Lately we’ve been training a lot of people with littermates, puppies from the same litter.\u00a0 We’ve worked with sisters, brothers, and sisters and brothers.\u00a0 There is one thing in common ~ a much higher degree of separation anxiety, and not between human owners and dogs, but between the siblings themselves.<\/p>\n
At first glance, it may seem like a good idea.\u00a0 The dogs will have company when the people are away at work, etc.\u00a0 It may be easier for them to acclimate to a new environment in the presence of one of their brothers or sisters.\u00a0 These are short term, short sighted observations.\u00a0 Because, while, on the whole, those are valid observations, the long term, not so obvious consequences of purchasing littermates are terrible separation anxiety, and other behavioral issues.\u00a0 The second issue becomes the puppies actually bonding with their human counterparts.\u00a0 There is little incentive for a puppy to leave its sibling to learn to have a relationship with a person.\u00a0 So, you end up with puppies that are much more attached to each other than to anyone else.<\/p>\n
Recently we trained two German Shepherd Dogs siblings, a brother and a sister, about one year old.\u00a0 The owners were concerned about their obedience, and some additional behavior issues, in particular with the male being aggressive with visitors to their home.\u00a0 We ended up board and training these two for one week.\u00a0 These were very smart, quick to learn shepherds.\u00a0 The obedience with them was easy – provided they were together.\u00a0 If we separated them (and by separated I mean about 10 feet away) the female would literally scream like she was being viciously attacked.\u00a0 Now, these owners wanted nothing but the best for these dogs and that much was obvious.\u00a0 They had never heard of “Littermate syndrome” or the potential devastating issues that can develop from keeping littermates together.\u00a0 When we returned the two dogs, we showed them the effect of separation.\u00a0\u00a0With training, it was much improved, but after only a week it was far from solved.\u00a0 And in fact will be something these owners have to address for the duration of the lifetime of these dogs.\u00a0 Because there had never been occassion to separate the dogs, the owners were practically oblivious of the terrible anxiety separation caused their dogs.<\/p>\n
Another example of Littermate Syndrome is two boxer sisters that we also board and trained.\u00a0 The “older” sister was thought to be highly dog aggressive, barging out the door of their business to attack dogs, even with the threat of oncoming traffic.\u00a0\u00a0The “younger” sister was excessively shy and did not want to encounter new things.\u00a0 After a day or two with us the aggression in the older sister was shown to be manifestation of fear, a “get them before they get me” type of attitude.\u00a0 She was integrated into our own pack of five dogs within the first day, with no fights or other incidents.\u00a0 And interestingly, without the overbearingness of her older sister, the younger girl was actually willing to try new things, meet new people with a wagging little nub of a tail.<\/p>\n
To make having littermates work, the people must literally keep them separated for good portions of the day.\u00a0 Walk them separately.\u00a0 Feed them separately.\u00a0 Play with them separately.\u00a0 Which completely defeats the idea of getting two in the first place – to keep each other company, etc.\u00a0 But\u00a0the answer is yes, it can work.\u00a0 Having\u00a0one puppy is a great amount of work and dedication and consistency.\u00a0 Having two puppies is a full time job.\u00a0 Any breeder worth their salt will at the very least highly question someone who wants to get two pups from her litter.\u00a0 If she doesn’t question it, it may be time to consider a new breeder.<\/p>\n
The reality is that now more seemingly than ever people are getting littermates.\u00a0 And despite the dire tone of this article, some littermates don’t have issues.\u00a0 I just haven’t come across any.<\/p>\n
Now please don’t assume that I would only recommend people have a single dog.\u00a0 Many people with single dogs that we board and train report a certain well, depression, of their dogs when they return home and realize they don’t have five other dogs to play with.\u00a0 I am a huge believer that no matter how much fetch I play with my dog it is not a substitute or replacement for a good rough and tussle with another dog.\u00a0 Dogs are social animals.\u00a0 So I am a supporter of multiple dog households.\u00a0 Your best bet?\u00a0 Wait about a year in between puppies.\u00a0 This gives you time to get one dog well trained before adding a second into the mix.\u00a0 A potential side benefit of waiting?\u00a0 The older dog\u00a0may help train the younger\u00a0which equals\u00a0less work for the human.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Two-fold Issue Lately we’ve been training a lot of people with littermates, puppies from the same litter.\u00a0 We’ve worked with sisters, brothers, and sisters and brothers.\u00a0 There is one thing in common ~ a much higher degree of separation anxiety, and not between human owners and dogs, but between the siblings themselves. At first…<\/p>\n