We picked up two puppies from a neighbor that was trying to clear out a
litter. The pups are six weeks old, one male, one female. Mom was a mix of
Golden, Chow, and Husky; dad was a purebred German Shepherd.

You mentioned all advice was welcome- I hope you suggested to your neighbor he
should spay his female, so he doesn't have to "clear out" any more litters?

My question - there are a lot of personal pages on the 'net advising against
raising two puppies at once (a few basically saying "you can't"). Well, the
deed is done and we have two, so where do we go from here?

I'm going to be doing it, too. I nearly said no, but something changed my mind.
Sky is our GSD girl, now 10 weeks old, and a wonderful puppy. Jay, the smooth
Collie boy, should be arriving in a couple to a few weeks. Better than your
situation, since they aren't littermates, but still mucho work.

Sky starts puppy class next week. Jay will probably go to the next class, since
otherwise, he'd have to start in the middle.

Sky is already very bonded to me (puppy foot warmer, anyone?) I'm hoping my son
will take a particular interest in Jay, but if not, I'll be both puppies
person. If Jay doesn't bond as strongly to me, that's okay, too.

Good luck with your two pups- it sounds as though you'll be good people to them


Laurel w/Sky

I do think it's important to do individual training as well as "pack"
training. Because the pups are littermates, they'll have their own way
of relating to each other that may not include behaviors you want from
two dogs. Training your puppies is very important; don't skimp on it.
Little pups have short attention spans and are easily distracted, so
keep training sessions short and fun. You can work on little things
many times a day (think tv commercials).