Working more than one dog..

[cashmando1]

I was wondering for those who work more than one dog in Schutzhund or any other sport for that matter what are your challenges??

Do you enjoy it? Are you glad that you choose to work more than one dog? Do they both work equal amount of time on the field? What about age and titles? Did you title so far and then get another?

Thanks in advance,
Lynn

[sonterra]

I currently work 3 dogs, 2 dogs in french ring and 1 dog in ob and tracking.

Well the first thing is training costs double. When you do go to seminars/etc you have to manage your dogs more - ie make sure you are split up with the dogs and not back to back - to allow time for each dog warm up/cool down without interupting training flow. Even general everyday training is double. Altho mostly I can swap equipment back and forth between my dogs (I did have to get seperate muzzles tho).

I have a hard time starting over from scratch. And I will get stuck in a rut of ignoring the issue with the newer dog until I get an butt whomping over it by friends. I just hate that initial part when they know NOTHING!!

I don't particularly enjoy multiple dogs training in ring. It is kinda a pain in the butt. Training multiple dogs means that there is very little down time when training... I am constantly warming, cooling, potty-ing, managing, walking - 2 working dogs. At home I have a busy life trying to keep thier active minds from driving me batsh!t crazy.

However I will enjoy it when I finally have to retire my male, and have another dog to step up to keep trialling.

I was fine with working one dog, cause I am inately lazy, but I got significant pressure to get another working dog to develop while I am in the trial process with my first. For the reason of having another dog to trial when the first dog retires. It is a very common mentality in the french.

The dog I have now is 4.5 years, and the second dog is 22 months, and my sibe will be 3 in nov. The second dog fell into my lap at 18 months completely green, and was nice cause within 3 sessions she was on the bitesuit and working tecnique, rather than the puppy developmental process.

I am horrible with guilt too... I can never just work one dog - cause I am over come with guilt over not working the second dog (or third dog in my case). Sometimes tho this guilt will lead me to not work any of the dogs - because it feels overwhelming. I find that if I have stress in other areas of my life, my dog training falls behind and I slough it off. Which is very self destructive as the training is very cathartic for me.

I am a firm believer that you should at least title one dog to the first level before getting a second. Life may seem rosey before you title, but getting the dog into the trials and successful can be stressful... and if you do not have enough experience to pull thru the stress with the second dog you could be leading yourself to failure. As a newb there is so much new info to learn, I feel it is setting a person up to fail, being new and having the challenge of two dogs.

Do the dogs get equal time?? Well that depends on the dog. My current male will work 30 mins (short session)-an hour and a half every time he takes the field, and will do it 3-5 times a day, everyday - and has since he was 10 weeks old (just protection, more if we do ob as well). I had a malinois puppy that could only do 10 mins max, twice a day and only 3 times a week without her quiting. The 22 month old I have now can handle 20 mins max, multiple times a day, everyday, but her duration is getting better everytime she takes the field. So it really depends on the dog

I have to say that life is much easier getting a green adolescent dog (18 months). We jumped right into train, no house training, etc.

Anyways that is my 2 cents.

[cashmando1]

Well thank you very much for your well thought out explanation Tamara. After 92 views you have been the only one to respond!

I thought it was interesting when you said about feeling guilty about working one dog and not the other. So sometimes you don't work any! I can see me doing that to..lol!

Good stuff to think about Tamara.

[kjersti]

Hi.

Just wanted to say that I have 3 dogs in training right now... One 5 years old, one 4 years old and one 1 1/2 year old... And it is not easy!!!

They all need 3 different style to be trained! And it is hard to get my brain to switch over from one dog to the other one!
BUT.. 2-3 dogs are a good number for me, since I love to train them and special the sport of schutzhund... One of my dogs need more rest then the other two, and I have one that will go as long as I let her...
So I always have to make sure that they get what they need. Resting doesn't mean that they don't do anything... They might only going for a walk... or skiing... But also... they all get some days to just relax... Hanging out and getting spoiled.

I am also a believer in healthy dogs, so I try to keep as much muscles as I can on them because the sport is a contact sport, and to prevent injury. So I also do swimming, biking, running in the forest and skiing with them... ( ohhhh I do not bike with my male, because that is the same as doing suicide...)

Special skiing in the winter time, too let them have a brake from the sport, and build up a different set with muscles...

Having dogs and do the sport is not just a hobby for me and my husband... It is a lifestyle... and all we want to do is to train our dogs... So everyday after work are we outside to get the dogs trained... Or we are up 05.00am in the morning so we can track or do ob before work... All vacation time is saved for trials and traveling for "dog stuff"

I love my dogs, and I love to train them... And they love to do it!

Kjersti

[symmetrydobes]

I work 3 dogs in several different sports. I'm super lucky that I have a decoy that can help with ring and sch, so that makes it a bit easier.

My older female still is quite active so OB and agility are still keeping her and I busy!

I'm pretty dedicated to training and conditioning my dogs. I enjoy it, and honestly sometimes I feel like I could take on another dog yet!!! I live to train so having one dog would be awful for me. I'd be bored and the dog would be way over worked.

My boys are less than a year apart which has made things tough not only in training but around the house. They are both pig headed boys and that has required some management.

I wouldn't have it any other way though. I really think it depends on your personality and how much time you are willing to commit to training. If you have a hard time making time for one than 2+ will be way harder.

Besides training I spend many hours a week conditioning the dogs biking or hiking or swimming. But I enjoy that as much as the training so it works out well for me