Hello everyone!
I'm Tess and I'm new to the forum, but not to the world of dog ownership. Here's a little background on myself and my pooch(es).
In January 2007 my mini dachshund passed away at the ripe old age of 15. She was very well loved and is missed greatly.
On May 12 we are bringing home two new puppies! Two female mini dachshunds, who are littermates, will be coming into our lives and I am so excited!
Now, I do have a few concerns about raising littermates that I would like to ask for your help with, so here it goes.
1. I've been reading that raising littermates can pose a problem, especially when they are the same sex. And that we should really try very hard to separate them during their training, bonding, and sleeping times.
Q. Should one puppy be bonded with one human, and the other puppy with another? Or should we make sure to switch off the puppies duties (we're making a puppy planner schedule to share responsibility among family members) between family members so each puppy gets equal time with everyone?
2. My uncle has two male non-neutered mini dachshunds that grew up together and are littermates and they seem to get along well the majority of the time. However, I don't know how bad the separation anxiety will be if one dies before the other.
Q. Does anyone know of any specific issues with Dachshunds being raised with a littermate? (Especially two females together. We will be having them spayed though.)
3. I'm trying to get a list together of everything I'm going to need for these puppies and after reading the articles about keeping littermates safe it seems I'm going to need 2 of more than I thought. Because we work during the day we were going to be leaving the puppies in an ex-pen indoors, but together so they would play.
Q. Is it not safe or a good idea to let them stay in the same ex-pen during the day? Do I need to buy two of these? I understand having them sleep in separate crates, but also not letting them stay together during the day? Is that an extreme viewpoint? Or necessary?
Thanks!