aconiteallergies replied to your post: EVERYONE I HAVE A PROBLEM. That problem is...
If you do decide on to take in the pup(s), I have heard that keeping siblings together from the same litter can lead to some bad behavioural habits later on (it did with a family friend’s poodles), mostly towards each other. I don’t know your history with dogs at all, but as always make sure to do research on the breed (sorry if you’ve already done that, there’s so so so many who just don’t and wind up with poorly behaved dogs because of their own neglect). But those puppies are sooooo cute
I can see how it creates a feedback loop where they’ll reinforce each other’s bullshit, although the Springers I’ve known were a pair of brothers who were wonderful with each other. I expect it comes down to temperament, training and consistency. Springers are bird dogs, so they’re intelligent, supposedly easy to train, medium sized and medium-ish energy. Good for our hiking and trail stuff, I’d expect, but also floppy couch monsters! I’ll have to see what conventional wisdom says about keeping littermates, because I’d expect a hunting dog to be more comfortable with that than a highly individualistic breed.
My backstory: I grew up with a lab/spaniel mix and a husky, and then went on to work in shelters for about 3 years, so I have a huge soft spot for lab mixes and pit bulls. Unfortunately @spazztichero is mildly allergic to dogs and seems to find short, sleek coats (like pits, boxers, etc) more aggravating than longer wavy ones (labs, spaniels). I haven’t had a dog for about a decade now, due to apartment living and moving around a lot. Instead we have two 10 year old cats, one of whom is epileptic-but-tolerant-of-all-critters and one who’s 20-lbs-but-a-huge-chicken.
So my thought is: a puppy would be easier for them to adjust to, being small, avoidable and nonaggressive. Maybe we could then go through a local foster-based rescue group to find an older dog that’s known to be good with cats, and see how said cats feel about it. My sister has an ENORMOUS husky who LOVES cats, but he plays too rough and frightens them off. We need a dog who can be chill!
There is much to consider but ohhhhhh my god they’re precious nuggets.
