New mom to unexpected puppies

[Nella Stevens]

I posted this originally on the puppy thread, and someone advised that there was a Two or more dogs thread, so here I am again. Any and all help would be appreciated!!


Hello everybody! I am new to this site, and have unexpectedly and unpreparedly become a new "mom" to two 15-month-old miniature short-hair daschunds. (This is in addition to the 2 daughters, 2 cats, a quaker parrot, and a mom-in-law with her own schi-zu that already are in my house--imagine my eye-opening experiences lately!!) Seriously, they're my dad's pups, but he got sick, and has tried to take care of them but they're just too much for him. They've not had alot of training, so it looks like I'm starting at square one with them. They're cute as they can be and really eager to please, but has anybody had any experience trying to train 2 puppies at the same time? My only experience with dogs has been with Labs, and they're temperament is way different from these little guys. We're set up for the puppy obedience class at PetSmart in May, but I need some sanity now! Plus, are they supposed to still be really hyper at this age? And peeing and pooping in the house, even after they've been outside and done their business?? Or is that just the daschund mindset? Guess I didn't think of them as still being puppies....
By the way, their names are Samson and Delilah, and they have been spayed and neutered, eat Science Diet once a day, and are used to a crate.

Major thanks to ANYONE with experience and advice!!
Nella

[Luciann]

Well dauchsan tend to be hyper no matter the age, so that part is normal. The house training, could be since they are new at your place they have not learned that yet, or they might not have been trained in the first place.

You sound like you have a house full alright. Try paper training them if you can and that way they will have a place to go in the house as well. I realize i was not much help but...

[Nella Stevens]

Thank you! They do tend to bounce all over the place, but are so darned cute that it's hard to be mad at them!

[Valerie K]

Hi, we raised two shih tzu littermates together from the age of 12 weeks. What were we thinking? Anyhow, it has all turned out okay in the long run, but in the short run, I was ready to pull my hair out one strand at a time. It should be easier with older dogs as they have more control and at least a clue as to what is going on.

With all the other animals in your home, I don't know if this will work for you or not, but using baby gates to keep them in the primary room wherever you are is helpful. They need to be watched, you can't tether two, and a smaller space is easier to survey.

Use the crate. Keep one in the crate with a nice stuffed kong to keep it occupied while you work with the other in another location. They need at least 15 minutes a day of one on one training. The training class is a great idea. If they are going together with another family member handling one of them, try to sit away from each other (out of the sight line). Practice what you learn there with them one at a time. Use NILF at home so they know you are in charge (yeah right, ok, so they know that all good things come from you and you need to be pleased, more realistic).

Until they are fully house-trained, they need to be taken out one at a time so you are sure they do their business and they learn what is expected of them. Leave the other in the crate with the kong. Food is usually a higher priority than potty unless they are desperate. Make sure they start to realize that they only get the yummy kong when they are alone in the crate. Take it away as soon as you come back and let the dog out of the crate. I stuffed mine with peanut butter and kept them in the freezer because it took them longer to work out the food and I didn't want them to get fat....

If they go out together for exercise walks (not sure if you have a yard or not) we found that using harnesses instead of collars gave us more control without stressing their necks. Because they are low to the ground, they really can't do much in a harness when you hold them back. Couplers are for advanced and well-behaved walkers. I doubt our girls will ever be able to use a coupler but we are working towards that end goal....

What does the shih tzu do as far as its potty regimen? if the shih tzu is around all the time, its training will have an impact on these two. (or worse, these two could have an impact on a well-trained tzu)

Our girls are 16 months old now and still have pretty much two speeds. Full on play (hyper, zooming around the furniture, play-fighting, looking for whatever trouble they can get into) or couch-potato. A good dog is a tired dog is twice as true for two pups. Also, even though they are older, after a vigorous play session is when inside accidents tend to occur, so if you can monitor them more closely then and try to get them outside afterwards, that may help. When busy playing like little monsters, it is easy for them to forget that you prefer they make potty outside. And if one does it, the other will eventually do it too.

Good luck. Hope there is something you can use here.

[Amber]

Do you have a fenced yard? If so, please DO NOT paper train your dogs! I only say this because I did this with my toy poodle, Precious, when I did not have a fenced yard (and was too lazy to walk her :rolleyes: ) and it is now HELL teaching her to go from the paper to outside! Sally was adopted from a shelter that I volunteer at and came to me at a year old and no housebroken yet, so I taught her to go outside with no problem...but Precious just isn't getting the concept of not going on the floor anymore :banghead: even though there's no paper there for her to go on! She just goes on our carpet now...

And I must say, since you have two and not just one to worry about, that will be twice the amount of hair you will be pulling out in the end! lol

Just a suggestion coming from someone who is going through it now...

[Nella Stevens]

Thank everybody! Yes, we have a fenced-in yard. Fat lot of good that does, since they can (and have) wiggle under it to go and explore. So, I now go outside with them. I will start taking them outside one at a time and see how that does. My mom-in-law won't let her shi-zu around them very much, and defenitely not outside at the same time, I guess she thinks that the bad habits will rub off on Piper--She says that Piper has a "delecate constitution".... :rolleyes:
We've not had any accidents in a little over a week, and I'm doing the happy dance :bunny: !!!! I do have the baby gates up, so I think that has helped alot, too. I am going to go and buy two "Kongs"(?) and try and seperate them for a little bit of one-on-one time and training, that sounds like a winner. You said that peanut butter is OK--do I just put it directly in the Kong, or do Ibut it on a doggie biscuit and then stuff it in there? You said that you freeze yours??

[Valerie K]

You can use plain peanut butter just stuffed into the hole or you can mix some dry kibble in there with it. Freezing makes it last longer, otherwise they will have that peanut butter out in about a minute and a half... You can also add some plain yogurt, or use canned dog food (if the brand you are using also comes in a can). I always extra stuffed a little to make the first bite easy to get to. For small dogs, I used both the round disc type kong which doesn't hold all that much, or the one that looks like a little conical pyramid, both were red. Once they have finished the food, they will still chew on them for a while as the taste lingers. It is important to take the kong away as soon as you let the dog out of the crate. The association between the yummy kong and being alone in the crate is important. My girls hated being alone in the crate until I started giving them kongs. (you can stick it back in the freezer if you aren't gone very long -- taking one out for a quick potty walk -- and there is still food left over in it, or add more on top and refreeze).

I had four kongs and kept them in rotation so there were always two in the freezer at all times. I also washed mine periodically in the upper rack of the dishwasher as even the most determined little guy can't get to all the nooks and crevices...

Keep up the happy dance. If the neighbors don't think you are nuts, you are not excited enough!

[Sharon Alcon]

We had a family mini doxie and she lived for almost 16 years. She was super smart so they are very intelligent little dogs. We actually got 2 at first because my mom gave one to her god child, but we had them both for a few weeks together. They are very cute when they are little. This was before the "crating craze" started so we had used a card board box. they were so small we put them both in the box next to my bed and I would leave my hand dangling in the box. They would nip and lick at my finger tips when they wanted they wanted out. I would get up and put each one in my bath robe pockets and take them outside. They would do their business and come back in and go to sleep, they did not want to go potty in their bed/box. You should try taking them out the same door (consistancy) every 2 hours just like a new puppy potty training. Like some one said maybe they just don't know where to go to tell you they want out. Maybe once that is established it will be easier. I know when my dog first would go to my mom's house and was house trained he had one or 2 accidents until he knew what door go him out to do potty now he goes there.
Good luck it'll work out.

[Andre Mendizabal]

Hi Nella, sorry if this is repeated but I didn't read the previous replies... anyway, I had a daschound once and they are really smart. So what I recommend (as a longtime proud mommy of 2 or + dogs) is that you train separately, one-on-one with each one... obedience classes will help a lot, but remember to take them to a different class each or to have somebody else train one... don't expect to handle both at the same time, it doesn't work!!! :)

[Grace Erick]

Nella, I would let the dogs out soon after they eat and at every chance you get when you are home to reinforce that they should go outside. If my dog is home for 6 hours, she will not pee on her pad, but if I was home and let her out every hour, should would pee every hour, so they will go more often than you think.

I know you did not post here to discuss food, but perhaps your parent's dogs came to them eating Science Diet. It's a pretty poor quality food. There is a dog food thread that discusses food and has links to learn more about better foods. This is what's in one variety of Science Diet:

Chicken, brewers rice, rice flour, corn meal, soybean meal, ground grain sorghum, chicken by-product meal, animal fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), vegetable oil, chicken liver flavor, dried beet pulp, dried egg product, flaxseed, preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid, minerals (salt, calcium carbonate, dicalcium phosphate, potassium chloride, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), rosemary extract, beta-carotene, vitamins (choline chloride, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (a source of vitamin C), niacin, thiamine mononitrate, calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement

Brewers rice is not a high quality product, rice flour is too processed, corn is acceptable in small doses, but should not be one of the ingredients listed close the beginning, meaning there is a lot of it in the food. By products are not good quality and it's not good if they can't tell you what animal fat they have in the food which they don't. You don't know what exactly is in chicken flavor as it can be anything like cancerous preservatives. Sorghum is not very digestible. Soybean meal is a poor substitution for protein where there should be more animal protein and less grains in this food. Beet pulp is just filler. If you are so inclined, I would transition them to something better mixing some of the old food in with the new food.

My mom has quaker parrots nesting in huge nests on her telephone polls up and down her block in Brooklyn, NY. I read these huge nests have actual rooms in them. They were taking apart my sister's dogwood tree before it came into bloom to use the thin twigs for their nests. My mom saw 6 of them in the tree. They have nests in another area of Brooklyn in a cemetary where my father is buried. They have nests in this big archway that is the entrance to the cemetary. I hear them and see them every time I visit NY.

Bye, Grace

[Grace Erick]

Nella, I also forgot to mention, I think everyone feeds their dogs twice a day or they would be pretty hungry in between meals. Some dogs if they don't eat early enough in the day or have a late night snack after dinner will even throw up yellow bile from having an empty stomach. I'm surprised your new doggies haven't done that. My dog's stomach would be bulging if she ate her daily intake of food in one sitting!!! Also, maybe this is part of the "going" problem. They are eating too much at one time and have to "go" all day instead of a little after their first feeding and a little after their night feeding??

Bye, Grace

[Luciann]

Well i guess i have been extremely lucky with my chis.

Frodo had accidents in the house when a baby but learned to hold it until i could take him out. Tika paper trained in the house. I leave paper down now just to be safe but she has not used it in over 2 weeks even at night.

I also tend to leave my back door open into the yard all day long as well. I live in an area that i can do this. Frodo has to be desperate to poop in the back yard usually holds it for our walks but tika will go behind the bushes in the corner of the yard.

I leave food out for them all day since neither tends to gorge....but i agree, take them out about 20-30 minutes after they eat and do the one on one with them so that they know what they are suppose to do when outside