New puppies

kildaremum

Hi - I have decided to allow my 4 kids (2 teens 2 nearly teens) to get two puppies, a Bichon Frise and a Jack Russel and now I'm getting very anxious about the chaos. They obviously will both be inside. We will get the Bichon first in three weeks and the Jack Russel shortly after. We have had puppies before (1 at a time) and have trained them without too much trouble. I am at home full time and know that I will be primarily looking after them. I know no one can say definitely but will these two breeds get along together. They will both be males. Has anyone any advice on how to settle them in etc.

andreac

To be honest, i think you are mad getting 2 pups so close together. Ideally you should get one, let that settle for a few months then maybe get the 2nd one. Getting two so close together is asking for trouble really.
Is there no way you can hold off getting the 2nd one?

Just remember to get both neutered as soon as possible too as 2 entire males dont always get on together.

kildaremum

Thank you for reply. I have committed to getting Bichon in 3 weeks but I can wait little while before I get Jack Russel. I just thought if I got both around same time that they might get on better and one wouldn't become territorial. I intend getting them neutered as soon as possible.

Cherry Blossom

I think you you would have an awful lot of problems to be honest. It doesn't matter that the pups are not from the same litter, littermate syndrome will occur in any pups kept together. Two males in particular are going to become increasingly agressive to each other in the first year, this is a time when the natural process is for younger dogs to leave the pack and go their seperate ways. They will not develop properly mentally and when full grown one will not be able to function without the other. My advice would be to get one, when this dog is fully established in your home, has fully matured, been neutered and bonded with all of you then get the second, which I'd highly recommend should be of opposite sex (if you still want a second). I think you would want to be waiting at least 18 months. There is also the issue that Bichons are one of the harder breeds to train and in particular are notoriously hard to toilet train, I certainly wouldn't want to be dealing with that and having another puppy at the same time whose training will be slower than it should be because it's learning from the other.

The issue has been discussed before in this thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056034580

Toulouse

I agree with Andrea, get one first and then another after. I'd leave it about a year until you have all the training and neutering out of the way with the first pup. It'll be easier on the second pup as they will have another dog to follow.

Bichons are notoriously difficult to housetrain so I do think you are better off just getting one first and seeing how you go. Also please do be careful where you get your bichon from as they are very popular puppy-farmer dogs.

LucyBliss

I think if you're anxious about it, probably best to just get one and then wait a while.

However, I will say that when our rescue dog had pups, we kept two from the litter and I never encountered any problems with littermate syndrome or with training. I was home with them full-time and it was hard work, absolutely, but it was also a lot of fun. They're two and a half now and get on extremely well.

However, it was a male and female we kept and I was curious to see how the mother would behave as the two females got older. But I established the pecking order very early on, i.e. I'm the number 1, so there have never been any issues as regards dominance. But getting two pups isn't for everyone and it just sort of happened that way for us.

kildareash

Hi Kildaremum,
We adopted two pups from the same litter last August.

I can see why people advise not to get two at the same time...obviously it's going to be double the trouble and twice the amount of work!

We haven't encountered any major problems...one of ours was the runt, so we had to ensure that the other pup didn't cotinue to dominate him. We just seperated them at meal times and after a few days, bigger dog copped on that he wasn't to eat his brothers food. The latest issue was actually the runt trying to bully the bigger one at meal times, but strict supervision at meal times seems to have done the trick.

I walk them with a splitter lead, as I just found two leads too difficult to handle on narrow paths around the town.

Training commands is probably the hardest as you have to seperate and train seperately and I will hold my hand up and say I haven't been as dedicated to this as I should, but they have the basics.

Good luck whatever you decide to do

kildaremum

Hi all - thank you for the replies. As you can imagine the two pushing for these dogs are the teens (the ones who won't be here to look after them). I am going to go with one for the time being and when its settled get the 2nd - depending on how everyone behaves (puppy and kids).

boxerly

I have a 3.5 year old female Bichon,I love her but I will never ever ever ever ever ever get another Bichon.I had two boxers till xmas but the two of them alone were less trouble than Tia (bichon) very very hard to housetrain.she still goes in the house.If Im doing something with my kids she will go up to my bedroom and pee,she has peed on my daughters bed,rugs,carpets yu name it she has peed and pooped on.She was crate trained (obviosly not very well).She doesnt particulary like walking she will let this high pitched bark at ANYTHING and I mean anything,coughing,sneezing,door closing etc.She did have a seizure when she was younger (vet overdosed her on Milbemax) so I was puting it down to that but the majority of Bichon owners I meet all say theirs is the same.Then you have their coat:) loads of brushing and groomer :)They can suffer alot with ear mites and skin problems aswell but most breeds have their problems.Best of luck but please do think very hard about getting a bichon xx