Dogs

» mollylab - Need Advice on Bringing Two Puppies Home

We have had labs most of our lives. We are scheduled to pickup TWO black labs this Saturday, sister and brother, 8 weeks old. We have never had to train two at the same time.

We would welcome any tips on how best to approach this. For example, should you crate them separately from day one? Correcting one pup without affecting the other, etc. Any advice would be appreciated.

-- posted by mollylab

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» Joy Butler - Need Advice on Bringing Two Puppies Home

In response to Need Advice on Bringing Two Puppies Home posted by mollylab:

It's good that they're male and female as they will get along better as adults. It's also best to have them spayed and neutered in the next month or so. Remember that, at about 8 weeks of age, many puppies go through a short period where they are cautious and almost fearful of some things. Any overstress during this period can affect them for a long time. I would recommend letting them stay together during the transition into their new home but after a few days, crate them separately and over about a week's time, slowly move the crates out of sight of each other so that they learn to be comfortable and confident with themselves. Puppies will play together, learn from each other and be distracted by each other, so for the most part it will be easier to train them and bond with them separately. Since they learn from each other, sometimes the one falling behind can get tips from the one who is excelling but then again, it can also work the other way around. You'll just have to do trial and error there. And even though they will be crated separately, they should have lots of play time together.

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