aw i love to see well behaved, trained and obedient dogs - its truly a joy =D

i think there are different ways of doing it though and i wouldnt necessarily say i agree with them all

I must say this forum exhausts me sometimes, there are so many arguments going on that i cant keep up lol

Boy, can some people create a fight in an empty house.

I hate to burst your bubbles and spoil your opportunity for a good old Dogsey style ding-dong, but the obedience instructor in question has NOTHING to do with competition.

So your little squabble is entirely off-topic and if you have any consideration for others you'll take it to it's own thread and let this one continue in peace. Some of you might just be here to squabble, but others have a genuine interest in the topic in hand (which in case anyone is slow on the uptake ISN'T anythign to do with competition of any kind).

So back to the topic in hand.....

Introducing a young puppy just removed from it's litter to a household that already has a dog. What are your experiences? I'm keen to hear from people that let the dogs spend all of their time together from day one, and from people that tried to spend more one-on-one time with EACH dog than the dogs spent with each other in the early months.

No arguments please. I'm interested in experiences - not battle over who's way is best.

lol its all part of the fun... you will get used to it.. the good thing is.. not many hold a grudge... two members can be going at it hammer and tong on one thread....yet... cooing over the other members photos in another thread...

We didn't try to seperate the boys to give more dog/human time than dog/dog time in the first few months...

We just made sure that if Max was being taken to training, then Murphy had an appropriate activity with one of us on his own too; for example.

My boys are 18 months apart in age, from the same parents. They now look practically the same! However, they will happily break off from doing 'dog things' together to do a task, or come for a fuss.

We now even train them in the same class at training (we handle them alternate weeks). They love being together, but can deal with being apart. For instance, when Max hurt his eye, we continued to take Murphy on walks on his own, and apart from Max being very excited to see us on our return, Murphy was absolutely fine on his own.

Hope this helps!

yeah i gathered, haha

back to the topic... this has actually been pretty useful cos its made me think about the differences between my two dogs, and what i may have changed about how i brought [dragged] them up... lol

i definitely would have given them more time apart. there are times when i should have separated them... like when the puppy fell asleep but stevie still wanted to play, and when puppy would constantly be a hastle to stevie, and i could see he was fed up with it...

they were and still are really good together but i dont think it would have harmed either of their behaviours if theyd had more time apart. Jack has become quite scatty and always looks to Stevie for entertainment and reassurance where as Stevie looks to us two humans...

i guess what im trying to say is let them bond as much as you see fit, no doubt theyll have loads of fun and be best mates, but also give them enough time apart so that they develop their own personalities and little 'ways'

I wondered about them bonding to each other rather than to me but it hasn't really been a problem.
Given that Chip slept a lot and Dale always enjoyed his long walks they naturally spent time apart. Also they go to different classes and train separately with me.
Now Chip is almost 7 months and enjoys a short outing with Dale or with Dale plus other dogs, but most of their walks are separate. I think its important for Chip to do things on his own. There was a spell where he looked very unsure of new dogs if Dale wasn't around.
Chip is definitely my baby and Dale has always been a bit more aloof.

there are things I would have done differently as well, I deff would have taken them out separately a lot earlier on to be honest.
I have always had an older female and sort of added on as I have gone along, when I have lost an oldie there has been a younger one added on, this is the first time for years I have not had an older dog around to help out with a youngster so new territory for me.
I would definately not be worried about taking on litter siblings again though, just would have learnt from this experience, which after all is what life is all about, learning from your experiences and recognising where you went wrong.

When the thing you love is mis quoted & misunderstood & things taken out of context & broadcasted as fact on a website, im sorry im going to get "touchy". This is my pasttime & there fore me & my friends you are talking about.

You both know what its like to have "staffies" or "wolflike" dogs treated to "generalised" opinions.

Its wrong to try to put across on this forum that obedience people train their dogs by keeping them in crates & NOT LETTING THEM SOCIALISE!!! Obedience dogs have to have good socialisation to enable them to compete at shows, who could do a out of site stay amongest 60 other dogs with a dog that isnt "doggy"??????

So yes i am touchy! sorry for that.Sorry for sticking up for all my friends & the sport & dogs we love & adore........

We brought Ollie our GSP home at 11 weeks in early May and at the time we had a very elderly Springer Spaniel. I did not crate train Ollie as we have a large kitchen opening out onto a yard where he can't do any damage. So he spent most of his waking (and sleeping) time with Max.



We did take separate them occasionally so we could play with Ollie, but his heart wasn't really in it, he just wanted to get back to Max asap. We lost Max at the end of June so we had Ollie's undivided attention (even though he was missing Max). During that time I spent a lot of time playing with Ollie and developing a ball obsession, which is the most useful item in my training toolbox.

In early August we acquired a rescue Springador, who is great friends with Ollie. Although it was very sad to lose Max, those 6 weeks of Ollie being an "only" dog made a huge difference to his training and development. The bond with us and the ball obsession remain as strong as ever, now alongside his friendship with Freddie

It would not have been something we could have forseen or created, but it taught me how hard you need to compete with another dog to get your pup's concentration. It is definitely worth separating them within the home for a while each day to achieve the same effect.