8-week old sisters...need advice!

We brought home our puglet sisters 2 weeks ago (at the time, 6 weeks old) and they are doing SPLENDIDLY!
Sleeping through the night - CHECK!
Eating food mommy cooks for them - CHECK!
On a pretty consistent schedule - CHECK!

I need advice about their sisterly brawling, though. They have times during the day when they practically chew each other up! They play a lot of tug-o-war and fight over toys (of which we have PLENTY!).
Is it OK to let them brawl like this?
Is this a "puppy" thing that will die down?

Also, what do you do if they are scratching on furniture fabric?
Obviously, Bitter Apple only works on their mouths.

Please advise.
Thanks!
Mommy to Ana and Aubrey. :-)

Hi there - welcome to PA.

Here's a post about all things pug-puppy that may be helpful to you:
http://www.pugauthority.com/training-and-behavior-f20/puppies-can-be-very-discouraging-t3382.htm

Tons of good puppy info there.

Happy reading!

I'm going to give you a couple of words of advise about training in general--most of the puppy stuff is covered off in some of the stickies.

First: You are going to have really work at training since you have siblings. Adopting/purchasing siblings is generally not a great idea as they tend to focus more on each other and less on you. They will take their cues from each other rather than you. So to some degree you have doubled your work. You will likely have to train them separately--each one going out with you or to class alone without the other one.

Secondly: They were too young to be taken home with you at 6 weeks. 8 weeks is the earliest they should have left and I'm happier, personally, with 10 to 12 weeks. However, since they are with you, be prepared for a lot of work around their bite inhibition. Puppies learn their first lessons on bite inhibition from mom and later on from their siblings--usually between 6 and 10 weeks. Hopefully, since there are two of them, they will teach each other to some degree, but you may have a tougher battle with them around puppy biting than you might have if they had left the litter at an older age.

And yes, puppies rough house. It often looks and sounds lethal, but most often, it is not. Keep an eye on them, however. They can inadvertantly hurt each other. But at this point, most of that is play and practising to be a big dog.

Sadly, we didn't plan to take home the pups until they were 8 weeks old, but the family who had them was really pushing for us to take them home. They had 6 pups and 3 adults in their home and I think it was too much for them. We felt that we could give a lot more individual attention to them, since I am off work for the summer (I'm a teacher) and my boys are here to help me.

Thanks for the advice!

pugzrule wrote:Sadly, we didn't plan to take home the pups until they were 8 weeks old, but the family who had them was really pushing for us to take them home. They had 6 pups and 3 adults in their home and I think it was too much for them. We felt that we could give a lot more individual attention to them, since I am off work for the summer (I'm a teacher) and my boys are here to help me.

Thanks for the advice!

Nice. Folks who breed like that make me insane. However, I'm glad you were there to catch these two little nippers when they got the unceremonious boot from the nest.

There are some great books on puppy training and some great trainers out there. Please ignore the Cesar Millans of the world. One, he's not an especially good trainer in my opinion, and two, you don't need to manhandle your dog to get good behaviour.

Puppies are the devil, but they do grow out of most of the devil stuff--although yours are black and girls so who knows!!

Read anything by Ian Dunbar, Jean Donaldson, Patricia McConnell--anyone who focuses on positive rather than punitive training.

You don't say if you've ever had dogs or pugs before, but if you are home cooking for the pups, make sure you know what you're doing. Puppies have very specific dietary needs when they are as young as yours.

If you posted an introduction and I missed it, I apologize.

I grew up with golden retrievers, but didn't personally take care of them. My friend is a vet and has two black female pugs, so she is coaching me. I am making their food per her instructions.

Right now, they are eating a mixture of lean ground beef, brown rice and green beans. I cook it all down with a bit of olive oil. I also give them a small amount of Organix kibble with each meal (to supplement minerals), but they aren't super keen on it. I have to give them that FIRST and coax them along with it.

They have also tasted sweet potato chews (which I make for them by drying fresh slices in my toaster oven for 3 hours on 250 degrees) and a bit of cantaloupe and cheerios (plain) -- which work awesome for treats. They already respond to the command "sit" in order to get a treat! SO cute!!!

We are very patient with them, though I wish we felt we could leave them for 2 minutes without fear of peeing/pooping/chewing. We only alllow them in the family room/kitchen area (which is connected and open). It's a lot of space, but small enough to see what they're up to when they're playing. We have sofas with skirts at the bottom and they have gone underneath them for a bit until we've noticed. My fear is they will poop or pee under there and we won't know it -- thus causing them to make that their potty spot! ICK!

We are also starting to bell train them (to go outside). They rang it today, but I think they just wanted to play outside. We were only taking them out, one at a time, on leashes because they either mess with each other or play in my strawberry plants and forget to tinkle. :-( First thing in the morning, they don't need the leashes because they REALLY need to go, but during the day, it is too tempting to "play" around.

Anymore comments or advice welcome! I will check out the books!!!

Sorry you were forced into something that wasn't ideal, but it sounds like these little guys are in good hands. Two litter-mates are a lot of work, but you sound as though you're up for it! You've been given great advice, so there's nothing I can add other than to say "welcome" to the forum!

Welcome, I think you got a lot of good advice already. Just wanted to add, my two black pugs (not puppies but still nutso) still carry on and sound like tasmanian devils when they play. We just always make sure to supervise to make sure it doesn't turn into a real fight but it's just noise with them. I am involved with the rescue here, and last month I picked up 2 black girl pugs who are littermates and they played rough with each other too.

Thanks everyone! So glad to be here.

You might seriously consider raw feeding. I'm not opposed to cooked food for dogs, although mine are raw fed, but you do lose a fair number of nutrients via the cooking. I think supplementing with kibble isn't a bad idea as their diet is pretty spartan.

Might be worth adding a puppy multi-vitamin rather than the kibble if they aren't too keen on it. I'd also be inclined to lose the rice as grains aren't particularly useful to dogs and they don't digest them or utilize them well. I'd think about adding cottage cheese rather than rice and maybe some pure pumpkin.

Hi and welcome! I have two (non-related) girls who get into it once in awhile. I keep a squirt bottle handy. A lot of times when they sound like they're killing each other they're just playing so I'll let them go until I notice their mohawks going up. When they are serious a strip of fur on their back stands up and then I use the water bottle to break it up and separate them for awhile.