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Need Advice - One Basset pup or two

5K views 18 replies 14 participants last post by  Mikey T 
#1 ·
Hi all,

I was thinking....What could be better than a basset....Wait....2 bassets!!

We finally get to pick up Bessi on Monday!! I started thinking, maybe I should also get her sister Smiley (We call her Smiley Butt b/c she has a cute white arc on her back that looks like a smile). My thinking is that they will be able to grow up together and keep each other company. I do have an older dog...who pretty much just sleeps all day long. My intent is to keep the pups separated from the older dog unless very closely supervised. I work from home and will have a 4' x 6' caged area in my office where the pups will be while I work.

I started to do some research online and ran across leer.burg.com which is a dog training company. They say no way no how to 2 puppies at the same time and no way to 3 dogs total due to the pack nature of the animals. They say that the humans should be the pack, not other animals. I know that bassets are a very unique breed, so I do not know if the same would apply to them.

Any and all feedback is appreciated!!

Thanks so much!

Bessi's dad
 
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#2 ·
I'm not a fan of Leerburg since they came on this site and recommended using a prong collar on a very young pup, however I do generally recommend raising one puppy at a time - in fact many responsible breeders (me included) simply will not sell two puppies at once unless the owner is very experienced. Just raising one pup is a lot of work, and bassets can be more difficult to raise than "normal" dogs.
That said, bassets are very social as a rule and usually benefit from having another animal in the house. Lots of people easily manage three dogs, so once your pup is mature and trained there is no reason not to get another one.
 
#4 ·
That is awful about recommending a prong collar for a young puppy. Ridiculous. I have to say I agree with Soundtrack about raising two puppies. You could probably do it but how fair and/or fun would it be? I think it's best to focus on just the one puppy at a time. Then, when Bessi gets older, you can add another one to the house. That's what we did with Doppler. He turned a year old and we got Virga. But Doppler was an easy puppy anyway. Virga was a nightmare! But go with what you feel. If you feel like two puppies is manageable then go for it! Good luck and please post pictures when you get Bessi home!
 
#5 ·
At first I wanted to say 2! 2!! 2!! TWOoooooo!! But then I came to my senses & remembered how much work Princess Buttercup was. Then I shuddered to think how much damage TWO puppies could do with a Kleenex box! 8 paws Vs 2= No contest! ;) But I did get PB waaay too early so it might be easier with a little older pup. How exciting either way!!
 
#8 ·
We had someone recommend a prong collar for us to teach our rottie to not pull while on the leash-couldn't do it. Just tried to work with him and realized it was our fault for not "training" him better and just dealt with it all.

As far as 2 pups-I think someone on here said on another post that if you get two pups-they grow attached to each other, whereas with one, they attach more to the people. And then, like someone just mentioned, you also have twice the work! My pup is a crazy lil dude! I cannot imagine having two of him while he is tearing up the place. I think it would be different if I also didn't have 2 kids running wild in my house though.

Good luck with whatever you decide but if I was you, I would wait! My flash is like a very fast and sneaky toddler-into everything. You put it up, he figures out how to get it, put it higher and he will spend quite a bit of time trying to get it-and then find something else along the way. NOTHING is safe lmao! Again, I have 2 kids so I am constantly reminding them toys go upstairs, no you cannot give the legos to flash, etc lol.
 
#9 ·
The family in MD getting ONE of my male puppies had asked about buying two. I did my best to talk him out of it, for now.I said take this one get it raised right then get another if you want another puppy.But why have twice the mess ,twice the chewing ,twice the barking,twice the frustration trying to housetrain two at the same time. Yes,it is also twice the fun but that doesn't out weigh the other stuff.
 
#10 ·
I have no problem with prong collars if they are used properly and where necessary (I certainly think they are safer and kinder than, say, Haltis). But a prong is totally unnecessary on a young (I think it was three months) Basset puppy
 
#11 ·
When we got Luther & Sammy we had to think about it - long and hard. We elected to get two puppies but it was a lot of work. Three feedings a day x 2, two pups at training, two pups to walk, two pups chewing up everything that was in sight (walls, floors, crates, puppy papers, bowls etc) and I was with them a lot! It was a fine experience overall but not for the faint of heart. Our first basset was a rescue and if at some point in the future we add any to the current pack of two it would be a rescue.

We use prong collars on both of ours - after trying one on my arm first. They would not walk on the gentle leaders and halters rubbed their armpits and made Luther limp. Since they can easily slip out of regular collars we settled on the prong for walks - and only walks. Don't leave them on all the time.

Whatever you decide good luck and enjoy - it's a challenge raising a basset but also a blast!
 
#12 ·
There are people on this forum who did have 2 puppies at the same time (ie. littermates). but yeah, downside i've read here too is they end up with a very close bond w/each other and not so much w/the humans.

if ya want 2 puppies, people here have waited 6 months, 9 months, or a year before getting the 2nd one. that seems to be better. also, are you going to be doing housetraining? do you have a yard for them? esp if housetraining w/out a backyard takes a lot of work. i got Worm housetrained in 1- 1 1/2 months, but that was me literally following him around every time he was out of his crate. not sure how that could be accomplished as well if there were 2 little guyz to follow around...

re: prong collars, my understanding is that they can be useful, esp for a big & heavy dog. We saw a guy at the mall who saw Worm pulling and offered me a tip: his harness will not work to keep him from pulling when he's older and this guy found that the only thing that worked on his bassets when they were 65-70 lbs were prong collars. he told me i should consider using it when Worm is older. we'll see, dunno if Worm will get to be that big. it's ok for now, but he still pulls a lot (we're working on the loose leash walking thing...)
 
#14 ·
This is a common question. I'm raising 2 puppies now, but they are 6 mos apart. I couldn't imagine having 2 at the same age. I say get 1 and get used to the breed and the whole "raising a crazy puppy" thing. Add a second one later (when the first dog is about a year). Definitely get 2 bassets...down the road.
 
#16 ·
Bowser was a handfull as a pup, at first, but we got him too young, at six weeks old. He hung out with his big sister daisy (a 6 year old beagle) and did great though. I think if you're working from home you would easily be able to handle two puppies, and unless the older dog is grumpy, they would all do fine together. But, yeah, keep them separated at first if you worry about the big dog. Puppies are hard, but if you have the time to devote to them i think you'll be fine and they WILL grow up with a great bond and be very happy having each other : )
 
#17 ·
But a prong is totally unnecessary on a young (I think it was three months) Basset puppy
actual any collar including a flat buckle collar on a young pup is a recipe for cervicle vertibrea damage.

3 dogs total due to the pack nature of the animals.
one of the danger of dogs as wolves training phylosophy Those that have studyied both domestic and feral domestic canine ave come to the conclusion the do not form pack but on loose transient associations. A pack is not simply a group of dogs.

Myth 10: Dogs live in a dominance hierarchy, with the Alpha
dog at the top as the absolute leader.

[A dominance hierarchy also requires a stable group that is organised in a rigid
structure. Dogs do not live in stable groups. They live semi-solitary lives, which are enriched by
fleeting friendships. As we will see in Myth 11, the groups dogs do form are not at all rigidly
organised. The structure of dog groups is, rather, highly flexible, which is the whole reason they are so good at absorbing infinite numbers of strangers. And the final strange thing about this myth is that no one has ever yet been able to find a real dominance hierarchy within a group of dogs, no matter how hard they looked or what kind of statistics they applied. The whole idea is utter nonsense. [/quote]

Why Won't Dominance Die?
studies of the domestic dog have also moved on. It has been well established that the social behaviour of the domestic dog is unlike that of the wolf. The domestic dog is a neotonised version of the wolf-type ancestor, a specialised variant that evolved into a newly formed environmental niche to scavenge the domestic waste of human settlements. These adaptations removed the need to operate as a true wolf pack and consequently there is little collaboration in hunting or in care of offspring, but much more cooperation with strangers, dog or human. Although dogs congregate in groups around resources, they do not form packs in the cohesive family way that wolves still do.
Dominance and Your Dog
Daniels and Bekoff (1989) studied dogs that had been at one stage bred by humans, but had become ‘loose’. What this study found was that these dogs spent most of their time as solitary scavengers. Free roaming dogs live off human dumps. Hundreds of years of human influenced breeding has led dogs to loose the ability and need to hunt for their own food source. This is very different from wolf behaviour.
The study also found that free roaming dogs often come in to contact with other dogs, but have no need to remain together. They come together fleetingly for breeding, and occasionaly do spend time together, but would probably best be referred to as open groups, rather than packs. The groups are so open that individual dogs come and go as they please, and the female is able to mate with different males. Again, this is very different from the way wolves operate.
 
#18 ·
I got my two basset boys, Linus and Spoony as puppies at the same time, and it was a lot of work, and a lot of expense. At the time, my ex and I worked opposite schedules a lot, so they weren't left alone too often. It worked out very well in my case, but it's definitely not for everyone.

My boys weren't big chewers as puppies, other than a random flip flop here and there, they just weren't interested in chewing, so I lucked out there.

And one was much more difficult to house break than the other....
 
#19 ·
There are people on this forum who did have 2 puppies at the same time (ie. littermates). but yeah, downside i've read here too is they end up with a very close bond w/each other and not so much w/the humans.
It is all a matter of degrees a same litter pair will bond stonger to one another than if they were from different litter but the same age or if different ages That attachment usually comes with a cost of being less bonded to humans. In some cases it is very noticiable others not so much. The other thing is for me I want to slpread the ages of the dog out While It does not alway work out that way it spread out on the anticipated death of the dog as well So you don;t lose both at the same approximate time as well etc.
 
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