{"id":695,"date":"2025-04-14T16:23:02","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T22:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sitmeanssit.com\/dog-training-mu\/salt-lake-city-dog-training\/?p=695"},"modified":"2025-04-14T22:29:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T04:29:41","slug":"truth-on-litter-mate-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sitmeanssit.com\/dog-training-mu\/salt-lake-city-dog-training\/truth-on-litter-mate-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Truth on Litter Mate Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"
When meeting a litter of puppies with the prospect of bringing one home, the puppies might be so cute that you could be tempted to bring home sibling dogs. However, many dog behavior experts agree it\u2019s a bad idea to bring home two puppies from the same litter.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
\u201cLittermate syndrome\u201d is based on anecdotal evidence that often raising siblings or adopting two puppies together bond intensely with each other, to the exclusion of their human world and family. New dog owners might think that two puppies raised together will be easier. Siblings will play and keep each other company! But, the truth is that often a single puppy is much easier to train because they will bond to their new family, not their doggy sibling.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Puppies raised together from a young age may develop littermate syndrome, which occurs when two puppies from the same litter are raised together from a young age without separate obedience training and socialization. Littermate syndrome refers to siblings raised together that either develop separation anxiety or sibling aggression against each other.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
If you have adopted a pair of siblings, (even non-siblings can have littermate syndrome if adopted as young puppies) dog owners can successfully raise them to be well-socialized, balanced older dogs. These steps include working with professional trainers, separate training classes, mental enrichment in different rooms, and socializing for your new puppies.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Many experts and organizations in a position to know (for example, animal behaviorists, dog trainers, and rescue professionals), discourage dog guardians from acquiring puppy littermates. In fact, many shelters and breeders simply refuse to place siblings together.<\/p>\n The reason, according to certified professional dog trainer Jeff Stallings, writing for The Bark:<\/p>\n \u201cAnecdotal evidence suggests that behavioral issues may arise during key development periods because the two puppies\u2019 deep bond impedes their individual ability to absorb and grasp the nuances of human and canine communication.\u201d1<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In other words, canine siblings can be so closely bonded on a primal level that if they go on to share the same home and family, that deep connection can inhibit their ability to learn how to communicate with their humans and interact with other dogs.<\/p>\n They wind up with a \u201cmuddled understanding of the world around them,\u201d according to Stallings, which can create\u00a0fearfulness and other undesirable coping behaviors<\/a>.<\/p>\n The phenomenon is known as \u201clittermate syndrome,\u201d and it doesn\u2019t occur in every single pair of littermates who are raised in the same home. However, it happens often enough that experts in canine behavior and the human-canine bond advise against bringing home siblings.<\/p>\n Some of the signs of littermate syndrome include:<\/p>\n Fear of strangers (people and dogs)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Fear of unfamiliar stimuli<\/p>\n<\/li>\n High level of anxiety when separated, even for a short time<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Failure to learn basic obedience commands<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Training two littermates is not just a matter of twice the work, but also the level of difficulty resulting from the puppies constantly distracting each other. According to Patricia McConnell, applied animal behaviorist and author of several books on canine behavior:<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just hard to get their attention. They are so busy playing with each other \u2026 that you become the odd man out.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I suspect this indeed does have to do with social bonding to some extent, but I have seen pups of a duo who clearly adored their humans. Adored them. They just didn\u2019t listen to them.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It seems harder to get their attention, harder to teach them emotional control, and harder to teach them boundaries. I imagine that we humans become more like party poopers that interfere in their fun with their playmates, not to mention that we are more tiring, because they have to learn a foreign language in order to communicate with us.\u201d2<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Sometimes, littermate syndrome can take the form of non-stop fighting between the dogs.<\/p>\n Bullying and\u00a0aggression<\/a>\u00a0between siblings seem to happen more often than between unrelated dogs, and it can get nasty. Many well-intentioned dog guardians have terrible tales to tell about the harm caused to one sibling by the other.<\/p>\n Shelters have stories as well of pairs (or one of a pair) being returned because the adoptive owner feared for the well-being of the sibling being bullied.<\/p>\n Nicole Wilde, canine behavior expert and author of \u201cDon\u2019t Leave Me!\u201d believes the separation anxiety between littermates is the result of hyper-attachment, which is also what interferes with the puppies\u2019 ability to be properly socialized.<\/p>\n
By Dr. Becker<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
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Signs of Littermate Syndrome<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Another Potential Problem Among Littermates: Sibling Aggression<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Unhealthy Emotional Dependence<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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