mikegoodson1 wrote: ↑12 Feb 2019, 10:09
Leigh,
One question I have to ask is how do you split your time between them, in terms of affection/play etc?
When we got Oscar, he was on his own for two years and so had my/our undivided attention, I found it tough when Sasha came along to try and ensure they both had the same amount of special time. I'm sure that is more me worrying than them, they probably didn't worry!
Did you face that dilemma or are you a bit more in the "they can play amongst themselves" camp? *That wasn't meant to be rude but you know there are two types of owners I think, the 'softies' which unfortunately I am and the more 'practical' owners
I would love to add to our gang but having two can be enough when going out for walks/holidays.
Thanks
Mike
Hi Mike - it is an interesting question.
We don't have a timetable type plan for how much attention we give to each of the dogs and some are more demanding of snuggles / lap time than others anyway. When we have a puppy, they will get a fair bit of one on one attention and need socialising and training so may have more time spent individually than the others but Judith does on-going training classes with some of our adult dogs - parkour, scent work and ringcraft (for any that are being shown) so they too have individual sessions on certain days.
The young dogs tend to want to play together - chase games, tug toys, wrestling etc. while the oldest ones are happy to snooze in a warm place for much of the day.
Judith and I divide our walks between the dogs and I walk the ones I take individually as they have different pace / liking to sniff (or not) etc. so all the dogs get a walk with us (or an outing) every day....except Moth who hates walking in the village and hides under the sofa rather than go
She much prefers running and playing in the garden, park or beach and we eventually decided to comply with her wishes!
In terms of relaxing times, most will snuggle up in some way or another with one or both of us whenever we sit down. We have two sofas in the conservatory and also in the lounge and both will be taken up with dogs on laps, snuggled beside us, on our feet and on the back of the sofa behind our heads...a warm heap of dogs. Three or four of the little ones sleep on the bed at night too.
I think that it is possible to worry too much about not giving enough attention to each one but also there would be a point at which someone could have too many dogs to provide emotional as well as physical care for them. However, I think that dogs adapt to a larger family easily and are less demanding or needy of human companionship if there are other dogs around to sleep and play with. We do always try to ensure that our dogs have plenty of fun times with us as well as love and relaxation and none are denied a snuggle when they need it. We do take them on holiday, if and when we go away too so they are not apart from us. This is a memory photo of our very first mini schnauzers (sadly all over the Rainbow Bridge now) on holiday in Norfolk many years ago, riding at the back of the little boat we hired to explore the Broads: