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Train 2 – Double Trouble?
I have a client that would like for me to come to their house to train two littermate six month old puppies. Can you give me suggestions on how to train two dogs at one time? Only one family member can help me train, the 20 yr. Old daughter one has an injury to her knee and cannot train this week. But she’s going to observe us. This should be fun.
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27 Replies
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Hi @Denise !
Oh dear, well, that is a lot to expect of you! I have trained more than one dog at a time together, for fun, but not as a request of the owner.
Personally, I don’t mind it as long as there isn’t a resource guarding problem. I worry, though, because sometimes it’s hard to tell if there are treats one dog covets more than others…
Also, I would recommend that if there is no one to help trains one of the dogs while you train the other (again, I don’t like this idea either, because it leaves you training and coaching simultaneously! Really, not a good idea, because you might miss something good or something that needs correcting, on either dog or the human helper.
I have started doing this: when training more than one dog, I tell the owner that I need one trainer-owner per dog present and able to work. It is my job to coach the human-trainers and their job to train their dog. It also frees you up to watch both dogs and humans.
If that is not possible, due to the fact that many people flake out on training and leave it up one person (usually, Mom), I tell them that I want to tag-team train in reverse (sounds silly) but that means, one dog is kenneled or sequestered with a Kong or licky mat while the other dog is trained. After 10-15 minutes, we switch dogs. Believe me, this works far better than you trying to “Do it all” and be everything at the same time!
Really…That’s just my opinion. It’s based on trial and error, too. ???? Not sure if any of this helps. I’m sure other people will have good ideas as well.
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Love your suggestion!!! Thanks you so much?
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Hi Denise!
I hope you don’t mind – I added a stock photo to bring more attention to your post – this is SUCH a good topic!! I’m hoping lots of members will jump in with ideas for you.
Paula has us off to a great start – so many good points. I have a lot of ideas too, but I want to give others a chance to noodle this and jump in.
It can help those who are brainstorming to have more great ideas if you can share a little more about the situation… what kind of pups are we talking about? What are the training goals for them? Are there problems currently? And I’m not clear on what you meant about the daughter – she’s the one with the injury? Also, how many sessions will you have with this family? So many questions!
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Thank you very much.
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Long story short. The Daughter bought herself & her sister a dog to have at college. The family had a previous dog trainers but the company sent two different trainers & so one says one thing & the other says another for 5 sessions. The puppies are Havachon’s. She needs help with Potty training in a penned area in back yard. Barking & littermate rough playing. She signed up for 2-3 classes.
The trainers ask them to tap the crate each time the dogs bark?? The 22 yr old unfortunately did not take her puppy with her because he’s not potty trained & room mates said she can’t have there.
The 20 injured her knee & using a knee scooter till she’s healed.
Mom is not to happy with the situation & doesn’t want to get rid of puppies.
Thanks everybody for your suggestions.
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Thanks for all the great details here, @Denise – definitely helps to visualize what’s in store for you.
So if I’m understanding correctly the main issues are housetraining and barking?
Can we find out more about the barking? Is it only when the pups are crated? Are they being crated together or separately?
The housesoiling is a management issue and can be solved by coaching the people, so you can do that while the pups are involved with a packed chew or crated. Here is a search on that topic with several detailed discussions for you.
Often, attention-seeking barking can be solved with more enrichment plus some basic Go to Mat exercises. I would have the daughter hold one pup, leashed, while you demonstrate with the other pup on Go to Mat, then switch, so that you can talk about how to troubleshoot each dog’s plan.
Regarding smacking the crate for barking… if they liked that suggestion, they wouldn’t have called you. If they bring it up, you can simply say something like – “I’m sure it will work, but is scaring them the best we can do for your relationship? What if we solve the reason they are barking, instead?” I like using “we” as much as possible, because you and they are a team. This is not you, training the dogs. This is you, coming alongside to advise them on how to best live with and enjoy their companions.
Don’t overthink this – the family is looking for a guide. If you can present simple solutions that show promise, and that are not complicated to follow up, you will gain trust and a good client.
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WOW, @catherine …I’m always amazed and overwhelmed with gratitude by the thought and care you take when answering each of our posts. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! When you answer just one of us, you’re really helping us all.
(I know that’s what this community is all about…but often I wonder what the more experienced trainers who stick around here daily GET from us, the more novice trainers with all the questions! ?)
I am so interested to hear how this case progresses. I think having the daughter hold one dog while she trains the other is a great idea. Little dogs often feel safe and happy when someone just holds them, rather than being Kenneled. It wouldn’t work as well with bigger dogs, but maybe tethering one while working with the other could solve that with larger dogs.
I’m attaching a picture of when I was still a student with CATCH and I was training all of my walking/petsit clients (for free, for my own benefit). Two of these cuties have since passed on…dear Glimmer (Beauceron) and Palin (minPin). Rupert is the hound/Dobie mix with the surfer-dude ears. He’s still alive and silly. I trained all 3…the min Pin often would drift away to do her own thing, but I mainly taught her at the age of 15 to Sit politely and not jump on me. ????. Glimmer and Rupert really were great together with training. I often got them to do a double-dog Down-Stay, in the yard. Will try to find a video as well.
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What a fun experience, to have this variety of dogs in the same family! They are all beautiful in their own way. How did you find the Beauceron to work with? I’ve only met one; never worked with any. Are they more like GSDs or Border Collies or Cattle Dogs or something else? I’m so curious.
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Also, @bernerlabreclectus – in terms of what do the more experienced trainers get…? EVERYTHING! We are all learning together; not one of us knows all the things.
Sometimes discussion is just what is needed to prompt fresh thinking or to even joggle dusty minds out of old ruts! ???? It’s good to enjoy each others’ successes, too!
I’m thankful to each and every one of you who are participating. We are all better, together!
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It’s awesome to have all the energy here! ????.
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@catherine They were all such different personalities, those 3. The Beauceron was very happy to train with R+. She was eager to please and happy to get treated. Salt, she passed away at the age of only 9 this year, in spring. What a lovely lady she was. The owner used to have 3, all males…she was also highly intelligent. More like GSD to train.
Here is a lovely, double Down-Stay, demonstrated by Glimmer and Rupert. Hope you like! Little minPin Palin was just watching and waiting for me to fumble treats, ha ha! I really enjoyed training both together, but it was easier since I knew them from my daily let-outs. They were always pretty excited for our training time, because they were kenneled while the owner was at work (8 hours, split at the 4 hour mark) and I was their “fun time”. ????
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How cute are they!? So lovely. Nice work, Paula.
And the little treat patrol dog is adorable.
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Thanks, Catherine! They were lots of fun to learn with in my student phase. Yes, I miss Palin and Glimmer so much. They passed on in February and April this year.
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Great work Paula!! Two dogs together training- can both ways and you make it look incredibly easy!! What beautiful dogs! Thanks for sharing a great video:)
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Paula the video is amazing. Thanks for sharing
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Ok we had a great time & success with information that you all provided & I used. The owners had each puppy on leashes & tethered to couch legs in living room when I arrived. That’s how they keep them in the house? The owner said they do that because the dogs run all over the place and they can’t catch them. Lol. So we trained the dogs the “name game” & “touch”. We talked about potty training a lot and I advise them that we’re going to start from the beginning. So each dog has their own crate and had them in the same area, one puppy is very quiet and behaves better the other puppy, the one just barks all the time.she said it doesn’t matter if they’re together or not, they have tried both ways. The owner said she’s been up since 3 AM with the one that barks a lot. She moved him to another part of the house? The other one slept through the evening. So, when I arrived, we took them outside. They have them P on artificial grass, because in the city they live in there are lots of rabbits, coyotes, and hawks.. and there’s rabbit poop in everyone’s yard front and back. It’s kind of crazy in Texas.
I set a timer for 20 minutes and we discussed potty training and ways to help them manage the problem. The daughter did come and join us and held one puppy while we train the other, name game & touch it worked out really well.
Then we rearranged the area they have for the dogs. It’s a very large house so they’re in a back hallway next to the laundry room and the stairs to go upstairs have a baby gate across the stairs. The laundry room door stays shut. We put the two crates in the hallway. They’re facing each other, but they have covers over them and we left some of the cover up. We put some artificial grass in the hallway with the two crates. It’s a pretty long 10-22 foot hallway.
And one dog did really good and the other one barked 4 to 5 minutes and then the barking decreased. About 30 minutes later, we moved the quiet dog into another area that they keep them in sometimes and he fell asleep because he was really tired from training. Then the barking dog within less than 3-4 minutes was hardly barking at all, and he was by himself in the secured hallway. After he had stopped barking for about 15 seconds, she would go in and give them a treat. & praise him
Small improvements, but better. I gave them some information from ADPT on potty training & crates. The mother was very happy with the results & consultation And about five hours later the daughter called me to tell me how happy she was with the training. I was the third trainer that had been to their house. That made me feel good. I will go back in about 2 to 3 weeks to see the improvements. And I asked them to call me if they had any other
Honestly let me know what needs improved, I want to do a great job. FYI the owner said one of the trainers group wanted to train every week and she thought that was too much because it didn’t give them enough time to train. I just thought it was a good note to put in. I usually ask my clients if they would like one week or two weeks and almost all of them say two weeks before the next session.
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@Denise , thanks for the update and congratulations — it sounds like your session went really well!
Regarding spacing between lessons, it’s great to have some flexibility there. Some folks have busy schedules and can’t train — at least a bit — on a daily basis, so a two-week spread in between makes good sense. In certain situations, I may really encourage a weekly revisit when I’m working on behavior issues because it’s important for me to see how things are progressing and to make sure they’re implementing things correctly. Sometimes you can tell when a client may benefit from a bit more hand-holding and coaching. Otherwise, the behavior mod or training may stall or take a wrong turn.
One other thought — with some dogs who bark when unattended, it can sometimes be helpful to use a remote controlled treat dispenser to reward quiet behavior IF it’s a dog who is likely to re-escalate their barking when a person returns to reward for quiet. It doesn’t sound like that’s an issue in your case, but just wanted to mention as a general tip. These treat dispensers are pricy, so will be out of budget for some folks anyway.
Looking forward to hearing more updates from you! -
@Denise Well done! Sounds like you had a great session. The hand target and name game are perfect starting points for manners training. Did you get a sense of why the barking pup is so vocal? Is it only when confined? Or does he bark when loose, too?
How are these pups being fed? I love Virginia’s idea of a remote treat dispenser to reward good behavior. I would also consider all the enrichment food puzzle toys they can do! And all other food hand-fed; put those food bowls away for now! This will increase the value of the people, and those reaching hands.
I’m sure others will have more tips for you- but you are clearly off to a great start!
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They bark out of the crate too. We discussed the different types of barking & APDT hand out, and ways to help manage barking.
We also talked about dog enrichment games, I recommend them to choose a couple Facebook pages, they have videos & examples for ideas. We actually played a enrichment game while I was there….she also has a few dog puzzles.
I will be calling her in the middle of next week to check on the progress. I told her to call or text me if she had any setbacks or any more questions. Thank you all for your suggestions.
She text me this morning to thank me for helping
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My husband & I are both graduates from Catch so we are both training in the home. We have trained 2 dogs recently from the same household. An 8-year-old chihuahua named Rudy and an 8-year-old Maltese named Lulu. We were going to separate them when we started our training. But it seemed to upset his sister so he sat in mom’s lap when we introduced SIT., WATCH and Hand Target to Lulu Well Rudy sat very still and then we switched off. After awhile, while I was talking to the owner, I looked and my husband had both of them totally engaged in watch and then the sit. They were sitting side by side and was amazing. I would love to share our final visits of mat training at the door and distractions. ( I am not sure how to send the video-
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Wow, @denny , that’s sounds like you’ve both made amazing progress with these two dogs! Do you train together, as trainers? That sounds like an awesome video for sure. I’ll see if I can be of assistance…do you have the little bar of light blue symbols at the bottom of the post, when you’re replying? It goes “Aa then a camera, then a video camera, an attachment and an emoji”
Just select the video camera symbol, then it will prompt you to add videos, “drag or drop here” (in a box).
These next steps are iPhone…if you have an android, maybe they will be different. You should be able to just click on it and a small menu bar pops up with “Photo Library then Take a Video then Choose Files”. Select Photo Library to access your photos on your phone. It should show you just your videos. Then select which video. I’m not sure if you can post a video over 1 minute long, but use your phone’s prompts to crop it, if necessary. (My iPhone 14 lets me do this by toggling each side of the arrows on the video bar.)
Then, click Add at top of the screen and it will have to load (you’ll see a blue circle drawing itself to know when it’s finished).
Hope this helps…
Can’t wait to see the video! ????
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@bernerlabreclectus thanks for jumping in with the tech help!
@denny let me know if you need any other coaching.
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I got the video from my phone to computer. It is on my email and don’t know how to transfer it to this site. Is there an email to send it to. I have on my computer but don’t know how to send it. from email to this site and don’t know how to get it to video. how do you get a video sent over. I don’t know how to convert the email to a video. When I clicked on make a video it played music and was 5 seconds- no sound and the video is 38 seconds. Would love to send 2 38 second videos of working with 2 dogs. It is so amazing/ Those instructions are confusing. When I click on video it turns on camera imports, etc… list and pictures. I dont get it. Sorry
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Hi Denise, I’ve replied by email. Thank you!
@denny
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Here is my video of Lulu- Maltese and Rudy Chihuahua – one video of sit stay with distractions with Rich. The other video is of the owner doing a mat training and opening the door. 1st time attempt.
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Thank you for sharing those videos, @denny ! Lulu and Rudy are absolutely precious! ????
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WOW! Well done, @denny !! This is excellent training. It’s so fun to watch the pet owner succeed. I love how she lured her little dog over the hump on the mat so that the dog could sit and stay. Both dogs look so relaxed and confident about what is being asked, in both videos. Kudos!!
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