Your suggestions help me so feel free to send me your ideas everyone.
First things first, make sure you can handle two puppies before committing! Two dogs means double the food, double the poop, double the bathing, double the grooming, double the training time, double the crate training, double the leash training, etc. As much work as this sounds like, you’ll also benefit from double the fun, double the love and your one puppy has a playmate who likes to play like a dog! Just be sure you recognize the double workload and make sure you’re okay with it first!
If you are getting littermates, no need to worry about introductions - they already know each other. If you are getting puppies from different litters/breeders/shelters, etc. an introduction is important.
Let's talk about how to introduce dogs to one another. When I'm first introducing two dogs that have never met before, I prefer to use some sort of barrier. This might be a baby gate, it might be an exercise pen, but something to allow both dogs to approach the barrier from opposite sides and allow me to observe their body language. When they get to the barrier, they can sniff one another for 3 to 5 seconds, and then use a food lure to redirect the dogs away, and I'll repeat that 2 to 3 times.
When you're turning and redirecting your puppy away, food works well, a favorite toy works great, whatever your puppy loves, maybe a squeaky toy or just a food reward, show them what you have and get them excited to follow you in the opposite direction. Then again, you're going to do that several times.. The point of this is that you're able, in this scenario, to watch both dogs, and you can observe their body language so you can watch for nice loose bodies, neutral gear positions or where your dog naturally holds their ears. That's what we're looking for. Same with the tail. Wherever your dog naturally holds their tail, you want to watch for that. We don't want any sort of change in their body language. Anything that is stiff or tense, if there's any kind of snarling or any low growling, then I'd probably be more careful in letting those dogs be together for the time being. I would maybe practice a few more of these meet at the barrier and sniff to say hi and then walk away kind of interactions until the body language is a little more positive. That would be something that maybe I'd work with the trainer on or you could reach out to me and my program, and I could help you get through that process. As long as the dogs, as they're doing these little episodes of sniffing and walking away, are happy and their body language is nice and loose and relaxed, then it's probably safe to have a supervised play session where they can actually interact without the barrier. With young puppies, this process from barrier to playing together happens pretty quickly! If you are bringing home older dogs, it may take some time. Be patient.
Once your dogs are together and they're able to play, I do suggest that you supervise the playtime, especially if you have a brand new puppy that's come into your home, which is what my program specializes in. When these new puppies come in, they have a lot of energy and razor sharp teeth. It's common for one puppy to possibly overwhelm the other puppy. Some puppies will keep going at the quieter puppy, biting their ears and tail. Depending on your puppy’s personality they'll let the other puppy know it is not fun for them, they may just kind of take it, or you may see them try to escape.
It's important to supervise and step in as needed for either puppy. If you notice that your puppy is overwhelming your second puppy, maybe the second puppy is showing signs of trying to escape or tucking the tail, cowering, getting down lower. There's different signs for the body language that you'll recognize your dog is not enjoying what's going on, I would step in and separate them.
Put the first puppy in an exercise pen with something to chew or a toy to play with. Then your other puppy can have some space and some breaks. We want both dogs to feel safe around one another so play needs to be monitored. Then you'll notice that, at other times of the day, they might get along really well. Maybe puppy two does want to play or engage with puppy one. Keep play sessions short, watch for switching meaning one dog chases the other and then they switch. I call it flip flopping. One puppy is on the ground, then it changes. They take turns. This is healthy play.
On that note, let’s discuss your home set up when it comes to bringing two dogs home. You can see from the introduction that having separate spaces set up will be helpful. A play pen is great. Two is even better in my opinion. You’ll also want separate crates for each puppy. Give them their own spaces for times you cannot supervise.
Another important thing to consider would be mealtimes and when you're giving your dog's chews. You can prevent guarding simply by feeding both dogs in separate areas, their pens or crates work well. The same thing goes with any kind of favorite chew or toys. If your dog has a favorite item that they love to chew and then suddenly another dog appears and they feel like they need to guard that item and the growling starts, we don't want to escalate into some fighting. With those kinds of situations, the easiest thing to start with is management.
Separate your dogs when they're eating their meals. Then, when mealtime is over, I pick up both food dishes and we put them away for the day so that there's not any kind of need to guard those bowls. Also, with chews the same thing. Give them chews in their crates or pens and put them away when the crates or pens are open. Remember guarding is a natural dog instinct. But just some basic guidelines with the management would be to create separate spaces for your dogs to do the things that they love to do, and then you're not going to have any fights break out.
Give your dogs alone time during the day too. The separate pens or crates are useful for this. We want them to be able to be alone if needed and sometimes with two dogs we skip that part. We want each dog to be independent and capable of calming themselves. You’ll do the same initial crate training games and exercises we teach you in our online puppy school with two puppies, it is just double the time and effort. We are happy to help you help these puppies love their crates.
Next let’s talk about training. For example purposes, let’s use the concept of mat work. In my program, we say ‘go to bed’. You are going to train this the same way you would with one puppy, but I recommend doing so one at a time. So with two puppies, I would put one in their crate with a chew while I work with the other on this new behavior of going to their bed on cue. Once I’ve taught it to the first dog, I rotate them. The first dog goes in a crate with a chew and the second puppy comes out to learn the new behavior. Doing this you can rotate every 4-5 minutes between puppies to give them good practice with mat work. This is a behavior we proof, meaning we add the 4D’s of distance, duration, distraction and difficulty to it. When you get to the distraction level of training, you can bring both puppies out together to train side by side. Doing this will set your puppies up for success, rather than constantly trying to get the two to cooperate when they don’t yet have basic skills with the behavior. Start one-on-one, then work up to two-by-two. I stick to this pattern for all new things I teach my dogs. Crates are VERY useful in the training process. Notice how you are also incorporating good alone time while you are training! You’ll find that even though you have two dogs and the workload is often doubled, some things you are accomplishing simultaneously.
Leash walking is another area I would highly recommend doing one-on-one! This may take a while to work up to the point where you can walk both dogs at once. For now, when they are young, exercise is accomplished through playing together. Think of leash walking as training and do so slowly, one-on-one giving each puppy the individual skills they need to be successful at walking down a sidewalk. It is tempting to put both dogs on a leash and go for it, but you will save a lot of frustration by practicing separately first.
That's it for today, guys. If you know someone getting a dog soon, please share our podcast with them. We really appreciate your help in spreading the word. Our goal is to help as many puppy families as possible start their training journey off on the right paw, and you could help us get there. Also check out the online puppy school at BaxterandBella.com, where you can get access to our members-only area and get all of the resources you need to train your own puppy like a professional at your fingertips. I show you exactly what I do with the puppies I trained professionally and I walk you through the process Step-by-step. I would love to help you with your new puppy or in today’s case, puppies. Have an amazing week and happy training.
