Adopting Two Puppies At The Same Time : A Good or Bad Idea?

There’s no denying it is there? Puppies are wonderful!  When you visit a rescue shelter with the view of adopting a puppy, it is almost impossible not to get all all mushy over puppy breath, soft pink puppy pads, and the adorable, playful innocence of such a small being ready to discover the world.  So, if one new puppy is wonderful, two puppies must be twice as wonderful, right? Mmmmm, you may want to think again.

Most training professionals strongly recommend against adopting two puppies at the same time. The biggest challenge of adopting two new puppies is their tendency to bond very closely with each other, often to the exclusion of a meaningful relationship with their humans. They can become inseparable. Also, owners often underestimate the time commitment required to properly care for and train one puppy let alone two puppies. As a result the puppies often end up untrained and under socialised.

We would be the last people on earth to argue against getting a second dog, or even a third; all of the team at Benafim dogs have at least two.   However, there are very good reasons to think long and hard about not getting two new puppies at once, whether they are siblings or not.

While the majority of new puppy owners seem to recognise that one puppy is enough of a responsibility for them, a certain number fall prey to one of a few common arguments about why two puppies might be better than one.

Reasons Why People Think Adopting Two Puppies is a Good Idea

Let’s take a look at the most common reasons that people say they want to adopt two puppies at the same time:

“I want to get two puppies so they will have someone to play with whilst I am at work.”

It’s a good thing to recognise that your puppy could use companionship during the day. However, if you think one puppy can get into trouble when you’re not there, just think what kinds of mischief two puppies can create when left to their own devices.

Better solutions might include:

Adopt your new puppy at a time when someone in your family can take a week (or several) off work to stay home and help the puppy adjust gradually to being left alone.

A couple of weeks vacation time? Children home for the summer? Just be sure to use the time wisely, so your puppy can learn to happily accept being alone when it’s time to go back to work or school.

Find a friend, neighbour, or relative

Finding someone who is home much of the time and who is willing to provide day care for your puppy and experience the joys of having a puppy to play with during the day, without the long-term responsibilities and costs of having a dog for 15-plus years.

Speak to your vet

Ask your vet if they have another client with a similar age puppy, and see if the two of you can mingle your puppies at one of your homes for puppy day care, and send the second baby dog back home after work. Note the emphasis on “puppy proofed.” Two pups can still get into a heap of trouble, even if one of them isn’t yours.

 “I have two children and they each want their own puppy.”

Of course they are going to try and persuade you to adopt two puppies, this doesn’t mean you should say yes!  It is no secret that children love the idea of having a puppy or two but most families have enough trouble getting their children to keep their promise of feeding, walking, and cleaning up after one family dog.  The novelty wears off and who ends up doing it all?  Yes, Mum or Dad! If there’s a compelling reason for them each to have a dog, consider adopting one puppy now, and an adult dog from a shelter or rescue. Even then, it would be advisable to adopt one first and give them at least a month to settle in, if not longer, before adopting the second.

“We want to have two dogs eventually anyway, so we might as well get them at the same time so they can grow up together as best friends.”

When you raise two puppies together they usually do grow up to be inseparable best friends, often to the detriment of the dog human relationship. Inevitably they spend far more time together than they do individually with you, with a likely result that they become very tightly bonded to each other and you are only secondary in their lives. Many owners who adopted two puppies at the same time ultimately find themselves disappointed in their relationships with their dogs, even when they are committed to keeping them for life.

This super bonding also causes tremendous stress (and stress-related behaviour problems) on those occasions when the dogs do have to be separated, which will happen sooner or later. Something will come up that requires them to be separated: one goes to training class and the other doesn’t, you want to walk one but not both, or a health related problem requires one to be hospitalised or otherwise kept separate.

 “A second puppy will play with the first and keep her occupied when I’m too busy to spend time with her.”

Nice thought, but here’s a heads-up. If you’re too busy to give one puppy the time she needs, you’re definitely too busy for two puppies!

There are great interactive dog toys on the market that can help occupy your pup when you can’t play with her – and don’t think that either another puppy or a pen full of toys can substitute for social time with you. Puppies do take time, and it’s important you give that some serious thought before adding a baby dog to the family. It’s fine to give her playmate-time via arranged play dates with a friend’s healthy and compatible puppy, but don’t think adopting a second pup is an acceptable substitute for your own interaction with your puppy.

“The breeder we are buying our puppy from thinks it’s best if we take two.”

If you’re buying from a breeder who encourages you to purchase two puppies at once, run away fast. A truly responsible breeder will, in most cases, refuse to sell two puppies to one home, except on the rare occasion that a prospective buyer can prove they have the skill, knowledge, time, ability, and monetary resources to provide an excellent environment for two puppies at once. Someone who tries to push two puppies on a buyer isn’t a very responsible breeder, and isn’t doing the puppies, or the new owner, any favours.

What to Do If You Adopt Two New Puppies

Perhaps you’ve already adopted two new puppies and are regretting this move. Or maybe you don’t regret it, but you realise you’ve taken on far more of a responsibility than you realised. Perhaps you’re determined to go ahead and do it anyway, despite the above advice. Whichever the situation you find yourself in, there are things you can do to minimise problems and maximise your success as the owner of a puppy pair.

Separate the Puppies to Sleep

Both puppies are going to have plenty of together time so they don’t need to sleep together too. Of course you can certainly leave them together in their puppy proof area when you are not able to be with them, but they should be encouraged to sleep separately at night.

If you are going to use a crate Crate Training Your Dog, you can crate them near each other, but this is the perfect time to start habituating them to not always being in close contact with their sibling. When they are comfortable in their crates close to each other, you can gradually increase distance between crates until they can be crated out of sight of each other, perhaps even in another room.

You can also do the “separate crating” thing cold turkey. If your children are old enough to be responsible for taking the puppies out in the middle of the night, start from day one with a puppy crated in each of the children’s bedrooms.

In either situation, the puppies’ separate crates should be in someone’s bedroom. This is really important so someone hears them when they wake at night and have to go out. This will also benefit the puppies having eight hours of close contact with you, even though you are sleeping.

Train them separately

Your training programs will be much more successful if you take the time to work with each puppy individually.

Training time is a perfect opportunity to give each puppy a positive association with being separated. One gets to play (train) with you and get attention and yummy treats, while the other gets to hang out in her crate in another room, preferably far enough away she can’t hear you and empty her deliciously stuffed Kong. See our guide on The Best Puppy Teething Toys for brilliant toys to entertain and distract your puppy.

If there’s a second trainer in your family, that person can work with the second puppy in another room at the same time. Eventually you can each work with them at the same time in the same room, and sometime in the future one person can have fun working with them both at the same time. But that’s down the road somewhere, after they’ve both learned their good manners lessons very well individually.

Play with them separately

It is common in puppy pairs for one puppy to be more assertive than the other, and take the lead in puppy activities. It is fine to play with them together some of the time, and it is also important to play with them separately, so the more assertive puppy doesn’t always get to make the rules for the other.

For example, if you always play “fetch” with the two together, you’re likely to see that one puppy repeatedly gets the toy and brings it back, while the other runs happily along behind. If you watch closely, you may even see the more assertive one do a little body language warning if the other tries to get the toy, a hard stare and stiffened body, perhaps. The less assertive one defers to their sibling by letting go of the toy and looking away. That’s a fine and normal puppy interaction, but it can suppress the “softer” puppy’s retrieving behaviour.

Unless you make the effort to give the puppy positive reinforcement for fetching toys when you play with them alone, you might find it difficult to get them to retrieve later on in training.

Walk and socialise them separately

Just as with your training sessions, you will need to walk one puppy while leaving the other behind with something wonderful, or while someone else walks the other one in the opposite direction. Walking them together with different handlers doesn’t work; the less confident puppy will come to rely on the presence of the more confident one to be brave in the real world. Then, when the more confident one isn’t there, the shyer puppy is more likely to be fearful. All the activities you would normally do with one puppy, you need to do with each puppy individually.

If you are thinking of signing up for puppy training class, set aside two nights, not one, and take them to separate classes.

Going to the groomer? It’s two trips, not one.

Time for that next set of puppy vaccines? Make two appointments, not one.

It doesn’t have to be every time, but they should go somewhere by themselves at least as often as they go together.

Everything you would do with one puppy you need to do with each puppy separately. This is to be sure they are both getting the attention, training, and socialisation experiences they need, without the interference of the other puppy, and so they are not dependent on the presence of other puppy. Of course you can also do things with them together, but you must be sure they are completely relaxed and comfortable about being apart.

For super bonded dogs, separation becomes a crisis, fraught with life threatening behaviours such as separation anxiety Separation Anxiety in Dogs(barking, destructive behaviour, relentless pacing, and howling), and other stress related behaviours Help Your Dog Overcome Their Fears, including aggression.

Inevitably, at some time in their lives super bonded dogs will have to be separated. One will get sick, or need surgery, when the other doesn’t. Most of the time, one will die before the other.  This is not a scenario any family want to think about but many dogs left behind become very sick and mourn the loss of their sibling if they are super bonded.  This is not a situation any loving dog owner wants to face.

Other Factors Involved in Adopting Two Puppies

Behavioural considerations are the reason that most trainers advise against adopting two puppies at once. But there are other reasons that have nothing to do with the dogs’ behaviour.

Cost

Not surprisingly, it costs twice as much for routine feeding and care for two puppies as it does for one. But don’t forget the catastrophic care costs! If one puppy contracts a deadly disease such as parvovirus, you are on your way to the emergency clinic with two puppies, not one. If one gets injured the other’s not likely to have sympathy injuries, but with two puppies the chances of one getting injured doubles.

Puppy Mess

Let’s not forget puppy pee and poo. One puppy produces more than enough waste for any sane human to deal with, and with two puppies you naturally double the production.

Imagine two lots of puppy poo, two energetic puppies playing and accidentally rolling around in their mess….. still wanting those puppy cuddles?

Housetraining

Of course, when you are home you will need to house train your puppies House Training A Puppy.

Now you have two puppies who want to wrestle with each other under your feet.  As the pups mature you lengthen the time between potty breaks and start relaxing supervision, when the pups demonstrate their ability to “hold it.”

“Oops! There’s a puddle. Which pup did it? Oh look, there’s a small puppy pile of poo under the dining room table. Oh no! I see teeth marks on the corner of the antique sofa!”

If you have one puppy and you are having a persistent problem, you clearly know who needs more supervision, or a quick trip to the vet to rule out a possible medical issue. With two puppies, you have to increase management and supervision on both of them, and may never know for sure which one is having accidents. Or maybe it’s both!

Gender

Some people say if you are going to have two puppies, get a boy and a girl. Others say get two boys. Some might specifically warn against getting two girls, stating that two female adult dogs in the same family will fight. Others will tell you they have had two girl dogs at the same time, no problem.

Plenty of same sex puppy pairs get along just fine throughout their lives. Plenty of mixed sex pairs do the same. There are same sex pairs that end up with conflicts, and there are mixed sex pairs that end up fighting with each other (despite super bonding). It does seem to be true that intra pack conflicts involving two females tend to be more intense than intra pack issues between two males, or opposite sex pairs. That doesn’t mean there will be conflict if you adopt two girl puppies, only that if there is, it may be more difficult to resolve than differences of opinions between two boys, or a boy and a girl.

Summary

Think long and hard about getting two new puppies at the same time. Make sure you’ll be able to give both dogs everything they need.

Is the extra fun of having two puppies at one time worth all the extra time, energy, cost, and headaches? Consider instead adopting one puppy now and another later, or better yet, one puppy now and an adult dog later.

If you decide to go ahead and adopt two anyway, and are ready to do all it takes to make it work, please, be honest and realistic about whether you and your other human family members really have the resources and commitment to give both puppies what they need to ensure their lifelong loving home with you.