Raising Same Age Puppies

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     Many people just can't seem to decide which puppy to choose from a litter when they look for puppy to bring home. So they may get tempted to pick and adopt more than one puppy. Before you decide to do something like that, be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of having two puppies of the same age in your home and your preparedness for dealing with that.

Are you prepared for the natural competitiveness among puppies?

Consider this. Two puppies of the same age and same litter will have a natural hierarchy developing among them if raised in the same home. One of them is likely to grow more bossy and dominant vis-a-vis the other. This will make the submissive puppy grow up without the much required social skills that can give it self-confidence.

Role adoption is a part of natural behavior but it can have consequences for the development of both your puppies. The puppy that is dominant will want to be the leader in any situation. This may make it more and more aggressive towards the other puppy as time goes by. On the other hand, the submissive pup could develop stress related issues and find it difficult to cope with some situations that come its way. Moreover, when kept away from each other, both puppies are likely to suffer some anxiety because of the separation.

Can you take some dog fighting in your stride?

Older dogs will have established roles and will probably rarely fight. But young puppies are naturally competitive and are very likely to physically fight with each other. This fighting behavior will increase around meal times, competing over toys and competing for your attention.

Of course these things can be handled with strict behavioral conditioning and training. In case this behavior is not controlled the submissive pup is likely to develop deep-seated anxiety problems as he grows into an adult dog. These concerns will be more pronounced if your puppies are of the same gender.

Can you deal with greater training stress?

The biggest thing that you must consider is that having more than one puppy will affect training and behavior modification. The two young pups are so likely to be engrossed with each other that they may not pay attention to their training and indeed, even not your attention as much as you may have wanted.

Now you may think this is not such a big deal. But imagine what would happen if your puppies don't even learn and obey the basic rules of your home or pay attention to your commands. Their attention is obviously going to be diverted towards each other and that will make your job so much harder and more stressful.