The One Downside Of Having Two Hounds
Having two hounds is something that I’ve written about before and something that I frequently discuss over on our Instagram page as it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. For the most part, there aren’t any downsides to sharing my life with two dogs but something that can be difficult to navigate is the emotions of them both and it’s something that I’ve noticed a lot lately in our household so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to write this post.
why we wanted to get another dog
Josie has always been a dog that is happier in a pack when on a walk and even now it’s still something we notice, the difference in her is quite astounding and we knew early on that we wanted to get another dog to give her that companionship we couldn't. When in the company of other dogs, especially other sighthounds she seemed to be so much more comfortable and even though she lived a very happy life with us at home we knew that she would be super happy to have another hound around. She was 13 months old when we re-homed Edie and for us, that was the perfect age as she was young enough to tolerate a young dog bouncing on her and wanting to lovingly nibble on ears but still old enough to be somewhat well trained. Some thought that was far too young and we should have waited but we know it was the right time for us as well as Josie and I think when it comes to adding a second dog to your household ultimately you know who when the right time is as every dog is different.
making sure josie didn’t feel replaced
Something that we were very conscious of was to make sure Josie didn’t feel replaced when Edie came into our lives. Although we knew that she was happy with another dog on a walk and other dogs being in the house we couldn’t be certain how she would truly feel with another dog permanently being around. We went out of our way to give Josie even more attention than before because we were so worried that she would become subdued with the arrival of a puppy even though she was excited about Edie being around it’s understandable that she would feel a little confused. For 11 months she’d been an only dog and had all of our love and attention focused on her and whilst that wasn’t going to be possible we still wanted to give her as much solo attention as we could. There were times that we did notice Josie become subdued and a little down when Edie was getting more attention and she’s not the type of dog to really pester you so it’s now something that we’re very aware of. Making sure she gets to sit on the side of the sofa that she really likes, fed first and whilst we were crate training Edie having just her in the bed with us were all little things we did that we believe made a difference to how she's felt in the long run.
treating them ‘fairly’
Trying to treat two completely different dogs 100% fairly is impossible and as nice as it would be and that is something that took quite a bit of learning from all of us. Training wise we’ve gone the positive reinforcement route for both dogs because that’s what we believe in and it’s also what it works best for both of the girls. Josie is a lot more treat reward-based whereas Edie is a lot more responsive to our tone of voice and being really excited, she does respond somewhat well to treats but it’s not her biggest motivation to learn. Something we have been aware of is that it’s very easy to fall into a trap of favouring one dog over the other. Especially when one of them is acting up and misbehaving quite a bit but staying neutral and never favouring one of the girls has been key from day one. It's really not possible to treat them completely equally but we try our best to give them both whatever they need whilst bearing the other in mind.
one and one time and their different emotional needs
Training two dogs together can either work brilliantly or be a complete nightmare and typically we find it to be the latter which is why one on one time is so important. It’s not something that we do anywhere near enough as time doesn’t always allow for two separate walks but it’s something that we’re trying to do a lot more at the moment so each week they each get a little bit of one on one time with us as then all our attention can be on them. Being alone with one dog also gives us so much more time to focus on their emotional needs which for each dog look a little something like this;
Josie: She’s a pretty independent girl, especially on walks as does like to explore and that’s always ok with us. I don’t expect her to just want to trot by my side as there must be so many interesting smells she might want to sniff and that’s such an important part of being a dog. However, when we are on walks she does get our main focus because we do still struggle with her recall and that can be quite challenging as it does shift focus from Edie quite often. At home, Josie likes to around us as long as she’s got her own space to be in as she’s not the type of dog to cram herself into the tiniest space available just to be near you. However, she also likes the choice to go and lay on the bed or my office sofa if she pleases, she can typically be found up there in the warmer months as the sun hits those spots during the day. Something we’ve found to be key for Josie is to make sure she knows there’s always room for her or making sure she can get up on the sofa too otherwise that’s when we notice she can feel a little pushed out which obviously isn’t what we want.
Edie: There is no denying that Edie is quite an emotional dog and it shows in pretty much all aspects of her life. She’s a clingy dog at home, if you’re sat down she wants to be on your knee and as close to us as possible which is lovely in so many ways but her being so loving can easily make Josie feel pushed out. Working on her separation anxiety has helped quite a lot with this as now she can happily sit on her own but she'd still much rather be with us. Ideally she would like to cuddle up to Josie but unless it’s under our duvet Josie typically isn’t a cuddler as much as she loves to groom her sister. With Edie being so emotional we have to be incredibly careful with shouting around her (not at her) as any raised voices cause her to be so scared that she hides away which means when it comes to training even the slightest shout can really shut her down. Edie’s high emotions not only affect us at home but also when we’re on walks too, she’s got great recall and stays quite close to us but can often struggle a lot with other dogs and her instinct is to run away from them and cower which is quite stressful for all involved. At the moment we're trying to work really hard on Edie's confidence whether that be at home or on a walk.
