Puppies are cute, affectionate, loving and silly. They’re fun to play with and cuddle with and will never not call you back. What could be better than one puppy except two, right?
Maybe.
Puppies may be all of these great things, but remember, puppies are tons of responsibility. For all the work you’ll have to do to housebreak one puppy, you’ll have to do it all twice as much. For all the money you spend on food, toys, treats and supplies, you’ll have to spend double. For all the love, attention, work and time you put into one puppy, you’ll have to put in two times that amount.
Now, if you’re an experienced pet owner and have handled having two young dogs in the past before, you may already know all the work involved and are willing to do it. In that case, good luck and have fun. However, most of us have never had to bring up two puppies at the same time. That being the case, most of us can’t fully realize the kind of effort that goes into raising two dogs simultaneously. Remember this before you commit to two new family members.
One problem that is often brought up about rearing two puppies at the same time is that they get closer with each other than they will with you. If a puppy has another dog to be his companion, he doesn’t need the human partnership most pets crave. Additionally, once he passes a certain point without that human bond, he will never bond as close with his master as he could have if he were forced to at an early age.
An obvious problem with this is that oftentimes companion dogs will pay more attention to the other dog than they will to their humans. This can make the two dogs a lot harder to control, to train and to housebreak. Dogs are pack animals and once you have more than one dog, you have a pack. Packs are self-involved and hard to handle. They can also be dangerous in early years, as a pack order must be established and may or may not come easily. Fights can happen, intimidation, abuse from one dog to the other. Remember than all of these complications are very real possibilities that may occur from raising two puppies at once.
A common reason people have for wanting to get two puppies is that they want one to keep the other company. They overlook all the work that will go into raising two babies (as that is essentially what puppies are) at once and decide that one needs another. Remember that your dog will get plenty of company from you if you are devoting enough time and attention to it and if you still feel that you dog needs a companion, it is much easy and better idea to wait until your first puppy is a year of age, past housebreaking and training, to adopt another. That way, you’ll be positive that you can accept the responsibility of being a two dog household.
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