Shih Tzus

we just bought 2 shih tzu puppies (brother & sister). now i find out that it is a bad idea to do that. I have read that now i need to keep them separate for 1 year so they don't get to attatched to each other and one of them become aggressive. Help!! that seems so extreme and i think that might send me over the edge. need advice.....

While 2 puppies does mean 2x the work, i've never heard of keeping them separate for the first year. Instead, you do want to provide 2 crates (one for each dog) and two separate feeding dishes, so they eat separately. Let htem play together, but sleep separately, though within sight of each other. The big thing is that you as the owner need to spend one-on-one time with each puppy on a regular basis, playing doing some basic obedience training, etc. So that they also like being with you, and not just with each other.

Thank You sooooooo much for that advice. I do feed them separately in their crates and they do sleep in separate crates at night next to my bed. The problem seems the male playing aggressively and he is also beginning to bark when I take the female out of his sight. My husband is fearful of him becoming aggressive in general.

It really may be best to rehome one and look for another dog in a year or two.

For some dogs it is no big deal-they adjust. for others no matter how much you keep them apart when they reach maturity they will fight like mad or end up dependent on each other.

We get lots of dogs into rescue who grew up like this and the owners finally had enough or they finally hurt the other dog badly enough to be rehomed.

When I knew absolutely nothing about dogs we got our husky and corgi at almost the same time. they were best buds for two years and at around two years old got into some almost deadly squabbles. Now we have lived the last six years with gates and a lot of hard work. They had been walked separate and even separate classes and slept with different people at night so they couldn't have had a better start other than not getting two young dogs at the same time.

there is a lot of reading out there on ways to prevent any problems but honestly either they will do fine or they won't-there isn't much in between. Make sure you keep on top of obedience.