Can two pups share a crate?

[zeromike]

I recently bought two beautiful little longhair chihuahua pups, 9 1/2 weeks old. We bought a slightly larger crate so that they could share. But I haven't seen anything online about this...
It is a difficult situation right now, because right after we brought them home, the smaller of the two sprained her leg and obviously has to be crated and kept separate from the other so they dont play and hurt her leg. Thats when we bought the crate, the little one has to stay in. We puppy proofed the bathroom with the other pup's dogbed in there so they could at least be together. She is much better and is walking fine, but we are keeping her separated just a few more days as reccomended by the vet. Then they will both be in the crate again.

So again my question is- can two puppies share a crate during crate training?

I look forward to any advice Thanks!:) :) :) :)

[MyDogsLoveMe]

I am not an expert on this, so I will only give my opinion. Given the size of the pups I dont see why not, the only thing I think you may have a problem with is when training and you have one pup who has a different attitude than the other and doesnt want to be trained the way you want ( I dont know if this is coming out the way I want it to) and develops bad habits the other pup could pick up on those habits and make it more difficult for your to train them.

Your pups wont be to big, and if they have a large enough crate can be together, just be careful on the training and different habits.

[Brattina88]

Many breeders believe it is best to NOT have two puppies together. They tend to bond to each other and not to you and that can cause serious problems when it comes time to train them. Having two puppies needing housetraining at the same time can make that process go on for much longer. OMHO I'd say seperate them, and set seperate training times, individual playing times ect. I'm not saying to isolate them and not let them play, just a warning. It'll be much easier to prevent things now then to try and fix/change it later :)

[SummerRiot]

They tend to bond to each other and not to you and that can cause serious problems when it comes time to train them.

Although this is true, we made our Shelties (male and female litter mates) share a crate until they were crate trained and BOTH are individuated to my sister and mom(its their dogs) and both work seperately for them. Its all in the amount of training and TIME you put into each puppy.

So yes, if you plan on doing a full training program with your dogs, then they can share a crate and will NOT become too bonded to each other that they are hard to work with.

[TheWonderPuppies]

I crated both of my puppies together because we already had a huge crate from our gsd/collie and they still are the easiest dogs for us to train si i guess it just depends on the dog

[Doberluv]

I've always put my two Chihuahuas together, but started with one and got the 2nd Chi when the 1st was a couple yrs. old. But they are crated together. And they are crazy about eachother, but still are very focused and into me. They're such people dogs. So, as long as each gets some training time alone with you, I think it will fall into place just fine. If you think they're not interested in you enough down the road, seperate them. But I honestly don't think you'll have to unless they fight or something.