Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 3:59 pm Post subject: Anyone else coping with two 7 month old sibling boys?
Hi all, just wondered if anyone else out there is bringing up two brothers at the same time? Would be great to share experiences, good and bad! Its not just double the work but lets say triple! Also first time dog owner so jumped right in there...lovely boys are seven months old now and we are entering the 'kevin'phase...some days I just lie on the floor with them to get five mins rest!
I was going to keep two pups but was then told it was a very bad idea. You need to pretty much give your whole time to train and spend separate time with them. Aparently they will either get so attached to each other then would never be able to be apart or they will fight. Not worth the hassle! One is enough and he is still a handful. I can't imagine trying to look after two the same age Good luck with it though
____________ Sarah and her Labs.. Charlie(04/09/11), Marley(11/04/10) and Coco(21/02/09).
I have siblings although i have brother and sister so may be different, they are nearly 2 and a half now.
I have loved having 2, and despite what everyone says will happen if you have 2 they are not attached to each other and ignore me to be together. They are both well rounded, obedient, sociable dogs. Tess is even begining to look like becoming a reasonable gundog.
I think Diamond is your best bet as he has been through it, and come out the otherside .
But just want to say we meet up with siblings most days [brother an sister], they have donea fine job with them, their now 18 months old and chalk an cheese in personality, do not run together all the time, one plays with the other dogs, the other is more interested in people.
There first year we saw them mostly being walked and trained separately, not sure if that is the key, but appears to have done them good.
Look forward to hearing how you survive the kevins, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I have sibling boys and was a first time lab owner. My boys are almost 4 but we have been through as many bad times as good. Would you ever have siblings again? I wouldn't, think mine aged me 10 years I love them more than anything in the world but omg they have been such hard work. Not sure you'll want to hear this but 12-18 months was the worst stage for us. The best thing I ever did was join a dog training school where we go to obedience and agility classes. They are far from perfect but going to school, as we call it, helped so much and saved my sanity
I'd love to hear how you are getting on with your two.
many thanks for your replies everyone - I agree jojo, the old grey has come in faster than usual over the last few months! Did you crate your boys? We have not - they sleep in the kitchen/utility, so housetraining is slower. They are good in the day but still wee/poo at night on paper.
Harry has a sensitive skin so we put them both on JWB and I cook homemade food (Chicken/rice/vegetables for evening meal). What age did you cut them back to two meals? They also love fruit and holistic biscuits. His skin is brilliant on this diet. William also is thriving.
We do exercise them quite alot - 1 and half hour plus in the morning and an evening walk before bed. What exercise routine do others have?
I love the boys so don't regret the decision, but the extra work is wearing sometimes. We don't train them separately, but they both sit, stay, walk well on the lead (although William thinks he's top dog!) and come to recall. They walk off lead in the morning through the woods and around the lake, and love a swim...at the moment they always come when called back.
What age did your siblings sleep through? They go to bed at l0.00 and wake up about 6.00 - sometimes we hear them earlier but try to ignore.
I think one might wake the other.
God, I was hoping 18months would have seen the 'kevin' phase over?
Sorry I have alot of questions -
What quantities of food do everyone's siblings eat? Mine have a mug of JWB in the morning followed by fruit/carrot. Mug for lunch and their homecooked dinner at night. They do have the odd snack when out.
Does the chewing reduce? They have worked their way through the pine table, kitchen unit front, the utility wall and back door frame!!!! Luckily we did need a new kitchen so I am not panicing!
Did you castrate your boys? I am not keen on the idea.
Did your siblings sleep together? Mine share a super large basket.
Naturally they are bonded together, but still love us lots - and its wonderful to see them have so much fun playing together.
Did yours fight quite a bit? Its not nasty - just play. I think it teaches them to control the bite.
I also have a cat, so I am handling that introduction as well - and giving her time to adjust.
How long are your siblings sleeping in the day?? Mine seem to only want the odd hour here and there, which is a bit exhausting for me as I could do with a bit longer to get chores done. I also work, so my husband takes over from me. They are never left, so have constant company which I think helps alot with bonding with us.
Any tips of coping with two much appreciated - thanks Lin x
I did crate my 2 up to the age of 6 months when through necessity they began sleeping in the kitchen, they were clean night and day by about 4 months. It was around 6 months they also moved onto 2 meals a day reducing the lunch amount slowiy and adding it to the other 2 meals they had. They currently have a mug each of skinners salmon and rice morning and evening. You exercise them rather alot for there age many say 35-40 minuttes a day total is recomended for your age pups. I wasn't rigid with this but would rather do more shorter walks than a long one of an hour and a half as you say, but it's whatever works for you.
They did play fight quite a bit as puppies but at about 9 months when they got to big to be throwing themselves around the room onto each other i put a stop to that so when i say no, i mean no. Now they only tend to do it when they are over tired, like small children and i think they appreciate being told to get into bed and behave.
We were very lucky and didn't have a chewing phase or much of a kevin phase by about a year old they were very chilled and setttled down. They have always had access to bits of wood from the wood pile and raw bones which they enjoy chewing on so i think tend to go to them rather than furniture. There one major flaw would be the bin raiding we now do not have a kitchen bin and use a carrier bag which is hung up high and taken out every time we leave them.
Having both sexes i did castrate early to avoid unwanted problems and have had no ill affects physically or mentally from doing so.
My 2 sometimes sleep together and other times one or other will take themselves off, Tess is a bit of a mummies girl so whever i go she is generally there. They sleep alot through the day, if not out and about they are generally sleeping. I do leave mine alone for up to 4 hours at a time and i think they like the peace and quite, if you never leave yours it may be time to start otherwise you may end up with a seperation anxiety problem, you may not but it's worth getting them used to being alone because the time will come when it has to happen.
Having 2 has never been an issue i am in charge and if they do something i don't like or don't want i put a stop to it. There is no sign of them only bonding with each other more than me and they have completely different characters.
enjoy your 2 especially whilst they are still young it passess so quickly.
I didn't crate them at first as others talked me out of it but their toilet training was not improving so I bought a crate when they were 4 months old. That was my first mistake - they should not have been crated together. The bond they have now is unbreakable. They are lovely boys and individually are fairly well behaved but together they are complete menaces who don't give two hoots about me as lomg as they are with each other.
Mine are also on JWB as George has allergies. As I said, mine are almost 4 now so they have two meals a day of approx 170g at each meal. They love banana; apple; carrot; natural yoghurt - well almost anything really.
I don't want to come across as a know it all but I have learnt from this forum that mine were over exercised as pups. They should only be having 5 mins per month so at 7 months should be having about 35mins exercise a day - this is to protect their growing joints. Maybe you should think about doing things seperately with them - again, I didn't and was told this was probably the main reason for some of the problems we had (and still have).
Mine were always fairly good at night and would bark or cry if they needed the toilet. Nowadays they go to sleep about 1030 and if i have not already got up for work they wake me up between 730 and 8.
My boys were castrated at 11 months. We were trying to wait until after 12 months but the humping was just ridiculous. It was all they did to each other. They still do it now sometimes but the castrating definitely helped us with the humping.
The play fighting got really rough at times, to the point were blood was drawn. They would drag each other by the ear or the cheek or the back legs. I use the command "enough" when I felt it was getting out of hand.
My partner and I both work but we have had visitors / dog walkers over the years to break the dogs day up. They are left in the kitchen whilst we are at work so they can't get up to too much but they do tend to sleep a lot. George went through a second chewing stage at about 2 years old so we have some destroyed skirting boards and a hole in the leather sofa but nowadays they don't chew. At night they sleep in the living room and if we are just going to be out for an hour or so we leave them with the run of the house.
You say they don't sleep much during the day. My saviour was a Puppy Pen. We bought extra panels to make it quite a large area and put their bed in it. When we needed a break from them they were put in the puppy pen. We actually still use the pen when we go camping so the boys are safe at night. It was the best £200 I ever spent
Jojo, interesting you say not to crate together mine were the whole time we crated and i have never had any issues. I also have never trained, walked or left mine seperatly apart from once a few weeks back when i took Tess to an LF gundog training day. They visit the vets together did puppy classes together everything.
Maybe i was very lucky, but my theory was i can't keep them seperatly forever so the sooner they learn to behave and listen to me when together the better. I believe keeping them apart makes the playing, fighting, deafness much stronger when they do get together, if you start as you mean to go on and teach them what is expected from a young age you can't go far wrong. I see it as no different to having any 2 dogs in a multiple dog household.
Before anyone jumps on me for this I understand this is just my opinion and it has worked for me but may not be the recomended route to go and may not work for everyone.
The crating together may have not adversely affected them but I have read so much since telling me all the raesons why not to that i assume that is why they have such a strong bond now. Mine are together almost 24 hours a day but i did go through a phase of walking them seperately and training them seperately. I did do this to try and make the bond between me and each of them stronger but also just to have some one on one time with each of them. When we are all together George monoplolises me so I love that time that its just me and Benson for an hour now and again.
I think a big factor when raising two pups together is time and I didn't have enough of that so that's probably another reason why I encountered some problems along the way. I know from previous threads on here that many people have raised two siblings successfully but I think its good to hear the other side to the story too.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
Anyone else coping with two 7 month old sibling boys?
Good luck with it though 
we now do not have a kitchen bin and use a carrier bag which is hung up high and taken out every time we leave them.
