[QUOTE=sallyliao;5612475]
We sadly keep getting those to try to train, when the fault is in someone that didn’t know any better raising two dogs together that happen to be close to the same level of dominance and set the stage for serious problems once they become adults.[/QUOTE]
Dog club gets those regularly and we refer them to trainers that specialize in those cases.
Those are not for your regular trainer.
We have had some of our best trainers that ended up with two puppies to raise, some times their own, others just happen like that.
Even with their best, most careful raising, some still have trouble as the dogs become mature.
It is the nature of dogs to some have dominance issues if raised in a way the dogs feel part of the same pack dynamics.
A few years ago a local family got two ADCs, which is a breed known for dominant adults anyway.
The puppies were raised together in their yard and in the evenings in their house, not really trained or given individual learning time with their humans, let to “just grow up together”.
As they were older, male and female, the female was gone one day, I asked and someone told me they got in a fight, taken to the vet to put back together and she died.
Two years later he died from the injuries, that shortened his life.
That is a sad yard now, with no dogs.
I think as a good rule of thumb, why chance nature and raise two together?
Each puppy deserves to grow up in it’s own home, with it’s own humans and if there adult dogs.
Nice as it is to have another young one to play with, the nature of dogs makes it questionable if raised together will mean later, as adults, they will fit in the same pack.
For many puppies, that may go against their nature, so why fight that and try, once we see they are not getting along, if we can do better than nature and make them live with sworn enemies for the rest of their lives?
Now THAT is cruel and abusive, I think.
I have a neighbor I warned, when he got two male puppies from a local rescue, that should have known better.
Knowing him, he may have insisted to taking them, no matter what they were telling him.
That friend tried very hard to follow the instructions, once I explained the situation to him and provided him with panels to make individual kennel runs.
He would take one puppy with him to work every day, a different one, so they did grow up as independent dogs, not part of their own pack of two and maybe he was also lucky they were far apart in the dominance scale and now, a few years old, they are lovely dogs that get along great together, never again had to be separated once grown, they are living in the same household and yard without a problem and mind humans very well, he did a great job.
So, it can be done, but once it is clear they have serious issues, well, we humans are supposed to be the smart ones and should find sensible solutions.
I don’t think letting them fight is one.:eek:
Sad, they just broke up a dog fighting ring here yesterday, is all over our local news.:dead:
