(EP. 52) Is it a good idea to get two dogs at the same time?

In this episode we talk about getting two dogs at the same time.  Good idea or bad idea? In this episode we go over how to have two dogs at the same time, so you can set yourself up for success. Two dogs can be awesome or a nightmare if not done right. 

Introduce your dog to guns and start them out right or help fix your gunshy dog using, "THE GUNSHY FIX" at www.gunshyfix.com

Check out Kuranda dog beds and click on name below to buy one of the best dog cots on the market. 

Crispi boots, best boots out there for all your hunting desires. 

Links to products:

Kuranda Dog Beds

Crispi Boots

Gunshy Fix

If you want any dog training topics or questions discussed shoot us an email at thebirddogpodcast@gmail.com or DM us on Instagram.

For Gunner kennels shoot us an email and we can get you a price at thebirddogpodcast@gmail.com

Looking for an E- Collar shoot us an email and let us get your a discount on one of those. Just let us know what you want. We use the Garmin Pro 550 the most for your yard work. For pointers we like the Garmin Pro 550 +.  If you are tech person check out the Alpha. 

For our training and breeding websites visit the links below:

www.utahbirddogtraining.com
www.fieldbredgoldenretrievers.com
www.utahpointinglabs.com

Follow us on Instagram @fieldbredgoldenretrievers, @thebirddogpodcast and @utahbirddogtraining

Thanks for listening everyone and good hunting!

Transcript

Speaker 0:01

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Bird Dog Podcast. My name is Tyce. Thank you for tuning in today. It's a pleasure to have you on the show, and hopefully we can talk about some cool stuff that will benefit you guys and, um, and we'll talk dogs and hunting and all this, all the good stuff that w- that we like about bird dogs. So, um, a little bit about me, a little bit about my background. The information I'm gonna share with you guys comes from just real-life experience, being around these animals day in and day out for the last 20 years, training dogs professionally, and then, um, you know, just being passionate about dogs, passionate about hunting, and just everything that that involves. So again, thanks for, uh, for being here. Thanks for listening. And, uh, please, if you guys have any topics you wanna talk about, send us a, an email to thebirddoggpodcast@gmail.com, and we'll try to answer those training questions that you have or hunting questions, any of those things. Um, I'm an ob- obviously being a bird dog trainer, I am a passionate hunter. I hunt also big game, but obviously a lot of birds too. So I do upland hunting, waterfowl hunting Everything that involves gun dogs and birds. So, and again, the information here isn't something I'm just reading online. This is stuff that I literally as I'm talking with clients and training and all these things, I'm just sharing knowledge that I've gained. So, uh, take that with a grain of salt or whatever it is. So, um, some things you guys can do to check us out or help us out is, uh, check out corunda.com. Um, but go through the link in our show notes. If you copy that or go to that link and click on that and you get one of their dog beds, it helps us out. So really appreciate that. Some of you guys have bought some of those dog beds, and man, that's really appreciative. They are the best beds on the market. So if you're looking for a cot style bed in your house, you can put a pad on there, go to Costco, grab like a, you know, if you wanna throw a, a dog bed on top of it so it's raised off the ground so you can clean underneath it and sweep underneath it. The cots are nice. Or if you have a, an area where you don't need necessarily a dog house, like, but you have some kennels indoors and you wanna put a cot in there, that's what we use. The dogs can get up off the concrete. They have a place to relax, hang out, and then you can spray 'em down, keep 'em nice and clean. Uh, that's the way to go. Now, you do have some dogs that may scratch and scratch and scratch, and if they do get through the cot, um, they're super easy. I just-- They have replacement panels. You pop out the screws in the corner, slide the panel out, boom, put the new one in, you're ready to go for who knows how long, you know. So I do recognize the aluminum ones. I don't go with plastic, the bars, the, the, the b- the main body of the cot, just aluminum. The dogs can't destroy it. They chew on it and do stuff like that, and it just holds up. So check them out. They are a decent... They're not too bad. I don't-- The pricing I feel like is fair for what you get. But don't get some-- I bought some in the past, you know, where they have like little gaps in the corners, and I literally put one in and one night I go out there and this thing is in pieces. The c- the fabric is completely destroyed. The bars are everywhere 'cause the fabric's not being held in place. So the Corunda dog beds, they are the best. So Um, another thing you can check out is gunshyfix.com. That's a little website that we've built, um, helps out with dogs that are gun shy. Um, I do recommend a proper gun introduction. Um, but if you're, like, trying to do a proper gun introduction and it's just not working good, or you have a dog that just really needs a lot of desensitization work, uh, that's what we built that for, is to help your dog just get comfortable being around gunfire. And so, um, it, it really does work. I've used that with, um, uh, with success. Um, gun-shy dogs, it can be a little bit of a long road, so you gotta be patient. You can't just expect to play it and then the next day go out and shoot your gun and your dog's gonna be completely healed. But it's not a lot of money for something that I feel like can create some value for you and your dog. And if you're looking also for, um You know, something to gunfire and something comfortable to play around young dogs and introduce them to that as you're out throwing bumpers, having a good time. Throw it on your, uh, speaker, your turtlebox speaker, whatever you have around, or play it in the house and just get that dog comfortable with gunfire. 'Cause, um, you know, if you don't-- If you have a gun-shy dog, you don't have a hunting dog. All you have is a pet, unfortunately. So, um, getting guns and doing guns right is really important. And, um, if you're new to having a gun dog and, you know, and you're excited to shoot around your dog, don't go and just shoot around your dog. So, um, ease them into it. Um, start-- get them really focused on something positive like a bumper or a bird, something that really excites them, and then just start off that gunfire at a distance and slowly work in, watching your, the, watching the dog, looking for no change in its demeanor. Um, we want that dog just excited about retrieving. If it's a retriever, just, uh, you know, and no change in personality. If the dog just hangs out with you and doesn't wanna run away from you, or changes its attitude, or is looking a lot in the direction of the gunfire, you're pushing it too fast. We want that dog to maintain a good, happy attitude, um, when it's retrieving and, um, or going after the bird or whatever it's doing as you're bringing in the gunfire, and slow that process down. You know, take a week or two weeks. Uh, a week's probably gonna be fast, you know. You should probably be at least two weeks, and then even then, when you always shoot, shoot that gun, if you have any delay in time, you know, s- don't just start pounding right over that dog and surpri- and surprise it. You want that dog to seed in its brain that gunfire and birds go together, and when that shot goes off, they're looking around for something positive, something in the air, ideally. So anyhow, a little tip on just, that's not what I wanna talk about in this podcast, but a little tip on, um, you know, introducing your dog to, uh, to gunfire. So- Um, if you wanna check us out on social media, check us out at utahbirddogtraining.com. That's my business website. Go ahead and check that one out. Um, we're on Instagram. We also breed golden retrievers, hunting golden retrievers, field-bred golden retrievers. Um, go ahead and, uh, we-- Our Instagram's on there. My wife kinda runs that, does a great job at posting videos and stories. Does a much better job than, than me. Um, I'm kind of the workhorse, um, the guy that gets the training done and runs the business. So, uh, anyways, we'll-- We do our best to post on there, and we'll go in spurts where we'll, you know, make posts on Instagram and then we get busy and then we don't. So I'm trying to do... We'll try to do better, but I guess no guarantee. But if you want to follow us, uh, we'll put some cool stuff on there here and there, and especially hunting season rolls around, we like to put some pictures and videos on there. Um, um, so, and also the Bird Dog Podcast on Instagram, you can follow us there too. And, uh, yeah, we'll try to-- I need to do better at updating that when we throw out a podcast. So anyhow, you know, I'm a busy guy with, uh, training dogs and raising kids and, and all that, and all that good stuff, but it's fun. We enjoy it. So this is what we do. Very grateful to work with these amazing animals. All right, let's, uh, today's topic I wanted to talk about, is it a good idea to buy two dogs at the same time? So is it a good idea to go pick out two puppies out of the same litter? Um, you know, it's like, uh, "The Redfern Grows," right? They go and get, uh, little Anne and, oh my gosh, I should know the other dog's name, but they get two-- he gets two pups right at the same time. So, uh, it can be done. It's, it's okay to get two dogs at the same time, but what I would say is it definitely can be more challenging, and it's the way you raise the dog. So really, if you're a guy, you're like, "Man, I want two upland dogs," I'm with you. I think you should have two dogs. I think you should have three dogs. Whatever you wanna have when you're hunting upland game, the, the more the merrier. When you have two pointers working together, it's beautiful to see them work in the field and honoring and backing each other. They're covering more ground. They work as a team. There's nothing better. I mean, that is, that's, it's-- One is awesome. Two is that much more awesome. But if they're not raised really separately, you can have problems. So, um, I've seen it with clients in the past. Some of the, the problems you may encounter is the do- what, what happens is the two dogs, they create their own little culture. So they're, they're pack animals, right? So they, they feed off each other, and it's like the kid teasing his buddy, "Hey, you, you should do that. No, you should..." And they, and they kinda just get into, into trouble together. And when they're focused on each other and living to each other, and they, they've built this kinda, this little pack relationship, well, s-sometimes you coming into that picture can be a little challenging. They just kinda wanna do their thing or destroy stuff in your house together. And so if you have these dogs living together in the same dog run or inside your house together, I would probably say especially your house, that's gonna be the most challenging. If they're just kinda free-ranging and you want them in your house just living with the family, they're gonna feed off each other. One may mark, you know, if it's a male, they may, like, mark your wall, and then the other one comes and marks on top of it, and you're just having this kinda snowball effect of destruction and feeding off each other and not wanting to listen to you, 'cause they're kinda basically, like, kinda imprinting on them and not-- They're building a bond together, but not kinda with you, 'cause they're always just together and kinda feeding, feeding off that. So, um, I don't necessarily recommend it unless you follow these principles. So if you have two dogs, and you wanna get two dogs at the same time or three dogs or four dogs or whatever it may be, you need to treat each dog individ- like an individual and like they have their own space. So Ideally, they have their own crates. So if they're inside the house, they're gonna have their own crate that they can go into. You can put one in at a time. You can pull the one other dog out. You can work that dog, spend that one-on-one time bonding with that dog, and then that dog can go back into a crate. You can pull the other one out. You train that dog, and you spend that one-on-one time just like they're, they're individuals, right? So you gotta treat them like an individual and train them individually, and then maintain that standard of training when they're together. So, um, another option is if you're, if you have your dog outdoors, and I would have two dog runs. I would not put two dogs in the same run together. The problems you're gonna have is food consumption. Dogs are... One's gonna eat all the food, and one's gonna get fat, and one's gonna get skinny, or th- you're gonna put them together, and they're gonna start fighting over the food, right? "This is my food. Don't touch my food." They start, um, one becomes more dominant than the other, then they're fighting, and then it creates this pers- this relationship of we fight over things, and it can just have... You can have problems there also. Um, I know two dogs that we, uh, would board for a client, and literally there were two females. It was a daughter and an aunt, and those females, if you put them together, they would kill, one would kill the other dog, literally, if they got out together. The one dog would be completely fine with any of my other client dogs, but if those two got together, because of the relationship they'd built at home, they got in a fight probably at one time, and no one really knew who the victor was, and it's just like, it was a fight that never was finished. And so To let that dog, those dogs finish that fight out probably wouldn't, wouldn't have been really bad. There would've been a lot, uh, probably a large vet bill or someone c- a dog could've got really hurt. So I do not encourage feeding dogs together as a group. So separate them. That can be challenging. If you put two bowls of food down and you don't have the best obedience yet, or they're puppies and they start just going at it and then biting each other, especially if you do have two dogs together and you see those behaviors, separate them. We don't want those... We don't want bad behav- behaviors to increase. You want to increase good behaviors, so we want consistency with the animal. And so, um, so just be aware of that. Feed them separate. Don't make a big deal. Sometimes people are like, "Oh, I get in there and I gotta, I gotta touch my dog as it's fe- feeding," and, and the dog's like, "Why are you touching me?" And then they'll growl at the owner 'cause they're being possessive over their food, and they may bite at it owner or bite at someone's hand. Just, just give them food, put it in their bowl, and let them just eat their food. Let them do their thing. Don't ignore them, and I've never had any issues of a dog being possessive over food around me, 'cause I just don't make it a big deal. I give them their food, and I give them their space. They eat their food. When they're done, I can roughhouse on them, train with them, do whatever I want to do, and we got a good relationship. So, um, so keep them separate. So two separate dog runs would be ideal with their own dog houses, essentially their own bedrooms. And then you can pull one dog out at a time. You can train that dog. You can pull the other one out, train that dog, and then once the both, both the dogs are trained, then you can bring them together and train them together. But if you're trying to train them and they're just living to each other and one's running around and this one's doing that and they're just in each other's face, in each other's business, it's not gonna be fun. It's a, it's gonna be a pain in the rear end. So, um, keep them separate, and you can have multiple dogs. Many dogs you really need. I mean, as a trainer, we're training a lot of dogs, but each dog has its own space, its own room, and we treat each dog individually. Um, we treat dog, each dog as an individual, and we focus on that animal, and if we are gonna work that dog with another dog when it comes to, like, honoring the retrieve for waterfowl or, or we're doing upland pointing work with another pointer and we want to do honoring or backing, well, we don't just put a whirlwind with a whirlwind. We bring two dogs that are trained, understand the game of football per se, and then you bring two football players together and like, "Hey, can you guys play this game?" They're like, "Oh yeah, we got this." Instead of throw two guys into the game that have no clue what's going on. They're getting hit. They're running around, running the wrong direction, throwing the ball to the wrong people, and it's just, it's just chaos, right? So, um- So a lot of people, they'll sometimes be like, "Well, I just feel bad having my, my dog in a crate, you know, all day long when I go to work." They just wanna leave him out, but then they're destroying their house, and it's just like they just do not work. So there has to be a safe spot for your animal. The very little-- the very least, a dog crate inside your home if this is part of the family, or a room or something they're not gonna ingest something, they're not gonna destroy something, and then when you come home, that dog will be there, and he will be safe. So you could have... ideally, you'd have crates inside your house if you have indoor dogs, and then you have some do- some, some kennels that are outdoors, and so they can climate- they can get, um, acclimatized to colder weather. Maybe you put them outside so their coats grow a little thicker. They get a little more used to the cold instead of being in 80 degree, a 72 degree home all day, or 70 degree or whatever you keep it in the wintertime, and then all of a sudden you want them to go jump in cold water, and they're just not used to it. Their coat's not as d- as dense and, and built in, and you're just gonna have, you know, um, it's just gonna be more of a shock to the animal when they get those colder temps. So ideally, you have some runs. You can keep them safe. They're outside, and then you have some crates inside. And again, just train them individually. The, the, the parts where I see problems if you keep dogs in one run together, well, what do dogs do? They, they roughhouse, and they play and they, they, uh And they jump on each other and, well, if your dog jumps in its own feces in its dog run, and then it jumps on the other dog, and its feces or feet go on the other dog's eyes or ears or blah, blah, blah, well, now your dog has an eye infection or your dog has ear infection because this one's biting on its ear or getting dirt in there or flicking water in there and pawing each other, and it just, it just creates problems, um, of cleanliness too. So have them separate. They can't do that kind of stuff when you're not watching them. And then it's okay to have them out, but under supervision. So when they're out together, then they're... they can roughhouse and play, but you kinda... you can keep an eye on them and make sure they're not... you know, it's not getting too, too heated or, you know, they're on the grass, so it's cleaner, and they're not jumping on each other and getting each other dirty. It's just a... You want that kinda controlled environments, I guess, is what we're saying. So, um, where we see lack of... Where we see people that tend to have issues is, you know, maybe they're in-inside pets, and we've done obedience training, and they don't even have really crates for them, and they just go home, and then they expect them just to keep your house perfect, and then you leave, and then they destroy your house and, and every dog's different. You may have a dog... I have a good buddy that had a black lab, and his dog could be or in the garage, around in the backyard, wouldn't destroy anything. Sprinkler lines were always okay. Anything left out there just wouldn't... Just not a chewer. And then he got a, the daughter to his dog. He kept a female pup, and she destroyed everything. Chewed up the sprinkler lines. Um, he had a brand new snowmobile. Snowmobile was out there. She went out and just ripped the snowmobile cover or snowmobile seat into pieces, tore up all the foam, you know, and just was destructive. So obviously, you wanna try to correct those behaviors if you see those, those happening. But, um, if a dog, you know, through correction or, or they're smart enough, they know that when you're not there, they're gonna destroy stuff, then they need to be in a place where it can keep them ultimately, it keeps them safe, right? So, um, last thing you wanna do is leave them somewhere where they ingest a sock or something along those lines, um, to, uh, ingest, and then you have to... the dog has to be put down or they have to have... you have a really expensive surgery. So, um, so these are kind of the things I've seen of getting two dogs at the same time. So if you're a two-dog guy, which I totally support, and you have the facility or the ability to separate them and have their own rooms per se, so they can be their own dogs, then go for it. It's g- There's nothing wrong with it. Um- When it's 'cause they're separate from feeding and they're separate in training, and then you can let them hang out and be together while you're there, and then you put them back, um, you should have a great experience. So, um, should you get litter mates? Um Uh, it just varies. I've seen litter mates get along great, and I've seen litter mates that don't like each other. Um, I would lean you towards getting a male and a female. Um, males are just more dominant generally, so they're gonna, uh, one may not wanna back down, and the other one thinks he's the boss, and it just becomes this kinda, this battle, right? So, um, I would get a male/female if you don't want puppies. Um, you know, obviously spay the female or neuter the male, whatever you need to do to, to not make that... to make that not work. Or another option, I think would, which is even better, um, would be to get a dog, you know, get a dog, get that one trained up, and that dog is more mature now. It's kind of established a relationship with you. And it could be as short as six months later, six months to 10 months, anywhere from six months to a year. Then you get another dog. That one is already more, it's li- it's older, right? So it's gonna be more dominant. That pu- it's gonna, that puppy's gonna respect that animal more. And as they grow together, you're probably gonna have a better relationship chance between those two animals. So I'd say probably, especially if it's a male-to-male, um, type relationship. And then just don't let, uh, you know, pattern the animal to do good things. Again, don't put them in situations that's gonna cause them to fight over food or fight over something. And, um, and so they have just good, a good working relationship together. So, okay, that's gonna be it for this podcast on owning, having two dogs or getting two dogs at the same time. So it can be done, but these little tips, um, will definitely help put you in a category where you can be successful. So if you follow these, you should have a great time, and you're gonna have two awesome working dogs, either it be retrievers or pointers or whatever, or just family pets, whatever you're gonna do with them. Um, and, uh, best of luck to you, and thanks for listening to the show. Remember to train how you hunt, train for your hunts. They are coming up here soon. It's exciting, exciting time of year. Um, summer's busy. It's hot. Um, but the water's great for training for your retrievers. And, um, and we got family stuff going on. It's just a great time. So, but it's crazy. We're already 1st of July here. Um, July, August, we're two months out from the dove hunt here in Utah and the grouse hunt opener, so it's gonna be here before you know it, so it's game time. So make sure you get out, train your dogs every day, um, at least four or five days a week, and you're gonna see that, that daily progression. Thanks everyone. Have a great day, and we'll see you in the next podcast.