Bonding

[Cashiers]

I have an 11 month old male GWP pup and an 8 year old male GSP. I got the GWP at 12 weeks of age and the dogs have been together almost constantly since then, except when I am having training sessions with the pup. The GWP has learned very quickly and responds well to commands. I have had him on quail and pigeons and he is pointing and holding his points well, so there are no problems with his training, but I have never felt that he is really bonded to me. He wants to be whereever the older dog is and they do everything together. Was it a mistake for me to let the pup spend so much time with the older dog?

[MikeB]

The direct answer to your question is YES. A young dog will always bond to another dog unless you really work on keeping them seperate from each other at sleepingm eating and yard times. I have worked with plenty of pet owners that made the mistake of buying 2 pups M/F at the same time and or from the same litter and wonder why they go crazy when you seperate them for any reason. Most would never do it again. I know this is not your case but the end result is much the same.

One thing I have done is to tether the dog with a leash to YOU when you are home and just let it hang with you no matter what you are doing around your home, yard, garage etc. Keeps it away from the other dog and the focus on you.

Hope that helps,

[3Britts]

My dogs all hang together in our house and yard. This is only a bad idea if you are not the alpha in the house.
Now, when training, all of my dogs are on a chain line except for the one that I am working with. This way they each know that I am the leader that they should listen to while hunting. Make sure to give each dog a good amount of time with you while training and hunting. This way they know that with you they will find birds. Once you have them listening to your commands, you can introduce another dog to the hunting/training mix.
At home, I would leave it as it is. Or, you could join in the playtime with your dogs.

[ACooper]

I like to keep my pups away from other dogs except for limited play time during the day, I dont even kennel mine in a kennel along side the older dogs, I keep them kenneled separately in my yard away from the adults (the adults are outside the yard). This is probably a little extreme but it works for me. I also have the room to have separate kennels set up.

[Ryman Gun Dog]

Cashiers,
I let my pups play with my older dogs on a limited basis, the pups get to play with each other in the same kennel on and off, they are not housed that way however, and all the pups & dogs know I am the big dog here. We expect our dogs to be of a very high quality, it starts with great genetics and continues with their training.
I bond with each and every dog/pup that we own or train, if the dog does not measure up to our expected quality, the pup is sold into a loving non hunting family.
We will not supply a medium to poor quality gun dog to a hunting family. Bonding is especially important with Small Munsterlanders, Weimars and Setters, if you want a serious companion hunting dog.

RGD/Dave

Bonding starts early with our dogs





Dogs are housed individually most times.