littermate

Question
QUESTION: In ignorance, we did the
unpardonable sin", adopting two puppies from the same litter. They are miniature dachshunds, one year old this month. They are undisciplined and have had no formal training. We are depairing that for the next 15 - 18 years we are going to be living a life of dog-horrors. We won't rehome one of these year old babies. we feeling that it is too late. Can you tell us where to start?
Thank you

ANSWER: Hi Fran;
It is not too late.
You just got started off on the wrong foot.
I have taken littermates, and several dogs of different breeds, and of both sexes.
It doesn't matter if they are the same age, breed, sex or what.
What it depends on is the training and raising.
You have to start the training as soon as you get them, and you have to be a good parent, just like when you are raising children.
You have to be a strong and dependable parent, and you have to set the rules, not allow the children to set them.
You just ststed the cause of all the trouble when you said they have had no training.
You need to get into a group obedience class. I would suggest you take one and your husband take the other, and do the class together.
Petsmart and Petco have weekend classes.
Really, when I was training, and I think this is true with most if not all trainers, I trained the people.
The trainer teaches the handlers ( owners) what to do and how to do it, to get the behavior you want out og the dogs.
Sounds like the little kids have been running the house up to now, and it is time they had an awakening.
I don't spank!!!
It doesn't do any good to spank children, and it does less good to spank an animal.
I use time out for punishment, and my little ones HATE time out.
After 2 or 3 times in time out, and I have to say is, "(dog's namd )!!! Do you want to go to time out????"
In a stern voice, and they straighten up and act like angels.
Max, my little Lhasa has done the most prison time in our family.
He may be only about a foot high, but he thinks he can whip King Kong, and tried to dominate the other dogs, who are all bigger than he is.
Part of why he thinks he can dominate is Rowdy. My Australian Shepherd, who took him under his wing, when we got him, and spoiled him rotten.
Rowdy was 1 year old and Max was 6 weeks old, and Rowdy took that puppy over and acted like he was it's mother.
Max attacked Rowdy when we had him about 2 weks, and he was still no bigger than a hamster much, and was hanging in mid air, attached by the teeth to Rowdy's cheek, shaking and snarling like he was killing something, and Rowdy was sitting there looking like, "Do you believe this?"
He tried it a week later with our English Setter.
She put her whole mouth over his body and let out a ferocious growl, and that puppy thought he had been eaten, and he just wet all over and shook like a leaf.
He NEVER tried anything like that with Silky again.LOL
You will have to get into obedience training, and learn how to be the master of your little dictators, and they have to learn mom and dad make the rules, and the kids mind.
In a short few weeks of training class, and you won't believe the difference in your little ones.
Bring them to Aunt Charlotte, and I will train them up in a few days.LOL
My girlfriend lives in Missouri. We have been friends since high school, and she visits a couple times a year, and brings her little Yorkie with her.
She is a patsy of a mom, and that little critter rules at home, but at Aunt  Charlotte's, he behaves like a little dokll.
He has been put in time out and had a chewing oput from me, a couple of times.
Twice was enough.
He loves to come here, and he hides when she starts to leave to go home.
He and Max are two months apart, and have been best friends since they were babies.
Rowdy pampers him too, and he gets along great with my dogs.
He wasn't going to get along with Laddie, our Sheltie.
He had been coming here for a couple of years, and he was not going to stand for a new dog in his second home. He would attack Ladie, and he finally brought blood. That is when Aunt Charlotte trained him.
He has gotten along with Laddie ever since, and he gets along with Big Boy, the new one he met when they came last fall.
Dogs are just like children. They grow up the way they are raised.
You just need some training in handling them, and they will be sweet little dears that will be a joy to live with.
Charlotte


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I know this sounds inane.....but what exactly is a "time-out" and how long does it have to be. I think you are saying they go to their crate for cool-down. Should their crates be with-in sight or ear-shot of each other?

Answer
Hi Fran;
Time out is like, "Go sit in the corner"
If they sleep in their crate etc, DON'T use that for punishment, or it will make them not like their crate, and you will have a whole new problem.
I use the small bathroom in the hall for time out.
It is small, with only a 5X5 area of floorspace between the fixtures, and all they can do is lie on the bathmat and contemplate the sin that got them in there.
No toys, just boredom, and since it is in the center of the house, they can hear al the fun the other dogs are having that they are missing out on.
I usually leave them there for about a half hour. When I let them out, I talk to them about minding mommy and not acting like they know they are not supposed to act.
Adfter they live with you for a period of time, and hear you talking, they learn the language, just like if you live in a foreign country, and hear the language, you pick it up.
It is the way babies learn to talk. Dogs and cats can't ever vocalize and answer us, but they can understand what we are saying.
They also go by the tone of your voice.
dogs and cats we take as pets, are just like children. They do what they can get away with, and the little critters learn to work us too.
They learn how to get around us, how to be cute so we casn't help but laugh at them.
Oh, I think babies and animals are born with a degree in Psychology.
Little children that are undisciplined brats, I can shin-kickers.
Dogs and cats that are brats, I call shin-kickers.LOL
When my little Lhasa thinks he is getting short changed on the attention, he flops in the floor on his back, and twists and turns, pumping his front paws in the air.
The grandchildren say. "Oh, Max is doing his "cute puppy" thing."
then they rush over to make a fuss over him.
The sheltie puts his head down like, "Nobody loves me".
Just observe what is going on in your house, and what has gone on since you got them, and you wil be able to see how you and your hubby have been "handled".LOL
Little Dachies have such a cute way about them, anyway, and it is very easy to get taken in by these little cuties.
Just got to get a firm control and try some "tough love".
Max is the ony one of our's that ever tries to get nasty with th others.
The others have seen him get chewed out and put in time-out, so they avoid getting themselves into trouble much.
fighting is about the only thing I put them in time out for.
WQhen I am chewing him out for fighting, I say," I don't TOLERATE that!!!"
Mine sometimes lie in the same bed.
they sleep with my hubby and me, when thy want to.
He has a firm bed, I have to have my waterbed, so they have a choice of firmness, and they each have their own bed.
They sleep with us when we are in bed, but their daytime mapos and sometimes in the night, they will go to their own beds. Sometimes the two smaller ones, Max and the Sheltie, Laddie will nat together in one of the bigger dogs' bed.

Once we got a little dog friom the pound, and she had a liter.
We kept a male and female. The little male and I made a love connection, and our grand daughter we were raising fell in love with one of the little females, so we kept them.
Then, she came into season.
I wasn't that knowledgable about how young they could come in, and I also thought litter mates would not breed. WRONG!!!
There was one male and one female.
A friend wanted the little female, and that little male chose me, so we kept him.
We had the mother, daughter and son, and their child. It was like watching a family with an adoring grandmother, two indulgent parents, and a little shin-kicking brat.
They pampered that little character, and he was spoiled rotten.
He was so cute, the girls at the Veterinary clinic made a big fuss over him.
Boy,,,,, you talk about a spoiled brat!!!LOL
But he was so sweet.
When he would get into trouble, and I would fuss at him, his mom and dad a granny would get playful with me and try to distract me, to keep me from correcting him.
He was 11 inches at the shoulders, but he thought he could whip King Kong, so I named him, Little Britches, because he was to big for his.LOl
I've seen lots of situations where peope had two or more littermates, and they got along fine, because they were taught to get along.
these little characters have been working their people slaves, and with training, they will learn to do things YOUR way, instead of their's.
Charlotte