Siblings-big decision - HELP!

[deckers007]

Hi all,
We are relatively new here. My boyfriend and I have a female boxer -she will be 4 months old on Saturday. We love her to pieces. (though we are having problems with her playing with her poop but that's another story!)

Anyhow, my parents had purchased her sister. She stayed for one month at our place and then went over to my parents a little over a month ago. (they could not take her right from the beginning).

So to sum this up, the pups have been in different houses for a little over one month now but they have been seeing each other very frequently (only 5 minutes away) and go to puppy class together.

My mother feels she doesn't have time for her and wants to give her up. My father is not of the opinion, and it's tearing him apart but since he works during the day, and my mother won't take care of the dog properly when he is away, he wants my boyfriend and I to take her. We are attached to her and would love nothing more than for this to work out but we have heard bad things about litter mates.

I've done a few searches on the site and read useful info but I gues what I am looking for here is people who have had good/bad experiences with litter mates. I've heard about them bonding too much with each other and possible fighting and how they should spend time apart, etc...

We understand and are ready but we would like to hear from your personal experiences...

 

[ricos_mama]

I am sorry I don't have experience to help you with...but I hope it all work s out for you and your pups..

 

[Thomas Liggin]

There are no hard and fast rules regarding littermates, or how dogs of the same or different sexes will get along.

Having said that, it seems to be generally accepted, that a male/female pairing is less likely to have problems than a two male or two female relationship. Two females are the most likely to have problems, followed by two males, with the opposite sex pairing having the best odds of getting along.

What I don't know is how they statistically stack up. There are many here who have two females without any issues. Keep in mind that more likely doesn't mean they are likely to have problems. To the contrary, since they have been "friends" as well as littermates, and get along well, I wouldn't hesitate to take on the second bitch if your heart is in it.

Be sure that they recognize you as the alpha. As the alpha, you are responsible for maintaining order in your pack. You need to be vigilant, and if one appears to be getting aggressive, nip it in the bud.

When it comes to bonding, I wouldn't consider that to be a problem. Boxers are notorious for bonding to humans. When we got Ava, our daughter who owns a kennel and trains dogs for hunting and field trials advised us to keep Ava and Indy separated for periods of time so that she would bond to us.

Since we got her to be a companion for Indy we didn't care if she bonded to him more strongly than to us. Other than a few occasions, they have been together constantly. No matter, Ava still bonded more strongly to us. Indy is content to spend part of the night alone on the couch in the tv room. Ava has to spend the night on a bed that has a human sleeping on it.

Were I in your situation, there is nothing that I can think of that would discourage me from adding a second male, or a littermate.

I'm sure there are plenty of members here who can testify that they have two females in their home that are happy and well adjusted.


Tom

 

[Kat and Jeff]

We did not have 2 boxers, but we had 2 half shepherd/siberian husky mixes. They were litter mates. They loved each other and never fought. The problem we ran into (and I have read many articles on it) was the bonding. They actually did bond well with us, but they were like 2 mad cases (and listend to each other alot when young and not us). Two puppies is alot of responsibility. It takes longer to do everything. Not only do you have 1 pulling pup on the leash you have two (for example). You have to spend more time training because you should do some of it individually. This is so they pay attention to you.

One of the problems we had was leash pulling (yours may be good allready). They would play fight on the leash, zoom right and left, tangle, etc. Anyhow, it got so that if I took them out they would sit and stay at the door, but I said OK and they would run out. One day they pinned me up against the wall with my arms behind my back. It was awful and hurt and I did not want to not let them go. They were about 6 months at this time. After that I did alot of one on one training for leash pulling. It took about 2 weeks and I taught one to walk on one side and another on the other side and no playing while on the lead. I have seen some awsome leash extentions that allows you to walk two dogs at once. My friend has one and his dogs do great on it.

Another thing was off the leash recall. One would start to listen and the other decided she did not want to come, so the other dog would listen to that one. It got so I would leash the one that would run off the most and bring them in that way.

The dogs were great and loved each other alot...the only problem I ran into was making the time to train them. Both my husband and I worked so it took a while. They were pretty much well behaved by a year.

Having just one dog now is so much easier. He is an angel (and a boxer ) So, it depends how much time you have for them. It may be great having two babies to love, but they may feed off one another also.

 

[megan313]

My grandparents had brothers (from separate litters, one year apart, but full brothers) They started off on the wrong foot because they treated each one the exact same, and would not allow one to be more dominant--everything had to be fair!

So, one day these boys (110 and 95lbs) got into it and almost killed each other. There was blood everywhere, and from that point on, nothing was the same. They continued with the "fair game" and would rotate the dogs every 3 hours on the hour one upstairs, one downstairs.

My grandparents had to separate their sleeping arrangement so one could sleep upstairs and one could sleep downstairs. Nothing was ever the same. They worked really hard to try and re-introduce the brothers, and they did, eventhough they had to be muzzled when together. This process took over 3-4 years of small encounters on lead.

I'm sure this is an incident that happens VERY seldom, but I thought i would throw my story into the mix.

 

[nikkiandclay]

I only have experience with brother and sister dogs. The first boxer I had my mother had gotten her brother. And like you we only lived mins. apart, so we visited often. They got along perfectly, they would play for hours. When it was time to go I would have to chase Gisix down to get her in the car. She passed away two years ago and to this day when I go to my moms Oscar will get in my car looking for Gisix. Now I have two boxers, brother and sister, and they also get along great. They can get a little excited and play to hard. We have had no problem at all with them getting along.

 

[pscheidecker]

Sibling Boxers

I have a brother and sister from the same litter and they are just over a year old. Other than the usual things you would expect they get along fine with a few exceptions. One is bones we give them both their own bones but inevitably one wants what the other has. The female can get very nasty about not giving up her bone. My wife and I watch carefully and if it gets too bad we just take the bones away. Training the two of them has been a challenge and while they aren't there yet it is a developing thing. To get them to walk on a lease and sit and stay could only be done on a one-on-one basis. Housetraining was a challenge I didn't think I would overcome but they are good now (as good as year old pups can be maybe 95 percent). The joy far outweighs all the obstacles when you see them run together in the yard, or play together. I had single boxers before and I don't think I would ever have only one at a time again based on these two. They love each other that's very easy to see and they care for each other if one isn't feeling too well. They keep each other warm at night and they play and play and play and play and play....... Hope this helps!!! Go for It.

 

[duke_n_mason]

I dont have littler mates but I do have 2 boys. They are 2 months apart in age. Duke we got as a pup and Mason was a rescue. Neither of them was fixed at the time that we got Mason, we get them both fixed at the same time a few months later. They have got along great from the start. There has never been any problems between them. Mason is alot more hyper than Duke is so when Mason gets carried away or Duke has enough, Duke will let him know hes done. But no problems at all. I dont know if this will help you or not but its my 2 cents. Also I have heard that females tend to get along better. But you never know. each dog or set of dogs will be different. Good Luck to you!

 

[dgreen76108]

I deeply understand your concerns. We have a 11 month old female boxer, and my husband decided that he wanted another. I was fine with that, but I said that if he wanted one we should get a male. Well I live in Germany and Boxers are very popular here, expecially with the military. He got very impatient and settled on a female boxer. She is 7 weeks old now, and is aggressive at times. I am nipping that in the bud when she gets too rough. People had told me good/bad stories about same sex dogs. I think it's a cross your fingers situation. And like the other person said, nip it in the but asap. My 11 month old one is very gentle and sweet, her name is Angel. Our 7 weeks old one is a firecracker her name is Teufel which is Devil in German. But all in all, I think that if you train them together well, make sure that they eat out of their own bowls, and respect each other, they'll do fine.

 

[NFBoxerMom]

I have 2 females and a male here (not related to each other) who get along fabulously.
A close friend of mine has the littermate sister of my youngest, Holly. The 2 girls have playdates whenever we can get together and they don't have any problems getting along at all.

I think Thomas Liggin said it well when saying there are no hard and fast rules about whether dogs will get along or not.
The best I can suggest is to try the 2 pups together for a while..give it a chance and see how they do. if they get along, great!! If not, then perhaps another arrangement can be made.

Keep us updated. Best of luck!!!

Lori
Belle, Copper & Holly