167 Comments

1. Kimberly on October 14, 2019 at 12:43 pm

   It’s not possible to definitively tell people when they’re out of the woods because every dog is different and every household is different. The best recommendation I can suggest is to continue working with training. My first set of littermates are now 9 years old and I still work on training with them. It never ends and the dogs love it.

2. Tara Salbeck on October 13, 2019 at 9:06 pm

   Our littermates are now 6 months old. I am curious as to when we can stop worrying about whether or not this will become an issue? At what time can we stop worrying about aggression issues? Would we have already seen signs by now or does that occur later in their lives? I can’t find these types of guidelines anywhere. We were not able to crate our pups- we tried for the first several weeks but they barked all night long and pooped in the crate and flung it everywhere- so after weeks with no sleep we moved them to our bed. They’ve not had an accident at night since and sleep through the night every night! Sometimes, one will be in the bed and one on the floor- we even split them up sometimes and my husband and son will take one to the basement- they never have an issue sleeping separately if they are with one of us. We made sure to give them lots of separate attention since we rescued them. I believe they are just as bonded to us as they are each other. We put them in socialization and training a few weeks ago and they are doing great- still timid with the other dogs but learning so much in the obedience training. We were sure to socialize them with humans the first few weeks we had them- we took them everywhere and they had contact with at least 100 humans before they were 12 weeks old so they love people! We are still working on acquainting them with other dogs but they are getting better with each socialization class. As mentioned, we aren’t crating them, and when we leave the house- they are gated in the kitchen together- lots of people tell us this is a terrible idea, but we don’t have any other options without getting them to like their crates which is still a major work in progress. I’d love some advice from you on what you think about the crating/non-crating issue, and when we can stop worrying about possible agression issues? Thanks so much!!

3. Kimberly on September 3, 2019 at 8:54 am

   The best advice I have for anyone who has littermates is to work with a qualified dog trainer/behaviorist.

   Best.

4. Kym on September 3, 2019 at 7:12 am

   My fiancé and I just recently adopted litter mates, they are 9 weeks today and we haven’t seen any signs of littermate syndrome. But, we noticed they started playing more rough than usual. It’s hard to tell where the line is being crossed between playing and fighting.. One of them is very good at being in a crate at night and almost never cries but the other is not loving the crating situation. We have the crates set up right now in our bedroom with the crates facing each other but some distance between them and plan to keep increasing the distance until they no longer can see each other. Do you have any other advice for me? We are trying our best to get ahead of it so nothing happens, we love our babies very much but it is a scary thing that could happen.

5. Kimberly on August 13, 2019 at 9:29 am

   The only separating we did was with Rodrigo and Sydney. Sometimes I’d play with one puppy, while he walked the other. Or, sometimes we played with them 10-15′ apart. One reason this helped was there were times when one puppy was tired and the other wanted to play, so separating helped. If you’re concerned about your puppies getting along, I recommend working with a certified, professional dog trainer to help you lay the foundation.

6. Chris on August 13, 2019 at 8:34 am

   Hello, we adopted two very young puppies from the same litter. They are going to be 6 weeks old on Wednesday. We are already noticing that one needs the other to be around all the time. When they both play, my wife and I are invisible to them. We also think they fight every now and then. We are not sure if that’ s a playful fight or a serious scuffle. We are not sure if they’re not responding because they’re still so young or if it’s the first signs of littermate syndrome. Should we start separating them right away or should we wait until they’re older?

7. Kim on July 29, 2019 at 7:23 am

   Thank you for the positive comments! I’ve had multiple dogs and I agree, depression can occur amongst non litter mates. About 7 months ago our oldest dog died and the younger two were definitely affected.
   We now have litter mate brothers to bring our dog total to 4. The puppies have been wonderful for the older dogs! They play and the older two have slimmed down.
   I don’t understand the term “Littermate Syndrome”. I think all dogs bond together. Not just litter mates.

8. Kimberly on July 24, 2019 at 7:01 am

   Hi! Congratulations on your new puppies. I’m not a dog trainer or animal behaviorist. I simply wanted to share my experience because there aren’t a lot of people talking about the steps they took to raise happy littermates. Please work with a professional, fear-free dog trainer.

9. TT on July 23, 2019 at 5:31 pm

   I am planning on getting littermates but the littermate syndrome has me a little startled. Me and my husband will be at work, I leave at around 8 30 and he leaves at 9 30. Our kids go to school at 8 and the reason we are planning on getting littermates is that we thought it would be better for one dog to have some company that stay alone for 6 hours. Do you think that it would be a good idea for us to get littermates? What if the two littermates don’t get along so well?

   P.S the puppies will be 6 months by the time we will leave him/them home alone

10. Kimberly on June 9, 2019 at 9:17 pm

    Yes, I still have my dogs. Rodrigo and Sydney turned 9 in March. Scout and Zoey are 5-1/2 years old. 🙂

11. Lisa Brennen on June 9, 2019 at 8:21 pm

    I currently have two 9 month old male husky/malamute brothers. I raised two previous Littermates without any issues. I hope to raise these two the same way. However I got them @ 12 weeks of age and could tell that their bond is a lot stronger than my last two. They listen to me pretty well but I do walk them separately every day so we have one on one time. One dog is super mellow and loves everything but howls when I take the other more timid and fearful one out for his walk. The fearful one also howls when they are separated. I am glad to have found this blog to give me confidence again that I have done the right thing adopting two siblings. Do you still have your dogs?

12. Brenda on May 22, 2019 at 11:42 pm

    Also, don’t forget that’s dogs are pack animals and do better with company of another dog or pet. Same as people want companionship, so does your dog.

13. Brenda on May 22, 2019 at 11:36 pm

    Littermate Syndrome is total nonsense concocted by people that need something to blame on their lack of training and socialization.. I have had many dogs over decades and bred collies and dachshunds and never experienced this. Stop being lazy and do the work. Train them, spend one on one time with them, give them separate adventures and you’ll be fine.

14. Kimberly on April 3, 2019 at 1:05 pm

    Hi Ellen – be sure to reach out to a local positive-based dog trainer to seek guidance. They will be able to give you the best advice.

15. Ellen on March 31, 2019 at 12:11 pm

    Hi! Thank you for a more positive approach. We just got 2 standard poodle puppies. One male and one female. Same litter. 9 weeks old. I will be taking one of them to live with in about two months while the other will stay with my parents. We live in the same city, so the pups will definitely have play dates again in the future. Any suggestions on how to make the transition go smoothly? We will be having them sleep separately. We are going to slowly transition their crates further apart until their dog can stay in their room, and mine in my room. I will also be taking mine over to her future house to get acquainted even before we can move in. Thanks!!

16. Sherri Mulhaney on January 24, 2019 at 10:48 pm

    I’m glad I found this! I just bought male litter mates, I was starting to worry! Thank you for the tips and positive perspectives!

17. Marissa M on January 4, 2019 at 5:38 am

    Thank you so much for this positive aspect. I recently adopted 4 dogs. One is not a littermate but the other three are. I figured that it could be successful as long as their people were willing to do the work. I want what’s best for our pack so I’ve sought out trainers just because I want to be educated so that we can be our best for them–knock on wood, no issues thus far. But the first few trainers I interacted with were mortified that I adopted littermates and three at that and I can’t have anyone in my home with that negativity because I don’t want that to channel into my pups. I finally reached a trainer that isn’t a fan of littermate adoptions but is familiar and willing to come to my home without judgment of our decision. I chose to save a fourth life because no one wanted that poor puppy so I took her in and I would imagine that a dog trainer would understand that.

    I am so glad to have found your post. I was dreading having to tackle the issues but after reading so many positive experiences, I feel secure that as long as we do our part, they’ll be the best pack that they can be.

18. Kathi Grimes on December 15, 2018 at 5:56 pm

    I was blessed and challenged raising 3 littermates together. My male corgi, Bobdog mated with our female, Maggie Mae and produced a litter of 5. My 1 year old granddaughter got pick of the litter and I sold one female. I had a family emergency and was away from home for more than a month so by the time I got home my husband and I decided we wanted to keep the remaining 3 puppies. We spent time with each puppy and each had their own place in our pack. They treated my husband, my 3 year old grandson, and me as part of their pack. Maybe because they are a herding breed they get along in a pack. I am sure that families that have working corgis would agree that they get along just fine. Each had their own crate. All meals were in their crate. They shared everything else including us.

19. Deirdre Perot on September 19, 2018 at 11:37 am

    Hey… we ride on the National Forest land… you should have some Nat Forest in your area! There has been controversy over “dogs off leash” but the USFS has NO leash law in affect out on the trail (at least, not in the undeveloped areas). Where do you live? I can point you to some trails. I’m involved at the National level.

20. Kimberly on September 19, 2018 at 9:49 am

    Hi Christal – the best way to correct the behavior is to work with a professional dog trainer. Best of luck!

21. Kimberly on September 19, 2018 at 9:48 am

    Sorry about that, Deirdre – I responded to the wrong comment. I love hearing success stories with dogs. My dogs are doing so great too. I’m envious about your 20 miles a day. I wish I had more space so that I could provide that for my dogs. Sounds like heaven.

22. Deirdre Perot on September 19, 2018 at 7:35 am

    thank you for this, I’m on my 2nd set of littermates.. my previous ones died of cancer, one @ 8 & one @ 12. They are goldendoodles, which I believe has led to a bit of the success as they are SO easy & loving. They eat from the same bowl, they don’t fight over toys or treats. They love to play keep away from each other & tug of war, too. I’m divorced & retired, so plenty of time with them. They have never more than growled at each other (they’re 2 yrs old, fixed) and they get lots of exercise (they go with me & the horse on the trail & can run up to 20 miles in a day!) When they were young, I would take them to puppy day care & asked that they go into separate groups, which I believe has helped alot. They are very good socially with other dogs. But again, thank you for the post, the haters that say it can’t be done are very disheartening.. my boys are my joy, they sleep on my bed, they are my posse..

23. Christal on September 19, 2018 at 12:30 am

    Kimberly,

    I have two twin 5 month old Doberman puppies that I got from a breeder when they were 1w weeks old. They are always with me, if not I have a pet sitter who keeps them. I train them separately and have a dog trainer that helps with the obdedience training. They are now starting to fight not play fight. I am trying to give my pet sitter one of them but I am sitting here crying as I am typing this. I know I shouldn’t be selfish as it is probably better for their development and well being but this is extremely hard. Is there anyway that I can fix their behavior?

24. Kimberly on August 17, 2018 at 3:08 pm

    I have two sets of littermates and I have never experienced littermate syndrome. My dogs are happy, healthy and well adjusted. When I learned about littermate syndrome, I was encouraged (quite aggressively) to work with a trainer so I did. I’m so thankful that I followed that advice too.

25. Kimberly on August 17, 2018 at 3:07 pm

    Best of luck with your trainer. Since you have to wait so long, I highly recommend finding someone who can meet with you sooner if you’re concerned. You can get recommendations at your local pet store, doggy day care, or veterinarian’s office.

    Best.

26. Mary Old-Kooi on August 16, 2018 at 10:36 pm

    This site is a blessing. We purchased two female Minature English Bulldog littermates when they were just four months old following the death of my husband. They were a joy, playing together and loving us and each other until they were spayed. As soon as the collars came off, puppy K jumped on puppy N’s back and started chewing her ear, This progressed into bloody fights over toys or food. We have never heard of Littermate Syndrome until a friend who works at the Humane Society said we would have to find a home for one of the dogs or the fights would only get far more serious. I contacted a professional behavioral trainer who recommended that we separate the dogs who are now almost a year old until she could make time in her schedule to evaluate them. My son wants me to keep the dogs. He has no trouble keeping them in line. I am elderly with high bloodpressure, have never raised a dog from a puppy (I always inherited the dogs the kids left when they left home) and am really scared for the safety of N who is so sweet and docile. They love each other, but Puppy K loves to chew on, jump on and bully puppy N. I was gone for a week during which my son took care of the dogs. They will be one year old 9/11/18. I now work with each one alone, give lots of positive reinforcement when they are together and separate upon command, and put K in a crate when I see the signs that she is about to pounce. I’m, afraid I will miss the sign and N will really be hurt. Am I selfish to keep these two dogs and not insist that one be rehomed? The trainer encouraged me to get rid of one dog because it would be so much easier. I think it would be so hard on both of them because they love each other so deeply.

27. Beth on August 15, 2018 at 5:03 pm

    I have litter mate sisters 5 months we didn’t plan on both but things happen .I have them since they are 6 weeks old and I never heard of this until I joined a Facebook group.I don’t have any problems with them being overly bonded with each other they love me most! The only problem I have noticed is they don’t like other dogs except their older fur sister (no relation)
    I appreciate all the positive feedback here because there is no way I could pick one over the other.
    This one dog trainer on the Fb group has asked me several times what I’m doing about the syndrome and when I expressed we didn’t really have problems she told me it happens later on. Did you notice it appearing at a certain age?

28. Kimberly on August 10, 2018 at 9:35 pm

    We never separated our littermates at night, we let them decide when they were ready to sleep apart 🙂 Both sets of our littermates are laying around me as I’m typing. Happy and healthy.

29. Karen Hamilton on August 10, 2018 at 5:50 pm

    Purchased male littermates 1 month ago. (we previously had 3 dogs not litter mates purchased within 2 years of each other. All have passed which is why we got our newest pups) Everything is going fine but I decided to Google tips and tricks for training 2 pups. What i read had me so upset. I had never heard of littermate syndrome before and have spent the better part of the day in tears thinking i must have made the worst decision ever. I’m just so glad to have finally come across your site as a could not find anyone saying it was even doable. We love our pups already so much. We did have a family meeting and discussed ways of doing things with them separately. They are crate trained but both in the same crate. I’m just not sure if we have to separate them to sleep at night or if it will be ok if we do alot of things with them separately but let them sleep together at night? Anyway, thank you again for this site.

30. Carol on July 24, 2018 at 1:10 am

    This is great to hear Windy 🙂 I had never heard of littermate syndrome!! We bought two GSD puppies from the same litter when they were 10wks old – one boy and girl – they are now 13wks old. I have had SO many people tell me that the breeder should not have sold them both to us etc etc. But we love them both and certainly won’t ever give one away. Now that your two are two years old can you give me some advice or encouragement? We have them booked into their first private trainer lesson this Sat and then into this ladies training school early in August.

31. Jordan on May 15, 2018 at 1:26 am

    Hi Kimberly,

    I’m so glad i’ve read your post, so many people shout about the negative points of getting littermates but never talk about the positives.

    My fiancee and I have reserved two french bulldogs from the same litter (Brothers) one is shy and one is hyper. We pick them up in a couple of weeks and we are trying to prepare now, we have two separate crates and plan on training them separate and once they listen to us try to see if they listen when around each other like in the garden.

    I’m from the UK so I will look locally to see if there are any puppy trainers around in case we do need them.

    I’m going to take your advise and take one out for a walk whilst my partner is at home with the other.

    Thank you for your post!

32. Linda Goeglein on April 23, 2018 at 9:27 am

    I just got two mini goldendoodles who are sisters. When I read about the problems of having littermates can cause, I believe my experience with having unexpected twins has well-prepared me for this new adventure! I did have 2 labs from the same breeder that were one year apart, and I experienced similar littermate issues even though they were not related to one another. I’m not 100% sold on the idea that having littermates is a puppy problem but perhaps a first time puppy owner/seasoned owner problem 🙂

33. Kimberly on March 26, 2018 at 7:25 am

    I recommend working with a professional dog trainer. The woman we worked with taught us so much.

34. juliett on March 23, 2018 at 10:20 pm

    I recently got 3 littermate puppies, I haven’t had any problems yet. They don’t eat together and also don’t get walked together. If they were to break into a fight what do you most recommend to prevent future fights? I would like to be prepared in case anything happens . Thank you <3

35. Kimberly on March 9, 2018 at 10:46 am

    I think it’s important to work with a dog trainer.

36. Ginger COoper on March 8, 2018 at 1:03 pm

    I have littermates and I am handling things alright, but how did you deal with fighting? I have one that the minute I let her out of the cage is trying to control the other. Barking and going crazy. Once this passes she is fine.

37. Elizabeth Edwards on February 28, 2018 at 8:40 pm

    Hi Lori, I can totally relate to where you are coming from. My daughter who is now nine years old only wanted a puppy for Christmas. She wrote “dear Santa I want a puppy and the puppy I don’t care if it’s a boy or girl or what kind, please just give me a puppy so I can love it.” So we blindly decided to go ahead and have Sandy bring us a black lab puppy the breeder then told us that the yellow lab puppy did not have a home and would we be interested. Long story short, we took Them both this Christmas 2017 and experienced some littermate issues shortly after we brought them home. They would whine when they were not together, they barked when they were not together, and then I learned about littermate syndrome which I had not heard about till then. We have done everything that has been suggested and it has made all the difference in the world. As I mentioned we noticed it after the first 4-5 days that we were going to have a problem so they have been created separately during the day, we create them separately at night, they eat separately,, they are walked separately and I have to tell you with in just about a solid month of doing that it made all the difference in the world. Now I let them play together more often; I let my daughter run them around the yard together but I still feed them in separate pens. I also do not let them sleep together. They are now 4 1/2 months old and have clearly bonded to us as much as they have to each other. I think that it is a totally doable situation to fix it and you don’t have to rehome them. You’re just gonna have to deal with about 4 to 5 days of whining and crying but it will definitely get better. If by the time that you read this you’re having big issues it will just take time …. I hope this helps and if you have any questions please feel free to ask

38. craig mills on February 6, 2018 at 7:01 am

    Hi,

    We heard the same stuff about litter mates, but still decided to go ahead. We got 2 sister Golden Doodles going on 5 years now. They are the most obedient, well trained loving dogs. They do not require leashes on walks although when in areas of lots of people we will use them. They are best friends with each other and my wife and me as well. They love like no other. I guess the experts may know what they are talking about but in this case not. Oh one last thing Golden Doodles are highly smart and our dogs mind very well. All of your blog is spot on.

39. Lori Kaumans on January 3, 2018 at 4:28 pm

    Thanks for sharing your experience with litter mates. We recently bought two golden retriever puppies and just today someone suggested that we rehome one of them because of litter mate syndrome. I’d never even heard of it but we’ve had these puppies since they were seven weeks old and I can’t imagine having to choose one to rehome, especially having lost both of our older dogs just this summer. We’re committed to both dogs and making this a successful home. We love our girls and wouldn’t trade either one of them. I really appreciate your insights and we’re starting training with them next week so we’ll be sure to take a person for each puppy. We also already walk them separately so I’m hoping that is helping. Their mother was raised with her litter mate and their owners haven’t had any problems either.

40. Jane on December 5, 2017 at 3:09 pm

    When does the littermate syndrome start?. I have 2 male literate. 7 months old.

41. Kimberly on November 29, 2017 at 8:36 am

    Hi Sunny

    We occasionally took our puppies on separate walks. I’d walk one puppy while my boyfriend played with the other in the house. Otherwise, they were allowed to be together. They slept together until they didn’t want to anymore, they ate together, they played together.

    I have a blog post with books that helped me a lot: https://keepthetailwagging.com/top-10-books-for-dog-lovers-in-2015/

42. sunny on November 28, 2017 at 7:40 pm

    hi kimberly,

    my partner and i got two female littermates recently following the tragic loss of our young dog. i have been researching how to raise siblings and now i am freaking out.

    when you say that you “separated” your dogs, how separate were they? did they sleep separately? how have they done with other dogs visiting them?

    i would like to enroll them in a class and live in oregon and certainly want to find a trainer who won’t be judgmental.

    if you have recommendations for books, trainers, or other resources, i’d love to get some information from you.

    thanks for writing this post.

43. Jimjam on September 19, 2017 at 4:14 pm

    I had two cocker spaniel litter mates. They had such different personalitites. Both bonded well to me and my husband. Although they fought at times with each other (mainly over me), they were close and got along well. They died within three days of each other. Definitely considering doing it again.

44. Brian on August 8, 2017 at 5:50 am

    We currently have litter mate mini schnauzers that are 3 months old. Never heard of littermate syndrome until I researched separation anxiety which we were experiencing with our pups. We had two mini schnauzers that were 14 and 12 yrs from different breeders. The younger female was diagnosed with renal failure and we treated her for seven months. At that time the male came down with lung cancer, they both crossed the rainbow bridge together in Feb, 2017. My wife and I went thru a very difficult time with the loss of our “kids”. During this time we met a lady, on line, that lived some 250 miles away that had a mini that was accidentally pregnant. We kept in touch and when the pups were born we were given a pick of the litter. Driving the 250 miles and spending the night , we met the pups and fell in love with two of them a male and a female. We put a deposit on both of them and waited until they were old enough to be brought home with us. Three weeks later and another drive and night spent in a motel, we picked them up and brought them home. The lady who was not a professional breeder told us that once we had made our decision on the two that they had become inseparable , sleeping, eating and playing together. Which made us feel we made the right decision. As I stated earlier, when I checked into separation anxiety , we started to question our choice. We have been inadvertently following your reccomendations on raising the pups. Although, we have been waiting until they were a little older to start formal training. We are now checking to locate a local trainer, to start their training sooner. Having had two pets for many years, we forgot how much work puppies required. We have not regretted our decision to take both and enjoy our time working and playing with them. Hopefully, the separation anxiety which shows up as whining and crying when the other is taken outside to take care of business will be alleviated. We live on three acres in a rural area and our dogs have never been let out without someone with them, but right now it’s necessary to take them out separately or they forget why they are outside and just want to play. Thank you for your direction and comments, it’s help us reaffirm that we made a good choice.

45. Annie on July 31, 2017 at 6:15 pm

    We have just adpopted Littermates 12 week old, Copper (male) and Lilly (Female) and I did just like others I read the horror stories after the fact, which made me really worry. I have had two dogs before but last time one was 2 years old the other a puppy and in that case we had no issues.

    We are crate training our two, they already sleep in separate crates and have started puppy training, they are currently penned together during the day but once they get older they will be separated here as well. We have started training them together and separately and this week they will be going out for the first time separately. My only real concern at the moment is the fighting, I realise at their age that most is puppy play but it does escelate, when it does we have to separate them before it gets worse so they understand when to stop. And we have to ensure they do not compete for toys and food, which can be a problem, we even feed them in separate rooms so they can’t see each other.

    I agree training is key, we have already engaged a trainer and are prepared for it to be an ongoing commitment. Taking on littermates is not for the faint hearted, if I had known what I know now I wouldn’t have done it, but my husband and I are determined to make it work.

    I have to say that reading these stories has given me some comfort knowing it can work with littermates, not just the horror stories, makes me feel that we can make it work as well.

46. Kimberly on June 19, 2017 at 10:26 am

    I didn’t separate my dogs; that was just a personal choice – so I may not be the best person to ask.

47. Shara Singh on June 18, 2017 at 11:54 pm

    We have littermate and admittedly are finding some difficulties such as toilet training. I feel they are very bonded to us though.

    We’ve had our pups for a year and they have always slept together and do have a bit of separation anxiety, they train separate and get walked separate and that’s all fine, should we be separating them at night aswell?

48. Kimberly on April 22, 2017 at 3:02 pm

    Hi Tom, I’m not a certified dog trainer or animal behaviorist so I can only share my experience, not advise others on their dogs. I recommend that you work with a qualified dog trainer/behaviorist. They will be able to observe your dogs and your interaction with your dogs to determine the next steps. Best of luck.

49. Tom Myers on April 21, 2017 at 10:31 am

    I have a set of littermates. They are Golden Retrievers named Fletch and Teddy. My wife new I wanted one, but when we saw the both of them, she decided to go back the following day and bring the other one home. At first I wasn’t too happy with getting both of them because I had read online about all of the problems that you can have with littermates. Some behaviors they have exhibited (mostly not listening to me and following each other’s direction when out at the park), but they never fight. They do rough house a little, but it never gets too far and they are always running around the back yard and playing with one another. As for them not having anything to do with their humans; I can’t go anywhere without the two of them at my heels.

    I do truly love them both and often talk to them like they are people. I refer to them as my “little gentlemen”. I have always trained them, along with many of my family members. My daughter taught them how to shake and lay down.

    The problem that I have been having most recently though is with my less dominant one. He gets nervous the second that I put a leash on him. I don’t know why, because the rest of the time he is perfectly normal. Any idea how I can break him of these. He pulls and stops while we are walking sometimes out of the blue and almost tripped me this morning and just about broke my arms.

50. Kimberly on April 19, 2017 at 11:26 am

    Sorry to hear about the fighting. What did you do to put a stop to it? I incorporated training and more exercise. Our puppies didn’t fight very often, but doing these two things stopped it completely.

51. Anthony on April 18, 2017 at 2:29 pm

    We adopted littermates with no idea of the problems associated with doing so. They are 10 weeks old brother and sister and they fight constantly but I’m just assuming that’s due to their age. Luckily I figured this whole thing out early enough and we can take the steps to prevent future problems. Thank you for the tips and the positive attitude about the whole situation because as others have said there is a stigma about adopting littermates.

52. Kimberly on April 17, 2017 at 1:11 pm

    Hi Ana

    Rodrigo and Sydney slept in the same kennel until they were four months old and were too big to be in it together (it was super big). So we created a sleeping space in a playpen area like this one: http://amzn.to/2nWfslu; it had toys and their beds and they began sleeping on separate beds.

    Same thing with Scout and Zoey.

    I’m not one of those people who thinks that the dogs should be separated. The reason I like to bring home two puppies is to make the transition easier and give them a friend so I don’t want to then put them in separate rooms. Today, all of our dogs are adults and they sometimes sleep in the same room, sometimes in different rooms. But as puppies, we kept them together, but allowed plenty of space for them to do their own thing if they wanted to. The only time we separated them was when one was playful and the other was trying to sleep.

53. Ana on April 17, 2017 at 12:44 pm

    Oops, didn’t mean to put a question mark after that first sentence.

54. Ana on April 17, 2017 at 12:43 pm

    Thanks for sharing your experience, Kimberly? How did you know when one or the other wanted their own space? And how did you then create that space? Just separate crates, or separate parts of the house?

55. Kimberly on April 17, 2017 at 12:34 pm

    Trainers say that littermates need to be separated because they need space and it prevents them from bonding only to each other. That hasn’t been my experience. I personally don’t believe in separating littermate puppies. Instead, I allow them to determine when they need space. I created a space big enough for both of them and when one or both started separating, I encouraged this and made it possible for them to have space when they wanted it.

    The only thing that we did was walk them separately at times and play with them separately at times – I’d be in one room and my boyfriend would be in another. This was more important for our first set of littermates. With our second set, since we had a pack, there was no need to raise them any differently than if we only had one puppy. The new puppies adapted quickly to our family.

56. Ana on April 17, 2017 at 12:23 pm

    This is really encouraging to finally find something positive about raising litter mates. I have two female pups – 12 weeks old. They play fight all the time. They are both progressing in their training (my husband and I train them separately). They are working on “Come”, “Sit” and “Stay”. They also both went 2 weeks without any accidents in the house. We have them in a small penned off area in the house with access to a doggy door.
    I keep reading that they need to sleep separately. Can someone please tell me why this is? I’m willing to do that if its in their best interest, but I’m not convinced that it is… Also, to what extent do I need to separate them? Like I said, they’re currently together in a small indoor playpen with access to the doggy door. If I put them in separate spaces I guess I would have to install another doggy door??? How are y’all managing this?

57. Debbie on February 24, 2017 at 6:47 pm

    Kimberly, thank you for this article, and for all the positive stories about littermates that are in the comments. I really needed to hear something positive about littermates after the barrage of “NO NO DON’T DO IT” articles I’ve read. (Too late; we already did it.) We’re two and a half weeks into our own two littermates. We love them and they love us, but I’m completely frazzled from all the work and lack of sleep, and I was starting to worry that I wasn’t up to the myriad challenges that littermates present. So reading your article was incredibly reassuring that it can turn out well.

    We’re already attending a together-training class, and I have separate training classes scheduled for them next week. I’m going to work on slowly separating their crates at night. And I’m starting to realize I’m going to have to tackle potty training separately if I’m going to make any sort of progress with one of them. But all the effort will be totally worth it if I can help them to grow up into happy, well-adjusted dogs.

58. Felix on February 20, 2017 at 10:33 pm

    Yes!! My wife and I just adopted two sibrings, a boy and girl Puggats two months old. They are not home with us yet, but I be been reading and I completely freaked out, doubting our decision to bring two home. We had our fur daughter for 9 yes and she passed away last year so starting over was already scary.
    Thank you for your article. Its the 1st positive one I have read. Thank you
    Mrs and Mrs Felix

59. Kimberly on January 26, 2017 at 7:55 am

    Hi Rosie

    I know you posted this in reply to Bethany, but I had some ideas so I hope you don’t mind me butting in. I have a very busy schedule that makes breaking up my littermates challenging at times. It’s just so easy to take them all together when I do things with them.

    TO address the anxiety, I would do some training. Training with my dogs is so fun and it wipes them out. Getting them to use their brain in a 10-15 minute training session does wonders. I would work on separating the dogs – if you have a friend who can help, that would be even better. Leash up one dog and have a friend hold the leash so the dog can’t follow, and slowly walk away with the other dog. Not far, just a couple of feet at a time. Each time the leashed dog doesn’t show anxiety or stress, give him a treat. Just do this for 10-15 minutes a day to help show him that it’s okay.

    When I’m going to walk two dogs and leave two behind, I always know that there is a chance that at least one dog will be stressed out. So I give my dogs Ewegurt (https://www.keepthetailwagging.com/ewegurt) about 30-40 minutes before I plan to leave. It’s an all natural supplement made from sheep’s milk that helps calm anxiety. My dogs still aren’t happy that I’m leaving them behind, but their stress level is a lot better. Another great product is CBD-Hemp oil (https://www.keepthetailwagging.com/cbdoil), which also helps relieve anxiousness.

    As far as solo activities, one thing that I do year around is to take one dog with me when I run errands. Pet stores allow dogs and in our town, Home Depot allows dogs too.

60. Rosie on January 26, 2017 at 7:29 am

    I have two rescues adopted six months apart. I’ve always seem to have two dogs. The older, a 10 lb. Chihuahua mix, was picked up as a stray when he was about six months old. He was fostered in a home with two other big dogs. Needless to say, he’s afraid of dog bowls. It’s been five years and he still likes you to hold his bowl/water while he eats. Very strange. Not sure what type of trauma he had. The younger was adopted when he was eight weeks so no real issues except that he is now bonded with my other dog to the point that he whines when I take the other out for a walk. So…in the process of trying to lessen his anxiety but with cold Midwest winters we don’t get out for much of the year. Other than solo walks and car rides, any suggestions for more solo options?

61. Kimberly on January 15, 2017 at 6:45 am

    You can search the Association of Professional Dog Trainers: http://www.apdt.com

    Or you can reach out to local pet businesses for recommendations and search review sites for people’s experience with those trainers.

62. Tammy White on January 14, 2017 at 5:33 pm

    Thanks! Great idea! Any ideas how I should go about finding a reputable trainer?

63. Kimberly on January 14, 2017 at 2:51 pm

    I’d make sure that they’re fighting and not play fighting. If they’re fighting, what I found that works best is to work with a dog trainer who can help you strengthen your leadership. That way when you step in and tell them to stop, they stop 😉

64. Tammy White on January 14, 2017 at 6:27 am

    So glad I found your site! Already have two female standard poodle litter mates that are 11 weeks old and feel things are going pretty good. It was really discouraging finding all the negative points about having two instead of finding help with training two. My problem is my girls want to play together and play fight all the time. Distracting them from each other works momentarily but they always seem to come back to playing and fighting. Just worried as they get older I won’t be able to break them up or that their fighting may turn ugly. I read putting them in their crates as ” punishment” wasn’t good because you want their crate to be a good place, but separating them is all I know to do. Will they grow out of this? Do I just let them fight it out? Any help would be much appreciated!

65. Barbara on January 6, 2017 at 5:48 pm

    I am so relieved to have found your website. We are preparing to bring home two puppies from the same breeder next week – not from the same litter – but both born a week apart in the same home. We recently lost our beloved 14 year old and when looking for a new puppy we came upon a breeder with two dogs available – my husband really wanted one while I really wanted the other. We both gave in to the other so were at an impasse. Neither one of us wanted the other to be disappointed so we decided to adopt both. I have read all the warnings about two puppies and littermate syndrome and have been feeling some anxiety but then read Kimberly’s words, “It only took 2 people being excited about the idea to convince me to go for it. And, to be honest, I would have done it without their approval.” At different times in our lives we have had more than one dog – at one point three dogs and two cats. We are older now and have been worried we might be overwhelmed but after reading the posts in this blog and knowing how much we give to our pets I am feeling more optimistic. Thank you for all the stories that make me feel we and our puppies will do well.

66. Kimberly on November 2, 2016 at 8:05 am

    I allowed our puppies to sleep together while having a second kennel available should one of them need more space. For Rodrigo and Sydney, they were about 4-5 months old when they started sleeping separately. Scout and Zoey did it around 2 months old, probably because we already had two dogs so they were immediately part of a pack.

67. Christina Howe on November 1, 2016 at 8:47 am

    Thanks Kim for the follow-up. What are your thoughts on leaving the puppies together alone in a pen vs keeping them in separate pens when we are gone to work and other lengthier periods of time? I have read that it is best to keep them apart but then read that Brenda Negri recommends they are kept together. We are planning to have them sleep apart in their own kennels.

68. Kimberly on October 27, 2016 at 2:13 pm

    The best path is to work with a positive based dog trainer experience in canine behavior. Best of luck.

69. Christina Howe on October 27, 2016 at 1:08 pm

    Anyone had experience with two unrelated male dogs being brought into a home as puppies? I saw the post about Temple Grandin’s book and now I am panicked. We have a 10 week old Bulldog and just purchased a second 8 week old baby who will arrive in a few weeks. Bulldogs are notorious for being difficult to train so oh boy!!! #freakingout

70. Kim Sterling on October 26, 2016 at 2:10 am

    We have litter mates and a cousin from another litter ..who were all born within days of each other. Two mom’s and three pups…got them from my cousins. The first one Rihanna is a beautiful full blooded chihuahua. The other litter the mom is chihuahua and dad unknown. One the female Moesha looks like a chihuahua. The male looks like a miniature golden retriever/Irish setter with long curly red hair; he’s uniquely adorable….his name is Curly. Our dogs get along great. They play together; jog with my husband as a pack together and are really well balanced level headed dogs. The females boss the male around just a bit but he is very protective of them. He leads the pack on the jogs. They are Awesome dogs and were a handful as puppies but now they are one and three months in dog years old. The male is neutered and we have made plans in the next three months to get both females spayed. They had their first cycle within days of each other and we had to keep them separated for three weeks; so hence the urgency of spaying them. My advice to anyone getting litter mates as family’s pets is too have them all spayed and neutered together. Good luck litter mates are awesome and Moesha will be going to college with my daughter in 2018. Rihanna tends to hang out with me; she is a bit stand offish but she socializes with the other dogs very well. She really took a liking to my son who was home from college on a summer visit. Curly is my husbands dog… We have found that you dont pick the dog the dog picks you. AND VERY IMPORTANT IF YOU TRAIN THEM YOURSELF. YOU MUST BE CONSISTENT WITH EVERY DOG; BUT TRAIN THEM SEPARATELY. SOME NEED LOTS OF TRAINING; SOME PICK IT UP QUICKER…SO THEY CAN GET THEIR PLAYTIME REWARD. WHILE TRAINING SEPERATELY BE CONSISTENT WITH THE COMMANDS SO WHEN THEY ARE IN THE PACK THEY WILL ALL KNOW THE COMMANDS. AND, REMEMBER YOU ARE THE PACK LEADER. We started with very inexpensive liver treats and yogurt treats and transitioned when they got older to play games like fetch or treat in puzzle toy. Multiples or littermates has been a wonderful experience for my family. IF: the finances allow it is great just remember; two of everything or in my case three. We treasure our dogs.

71. Kimberly on October 17, 2016 at 1:25 pm

    I think littermate syndrome has more to do with people biting off more than they can chew when they bring home two puppies; not understanding how much work is involved. So yes, if it exists, it doesn’t matter if their actual siblings, the fact that you have two puppies can result in issues if you don’t address their individual needs and work with a professional dog trainer.

72. Elisabeth on October 17, 2016 at 1:23 pm

    Well these breeds are already known for their anxiety. Hence the reason we decided to take 2. Don’t you think that any 2 pups will struggle with the possibility of littermate syndrome whether they are 2 pups from the same breed and litter OR 2 pups the same age but different litters and/or breeds even.

73. Kimberly on October 17, 2016 at 1:14 pm

    My experience is with different breeds, so keep that in mind.

    Although we have separate crates for our dogs (or at least we did when they were puppies) we didn’t force them to sleep apart. Our thought was that they were in a new environment, why not allow them to have each other as comfort at night? With our second set of littermates, we didn’t bother with a second crate and they slept in puppy pen and they were just fine.

    I have never experienced littermate syndrome. That’s not to say it doesn’t exist, but think that our willingness to work with a trainer with all of our dogs eliminated any issues. Our first two dogs only fought when frustrated or when Rodrigo was being a brat about toys/chews. Always supervising them eliminated these issues quickly. Scout and Zoey have never fought.

    Our dogs are bonded to each other and to us. There hasn’t been an issue where they are more bonded to each other. We spent so much time together as a pack and one on one (or two on one) that they are used to our dynamic and they’re happy, healthy, and well-adjusted.

    Congratulations on your puppies. The best advice I have is to take your dogs to puppy class when they’re ready and again in 6 months or 12 months. It’s fun for them to get out and interact with other dogs and people and in a puppy class, they’re learning new things (and so are you). I truly think that’s what made it possible for us to raise two sets of littermates.

74. Elisabeth on October 17, 2016 at 12:54 pm

    Hello,
    My husband and I currently have a deposit down on 2 German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois mixed pups. We are super excited but I just ran across littermate syndrome last night and now a little nervous. Though my husband and I have experience with dogs and with this breed we’ve never had 2. Pups alone are hard and taking on 2 everyone thinks we are crazy. 🙂 Either way we plan on having 2 pups at the same time and that is why I think this “syndrome” could be with littermates regardless if they are from the same litter or not. What are your thoughts?

    With 2 pups around the same age they are bound to “fight” to determine their own hierarchy of the family. We already risk the fact that they might “bond with each other over family members” having 2 dogs raised at the same time together. Would you agree? With proper training (we already have scheduled) and planning time together as well. I am questioning now if we should have two crates rather than one XL one. What are your thoughts?

    Thank you for having this site and for being willing to openly discuss for all of us.

75. Kimberly on October 10, 2016 at 9:51 am

    Sounds like you’re doing fine, Nancy. I have four dogs, two sets of littermates. They are all great, all independent from each other, and all well adjusted. The only trouble I have now is convincing strangers that NO my dogs don’t want to play with your dog. It’s like I’m a walking dog park. LOL

76. Nancy on October 9, 2016 at 12:11 pm

    I didn’t know about littermate syndrome when we brought our sister/brother labradoodles home 2 years ago. (I just read about the term in a novel). They both have bonded with us and are very friendly to visitors. The brother is a bit more aggressive and they play fight, but never to the point of damage. They both get anxious when we take one to the vet without the other one…now I know why and will start taking them on separate walks to help get them used to being apart.

    I wish we had known, we would have done things a bit differently, but I do think they are fairly well-adjusted. They often sleep in different rooms and go outside on their own without the other.

    Thank you for your very helpful information!

77. Kimberly on September 21, 2016 at 9:43 am

    Littermate syndrome can be serious if you’re not experienced with raising dogs and don’t work with a dog trainer. I have successfully raised two sets of littermates and have not witnessed or experienced littermate syndrome. I also know many people have and are raising littermates that are happy, healthy, well-socialized dogs.

    I’m convinced that I would have had a problem had I not taken the time to research the dog breeds we brought into our home and if I had refused to work with a reputable, certified dog trainers.

78. Terry on September 20, 2016 at 10:04 pm

    Littermate syndrome is serious, unless your invested to learning about dog behavior for God’s sakes do not get dogs from the same litter……

79. Kimberly on July 25, 2016 at 9:33 pm

    Congratulations on your GSDs. I’ve heard that this breed tends to pull. It took years for me to stop my dogs from pulling and they’re not shepherds. Patience is the key.

80. Windy on July 25, 2016 at 8:54 pm

    Thank you for sharing. We bought two female GSD littermates. I had them crate trained in three days & seperated shortly after. No issues, with training the commands they have learned & we train them together. Our only issues right now are pulling on the leash, lunging at one another, and one getting anxious when walking both & not side by side.

    We are starting to take them on seperate walks & trips to the store. We are about to completely seperate their crates. I rather not, but I want to ensure they can be away from one another & rest.
    It’s hard work, but like you stated, life is better with them near.

81. Debbie on July 13, 2016 at 12:09 pm

    Thanks Kimberly!

82. Kimberly on July 13, 2016 at 9:31 am

    You’ll be fine. It can be overwhelming at times, but it’s going to be fun too. I still take my dogs to classes and on play dates. If you have friends with dogs, take them all on a pack walk on a regular schedule. Or even if you have a friend who wants to walk, your friend can walk one dog while you walk the other. Many times, just getting out and about helped my dogs so much.

83. Debbie Shoup on July 13, 2016 at 9:26 am

    Yes I enrolled the puppies at petco they day after I brought them home! The second 6 weeks I had a trainer come to the house. So they have been thru puppy 1 and 2.
    But thank you! I will keep trying to keep some separate times. But that is in a perfect world.
    I hope that i can give these 2 a wonderful life,

84. Kimberly on July 13, 2016 at 9:23 am

    The best thing to do is enroll your dogs into puppy class and then dog class. Many of the Petcos and PetSmarts offer the courses. Hiring a professional dog trainer is the best way to get the dogs off on the right start, because a professional will be able to look at the dogs and the humans and figure out what may be causing the issues.

    Best of luck!

85. Kimberly on July 13, 2016 at 9:22 am

    The only thing I would recommend is puppy training classes. This helped Rodrigo and Sydney tremendously so we were sure to enroll Scout and Zoey as soon as they were old enough. I hired a private training for our first two. Our younger dogs went to a local PetSmart training class for 6 weeks. They had a blast and they have never had a fight.

86. Jordy on July 12, 2016 at 7:02 pm

    It’s really awesome to see someone who has owned litter mates with a positive experience! I need a little bit of help, though. A couple of months back, we got two puppies of the opposite gender. We absolutely love them, and they love us, but they have some really big problems. They get into really intense fights, get incredibly anxious when separated from each other, have trouble focusing on us when we try to train them separately (or focusing in general), and really bad jealousy. My dad doesn’t want to buy kennels because they’re expensive and take up a lot of space. I’m only 16, so I don’t have a lot say in this. What do you suggest for this situation? Is it too late to rid them of littermate syndrome?

87. Debbie on July 12, 2016 at 2:36 pm

    I did adopt litter mates. They were 5 months old rescues, etc. Female more outgoing(murphy) , male (Cooper) more reserved. The rescue convinced me to adopt them both cause they felt Cooper needed Murphy. Well things have been going great until they turned 8 months old. Cooper has become more of a bully at times. The vast majority of time I must say they are very well behaved pups. They nap now in different rooms. they do go to a doggy day care 3 days a week. Which sites says send them alone. Well not an option but the daycare does have 2 areas and they rotate the pups. Yes I feel its me that causes the issues between them. Working on that, Bones, toys treat and food I do separate them. I just started to walk them separately in am and pm. On days they are home afternoon hike to the woods is together. So any encouragement is welcomed! I feel at times I am not do right for the pups.

88. Kimberly on July 1, 2016 at 9:09 pm

    Have fun with your puppies. It’s hard work, but soooooo much fun. They will have you laughing every single day! My favorite memories are of them sleeping in my lap and one morning, I had to go to work early and Zoey (she was about 2 months) came trotting over out of bed, reached up to be picked up, and gave me kisses, then she went right back to bed.

    And today, they’re all just as sweet. Just bigger. And louder.

89. Tiffany Burgess on June 30, 2016 at 3:07 pm

    Thank you so much for sharing your experience! We are getting our 2 girls on the 10th of July. They are from different litters but are 5 days apart. I think we won’t have an issues with having two at the same time, but it’s reassuring to hear that it has been done and can be done and be done successfully. So far we haven’t had a lot of snarkyness from people that we’ve told that we’re getting 2 puppies. I am excited to bring them home and look forward to seeing them grow and their personalities develop.

90. Susan on June 20, 2016 at 3:49 pm

    Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the positive feedback. We recently added two Yorkies (one boy and one girl) to our family. The warnings were terrifying! It was so disconcerting that we almost didn’t even try. But we did it! Our new “kids” are the first furry friends since our beloved Bichon, Benny, passed away 10 years ago. I’m taking down all of the advice and positive feedback, because we really love these sweeties! I’m determined to make it work and home all summer to see it through. Again, thanks for some encouragement!

91. Kimberly on June 9, 2016 at 9:45 am

    Congrats on the puppies!!! Not knowing your dogs well, I can only guess based on my experience with Rodrigo and Sydney and what you’re seeing sounds very familiar. What I learned with my dogs was that this was a time when they were establishing their independence and place. Three things helped:

    1) Immediately sign them up for puppy classes. It’ll work their brains and bodies while helping you set boundaries and establish leadership.

    2) Take them for more walks to work out that extra energy.

    3) Give them some independent time from each other – even if it’s playing with one in one corner of the room while someone else plays with the other in the opposite corner – having that space will make a difference.

    We did these things right away with Scout and Zoey and never experienced one problem with them.

    Best of luck!!!

92. jessica on June 9, 2016 at 7:58 am

    Hi! I stumbled across your blog and I just adopted a pair of littermates about 10 weeks old, all good so far. I have a boy and a girl, however in the past two days I have noticed that the girl is more dominant. She starts fights with her brother and becomes grumpy and growls – even when we pick her up! I’m worried, does this mean she’s going to grow up aggressive? I would love some advice.

93. Kimberly on April 25, 2016 at 8:51 pm

    Thanks for sharing your experience. Both sets of our littermates were altered at 6 months too. I will probably push it back to 10-12 months with future littermates since I don’t take them to the dog park. Our boy, Scout, was twice the size we expected and if I had known he was going to grow so much, I would have left him intact for 6 months longer. But we haven’t noticed any health issues, so I’m not kicking myself about it.

    Zoey and Sydney are more timid than Scout and Rodrigo. Zoey is shy and submissive. Sydney just can’t be bothered with other dogs. Rodrigo tends to want to boss everyone around and Scout just likes to get along with everyone. They’re a good mix and I have a few friends who have dogs that are a good addition to our pack.

    I wonder if the reason people are so against people bringing home two puppies is because so many people won’t do the work. So many people fall in love with a puppy and forget that those puppies grow up to be dogs and it’s easier to train them from day one than when they get to big to manage.

94. Michelle Gordon on April 25, 2016 at 3:45 pm

    I have always had 2 dogs, the first pair died aged 14 and 16 and the second pair aged 14 and 15. Although similar in age they weren’t siblings and never had any trouble with dominance or rivalry.

    We have now got 14 week old siblings, dog and a bitch and they have bonded with us well and obviously love each other. I have never crated any dog, I don’t like the idea of cages. The pups sleep on the same bed overnight but during the day sleep separately with us on the sofa. Another no no as far as “experts” are concerned.

    We have taken them to 2 puppy classes so far and the female is very timid there. She is a bit timid when out anyway which is why the socialisation is crucial for them, but she is better than her sibling at walks alone. He currently whines and frets when out on his own. We will persevere and are prepared to put the work in. When out as a pair they are happy to meet other dogs and will willingly run round with other dogs and cone back when called. They are fed together and have treats at the same time. When training we have to either lock one in another room or someone has to hold one to restrain it, but that is the same with dogs in the same home with an age gap! After 2 sessions at puppy school the bitch will now come out from hiding under a chair at the class, but at home or out she can sit, down and walk to heel on command. She will overcome her nerves, but it will take her a bit longer. Her brother is braver and is quite happy at puppy class, but generally the bitch is the “boss” so it’s a role reversal at classes.

    I’m certainly not regretting the decision, double trouble is double the mess, but also double the love. They follow me everywhere, unless I remember to close the stair gate!

    They will be spayed and castrated at 6 months, probably on the same day. All of my previous dogs, both males and females have all been “done” at six months with no problems.

    I feel almost like a leper with the comments that so called experts make for having siblings. I totally understand that it can be harder, but that is obvious. The number of articles that advise that the only thing to do is remove one of the dogs makes me wonder if the “experts” are dog lovers at all.

95. Betsy on April 10, 2016 at 7:30 am

    thanks for this discussion. i’d never heard of this and i have had dogs for years. i am bringing home siblings this week. thanks for all the great advice. i do have an adult dog in the house. will take many of the great idea’s to help my pups have the best life they can. grateful for a positive take on raising siblings, there is a lot of negative out there. i know it will be a lot of work but raising good pups always is. i think our society often puts too much of our human issues onto dogs. can’t wait to sleep come September. haha.

96. Cody on September 13, 2015 at 9:49 am

    I’ve read all about raising littermates and even though it’s advised against, we did it anyways. They’re crated separately, potty trained separately, fed separately, and have play time/walks separately as well as together. Question: this separation, what’s a good ratio of together vs separate play times/socialization? Right now it’s about 70:30 (together:separate) for socialization/play time and a good 30:70 (together:separate) for potty training.

97. Kimberly on September 13, 2015 at 9:27 am

    Sorry that it’s taken time to respond. My computer turned on me yesterday. I’m glad my posts are helping people. I wouldn’t recommend adopting littermates to people, but if people are like me, they made the choice and fell in love with their dogs before they thought about if it’s a good idea or not.

    Littermates isn’t for every family and not every pair of puppies will turn out as well as our two sets have turned out. I feel very happy and blessed that our dogs are so happy and healthy.

    Anytime you have questions, feel free to ask. It’s being part of a community that will help this work for all of us.

98. Cody on September 12, 2015 at 6:09 am

    It was a nice change of pace reading a pro-littermate adoption article. Our family just brought home two 8 week old boxer puppies and I have some questions for you if you have the time. Email is attached. Thank you!

99. Kimberly on September 10, 2015 at 4:26 pm

    That’s how our dogs are too. Whenever I meet someone who had a bad experience with littermates, I’m always surprised and wonder if they did anything differently than I did with raising and training.

100. Deb on September 10, 2015 at 9:19 am

     Thanks for the article on littermates. I have littermates and I have found it so much easier to raise them. Least destructive dogs I’ve ever raised. They always have each other for entertainment!

101. Brenda M. Negri on September 9, 2015 at 8:41 am

     I would love to share my success stories with you and exchange ideas and thoughts in E-mails! Thank you again, for being a “positive” on this subject. It is so misunderstood, particularly in the Livestock Guardian Dog world, which is unto itself – so many people rely on questionable information from dubious sources that are “arm chair experts” in these huge Facebook LGD forums. I have been one of the few, if not the only one, promoting running working sibling LGD pairs. And I have customers doing it in spades now too. So when actual experience comes along, its always good to listen to that – not just sponsored studies from college bound book-learned ‘experts’. You “dared” to try, and did it – not just talk – you walked the walk! 🙂 And it worked! Thumbs up!

102. Kimberly on September 9, 2015 at 7:13 am

     Thank you so much, Brenda

     I have bookmarked your links and will be taking a look at them and using your knowledge as a resource in the future. I would love to talk to you about littermates if you’re ever interested. I have a question about pack hierarchy in a home with littermates – I’d like to write an article in October. I plan to write one article per month about raising littermates.

103. Brenda M. Negri on September 9, 2015 at 7:02 am

     If you need more positive reinforcement that litter mates are the way to go, please take the time to read not just my blog, http://spanishmastiff.blogspot.com/2015/09/siblings-revisited.html which reprints one of my published articles on successfully running siblings from http://www.sheepmagazine.com, but also review the LGD Library on my website, http://www.lgdnevada.com. I have raised littermate Livestock Guardian Dogs for years with huge success. Not only that – my customers go on to repeat that success. I am a devotee of Turid Rugaas and Tom Dorrance. Anyone who takes the time to be respectful of these dogs, and understand them better, will find that promoting pack life – which is the natural way for dogs to live – is really the best way. I cringe at the “litter mate syndrome” articles out there. Such bad advice! And typically, from people who do not truly take the time to understand their dogs better. Thanks for being open minded with your words and seeing that there is in fact, a bright side to this coin!

104. Kimberly on August 12, 2015 at 11:13 am

     I just couldn’t separate our puppies.

     Rodrigo and Sydney were 8 weeks; we had 2 crates, but they were so small that we didn’t want to separate them, because they were in a new home and away from the rest of their litter. Since they always sought each other out when taking a nap, we let them sleep in the same crate together until they were both big enough to sleep on beds at night (about 4 months).

     For Scout and Zoey, we didn’t bother buying 2 crates for each puppy; instead, we had 2 crates for different rooms. They gained independence early and I think it might be because we had 2 dogs in the house and we had experience with littermates.

105. Hilary on August 12, 2015 at 9:56 am

     Not to sound like an echo, but I am so grateful to find your blog and positive suggestions for dealing with littermates. We have a 7-year-old female border collie (Ellie) and until a month ago had a 3-year-old male BC (Bert) who was hit by a car. Ellie has been lonely without him but that should soon change as we are awaiting the arrival in a few days of two 9-week-old girls from the same breeder we got Ellie and Bert from. Ellie is a kind, gentle but assertive alpha, and we anticipate that she will maintain this status with the puppies. It sounds like most people allow their littermates to share a crate for the first few months, while still training and playing with them separately, and then switch to separate crates (or ditch the crates altogether, at least for sleeping time) when they are a few months old. That’s what I was planning to do but then I wondered if they should have separate (adjacent) crates right from the start. Any thoughts on that? It’s not like they spend a ton of time in the crate(s) anyway.

106. Kimberly on August 3, 2015 at 3:51 pm

     I believe a dog trainer should be hired right away and visited at least once a year, because it’s so much fun for them if you hire the right trainer. I did spay and neuter all of our dogs, because I don’t want them to have puppies. I think a good age is 9 months, but it really depends on the breed.

     Best of luck with your puppies.

107. Raghav on August 3, 2015 at 4:29 am

     Thank you for of this awesome blog post! It’s being a beam of the sun around any marine of ‘doom and gloom’ articles with raising litter mates! This morning My partner and i used 12-week outdated siblings – just one young man, just one young lady. I did plenty of analysis before hand and also have recently been investing in the task — different crates, different moves, separate perform occasion, different workout sessions — but the articles include me personally pretty weird. My partner and i can’t support however ponder in case I’m performing these people any disservice by means of raising these people jointly – that they sound pretty closely bonded jointly and haven’t warmed up in order to other puppies still. Up to now that they sound pretty happy and revel in any time that they invest jointly and with me personally however they perform acquire lost within their very own entire world when they perform and make use of not bothered ability to hear. With what exactly stage would you understand you needed any coach, or maybe would you have just one straight away (I’m performing pup kindergarten using every single pup however I’m not sure that’s enough)? In addition, would you spay/neuter your whole bunch? I’ve examine it’s rather a awful thought to obtain equally puppies castrated, but the literature is probably confusing! Thanks once more!

108. Kimberly on July 23, 2015 at 9:11 pm

     Hi Jessica

     Thanks for the comment. I got our puppies into training as soon as they were allowed. They had all of their shots, but hadn’t received their rabies yet, but the trainer took them anyway. Unlike many people, I never separated them when they slept – that’s just a personal choice. I felt that they were in a new place and they had each other for security. Rodrigo and Sydney started sleeping apart on their own at 4-5 months and Scout and Zoey were independent earlier, around 3 months.

     I did have all of our dogs spayed and neutered at 6 months. My worry was that someone would see that they’re intack and steal them away to breed. I’ve heard of this happening in other states and although I haven’t heard of it happening locally, it still scared me. In the future, I’ll be waiting until our dogs are 9 – 12 months. It really depends on the breed. My friend has a Great Dane and she let her have 1 heat before spaying.

     I hope that helps.

     PS – I still do training for fun. The dogs like it and we have some amazing trainers in our area so it’s fun for me too.

109. Jessica on July 23, 2015 at 7:18 pm

     Thank you for this blog! It’s like a ray of sunshine amidst a sea of ‘doom and gloom’ articles on raising littermates! A week ago I adopted 12-week old siblings – one boy, one girl. I did a lot of research ahead of time and have been putting in the work — separate crates, separate walks, independent play time, separate training sessions — but the articles have me pretty paranoid. I can’t help but wonder if I’m doing them a disservice by raising them together – they seem pretty tightly bonded together and haven’t warmed up to other dogs yet. So far they seem pretty happy and enjoy the time they spend together and with me but they do get lost in their own world when they play and use selective hearing. At what point did you realize you needed a trainer, or did you get one right away (I’m doing puppy kindergarten with each puppy but I’m not sure that’s enough)? Also, did you spay/neuter your entire pack? I’ve read it can be a bad idea to have both dogs castrated, but the literature is definitely confusing! Thanks again!

110. IRCTC on July 12, 2015 at 4:58 am

     That’s really a great information for me. My litter mates are very nice. They fight very little.

111. Kimberly on June 7, 2015 at 7:54 pm

     You sound like me. That was truly the important step, being a leader in our home. It gave our dogs comfort to know what was expected of them. I think the only tough stop that I have is if I’m not feeling 100% (like when I had the flu) the dogs can easily get out of control if I’m down too long. Today was hot here and we’re not used to mid-eighties. We live on 5 acres and I opened the door and all the dogs scattered. I spent the entire time we had outside (we’re doing 20 minute play sessions because of the heat) rounding them up. LOL

112. Yvette on June 7, 2015 at 4:17 pm

     First of all I’d like to thank you so much for your wonderful entry. We already have 2 older dogs at home and decided to get a pair of litter mates, we didn’t really heed the warnings until everyone and their mom basically told us how much wrong we were doing. I started debating keeping my pups together, but reading your article really made me feel better. I love all my dogs, I spend time with each of them and my husband and I nurture and act as the leaders in the house. Each of them have their own distinct personalities.

113. Kimberly on May 30, 2015 at 12:55 pm

     Sounds like you are kicking butt as a dog mom and I’m so proud. People like YOU make me feel great about writing so much about my own experience. It’s really nice to know I’m not alone in having such a positive experience. Thank you. 🙂

114. Manisha on May 30, 2015 at 8:26 am

     Thanks a lot for sharing your stories! We have litter mates, Chokies-Bella and Opie. They don’t look related. Opie looks and acts more like their Mom, and Bella is just like Dad, tea cup Yorkie. We know both parents as well. They do fight a bit when we pick them up together or if they are in their pet carrier lately. They are now just over 4 months. We love them so much and are a joy! They are crate trained and we plan on getting separate crates this week. We should be starting dog training as well.

115. Teresa on May 23, 2015 at 4:31 pm

     Thanks again Kimberly. Well it’s not that time yet, hopefully we have lots of time left with him, and these sites help a lot with concerns of the future, I guess every dog is different, and I did get to see what she was like for two days when he was gone so in a way that helped us have some idea of what she will need, I’m just unsure if introducing a new companion now or when the time comes that one of them is going to be alone and do the introduction then. My boys doctors did not comment much on his condition and a new dog being introduced, but something tells me that I should wait on that to see how he progresses and I would like to have a chat with his doctor again a maybe professional behaviorist first about that. Again I thank u for your help.

116. Kimberly on May 23, 2015 at 2:34 pm

     We introduced our dogs to new dogs slowly. Letting them meet for a few minutes one on one to see how they do with each other. We’ve only brought puppies into our home, so it was fairly easy. I just had to give Rodrigo and Sydney loads of love so they didn’t feel ignored. Friends who have one dog and introduced a 2nd introduced the dogs at a park or a friend’s house to see how they did with each other. They didn’t bring the new dog home right away, because the other dog might feel protective of his or her space.

     Hope that helps.

117. Teresa on May 23, 2015 at 7:45 am

     Thanks Kimberly for your quick response. Sorry for your loss as well. Thank you for the tip regarding the trainer, I have heard that mentioned several times regarding grieving dogs. I wIll do anything to help her when the time comes. My biggest fear is leaving her alone throughout the day during our work weeks. I feel guilty even talking about this because my boy is still with us and could be for months, even maybe a year, we just don’t know yet. But I feel like I need to have a plan even so. So I will start calling behaviorist and trainers and seek guidance there as well. Thank you again and God bless you and your family. ❤️ One more question, what do you know about or in your experience, how successful is it to introduce the surviving mate to a new dog after his or her mate passes? And when is it the proper time for the introduction?

118. Kimberly on May 22, 2015 at 8:12 pm

     Teresa, I am so sorry. I dread this day for us. Our dogs are pretty independent, but I know that they will mourn the loss of their littermate something fierce. If you know of an experienced dog trainer / behaviorist, I’d recommend giving them a call to find out what you may be in for with your surviving dog. I’d also recommend changing up the routine with your surviving dog after her siblings loss. When we lost Blue, our littermates were depressed, because they loved Blue, we all did. But I changed our routine, found a brand new place to walk, and did everything I could go keep them engaged with me. It helped all of us. It’s not a perfect solution, because dogs will mourn, but it’s something.

     I am so sorry. Today is the day we adopted our littermates 5 years ago. It’s also the day we brought Blue home 3 years ago. We spent time just remembering Blue and how much we loved him. It’s still painful. I hope you have a peaceful, loving time with both of your dogs as you’re going through this time.

119. Teresa on May 22, 2015 at 5:47 pm

     I have 12 year old litter mates, male and female. My male recently has been diagnosed with Pericardial Effusion. Cause at this time unknown but most likely cancer. We are not sure how much time he has left with us. Early on there may have been some behavior issues like not listening, and they would feed off each other’s behaviors but I really have not had any issues with fighting and other behaviors mentioned on this conversation. However, thinking about the death of one mate and the welfare of the surviving mate has me pretty worried for the future of our girl. Our boy was hospitalized for 2 days recently and we noticed some changes in her demeanor, whiny,clingy, and lack of interest in playing and eating. She would lay around and not show much of her character we are used to. However, we would not allow her to focus on missing him,we took her for walks and got her moving to play and took her for rides. He’s home now and all is good again, but we are not sure how short lived this will be and we are now contemplating the future and what we should expect. She has not been y herself in12 years, we both work and taking her to work is not possible. We had to leave her alone for about 5 hours one of the days he was hospitalized. That wAs one of the hardest things I think I’ve ever had to do. My fiancé returned home, she greeted him at the gate, and then resumed her squirrel chasing. I just have concerns that she will not be able to recover from his loss, I have read too many stories of the secondmate soon dying after his or her loss of their mate. Was that because the owners did not engage them enough.? I read a story of the owners watching the mate lay on the grave all day of its mate, did they not engage with the pet and get her active and try to stop that behavior? I don’t want that too happen so I’m looking for advice in how to keep her calm, less anxious…..any ideas or experiences I how to allow her to grieve but help her through the transition of losing her mate. They have been social with other dogs, we have been Thinking of another dog as well, a companion dog that could take the stress of the whole situation, or the other side, that could add to it. So we are really concerned, anxious about what’s coming and how our little family will cope. My goal of course is to all find our way together and for her to live through it, for many years to come. I’m not against adopting a dog in need of a good loving home. I just don’t know if or when it’s right to do it? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.
     Teresa…

120. Kimberly on May 8, 2015 at 6:36 am

     We’re 2 peas in a pod. I got the sofa with our puppies. LOL
     I know what you mean about nipping problems in the bud. We had Scout and Zoey in training immediately. I’ve had to work hard not to allow them to control me with puppy eyes (Scout and Rodrigo have that down). Our dogs love routine and the more I can keep them at a routine the better they behave.

121. Robert on May 7, 2015 at 10:58 pm

     This can happen, but if you follow the golden rule of aggressive breeds. Socialize over and over and over again, Take them to lowes, home depot or you local pet supply. I raise chows, and you cannot ever get a perfectly sweet chow. You can always get a safe one. Thank you for your post. Recently got litter mates and had some issues at 8 weeks. nipped it in the tail and all seems to be well. Except having to sleep on the sofa while the wife got the bed.

122. Kimberly on April 12, 2015 at 4:43 pm

     Best of luck to you, Anne, and thanks for the comment. Please come back and give me an update on how the girls are doing being separated. I don’t separate our dogs much because we have a lot of fun together – but there are 4 of them and the younger two dogs gained independence pretty quickly because there were already 2 dogs in the house (I believe).

123. Anne Copper on April 12, 2015 at 3:44 pm

     I have been reading all these articles about the littermate-syndrome. I had never heard of it until just recently when my brother brought it up. Anyways I started reading about it and just like everyone else getting scared that I made the wrong choice. I’m glad that I have researched about it and I am working on separating my two labs more. They have both been in separate crates now and do great with it; this weekend I took one of my girls on a hike and she did great but when I asked my husband how her sister did he stated she was pretty depressed all day. So I’ve only started really separating them this week and I think it’s too soon to tell how it’s going and decide if I made the right choice. Hopefully they will turn out good; I’m pretty attached to both of these girls and I really don’t want to part with either one. I like your advice on getting a trainer and will start looking into it. Thanks again for a good article and finger crossed it will work out for my two new baby girls

124. Roslyn on March 21, 2015 at 10:57 am

     I thought you adopted all your dogs? But I do give that I know a few good breeders who would be willing to sell littermates to people they were familiar with, had a long history of owning and caring for dogs and with a stricter contract. I do find the vast majority of people who would be willing to sell littermates or two puppies are backyard breeders or puppy mills. Because of how much demand a puppy brings on the household in finances, time, and activity. And I understand that most people probably don’t look up or research anything till after they have made the purchase but I think people still need a clear understanding of the reason for those “scary” sites, If I had littermates, I don’t think I could give one up, but it is can be expensive and extremely time-consuming to make two dogs understand they are two dogs.

125. Kimberly on March 18, 2015 at 7:13 pm

     I’m sorry you misunderstand my point. I’m not pushing for people to adopt littermates, instead, I’m sharing our experience. What I’ve found is that many times, when people are researching “littermates” they’ve already brought the puppies home and aren’t willing to consider rehoming one of them. So I thought I’d share our experience, which hasn’t been easy. It takes a lot of time, work, budgeting (we’re not rich), and patience. We’re lucky, because we worked as a team and we’re both committed to raising responsible dogs. I think many people can do the same, but they have to be willing to give up a big chunk of their lives and my goal is to share the reality of what it takes to raise littermates.

     Also, I disagree with the statement that most reputable breeders wouldn’t sell littermates; I know many reputable breeders who would have no trouble selling 2 puppies to us and I know they’ve done so in the past. They will do this with families who have experience with raising dogs, they have a very strict and actionable contract that they will act on should one or both of the puppies end up in the shelter system, and they all agree to take dogs back no matter the age or reason. I think the time they take to really analyze their buyers is what makes their success rate very high.

126. Roslyn on March 18, 2015 at 5:17 pm

     I know it’s several months after, but I just read this article when looking over different ones concerning littermates, I think it is fantastic that you did so well with your own and going over, you had the money, time and care to work with a pair of littermates. I just want to add, that you also need to consider all those “scary” sites do have good reasons, and most reputable breeders would never sell littermates, or two puppies to the same household for the fact that the dogs can end up with terrible separation anxiety, problems socializing and most people can’t handle the demand of taking care of two puppies. It’s a good article, but I think you push for more people to get littermates without realizing how many people could not handle it and don’t need the encouragement.

127. Mary Brian on February 11, 2015 at 1:29 am

     Thank you so much for sharing your stories! We have litter mates, Chokies-Bella and Opie. They don’t look related. Opie looks and acts more like their Mom, and Bella is just like Dad, tea cup Yorkie. We know both parents as well. They do fight a bit when we pick them up together or if they are in their pet carrier lately. They are now just over 4 months. We love them so much and are a joy! They are crate trained and we plan on getting separate crates this week. We should be starting dog training as well. Again, thank you for this website and all the valuable tips. Keep them coming.

128. Kimberly on January 30, 2015 at 7:43 pm

     I’m glad that I was helpful. Thanks for sending me this message, Larissa. It means a lot. I adore our dogs and couldn’t imagine rehoming them. I know for some that it’s the only option, but for us, we worked hard to make it work and it really was all about training ourselves.

129. Larissa on January 30, 2015 at 5:23 pm

     Thank you so much for you post. After losing my senior doberman, I decided to add 2 female doberman sisters to my family. We got them at 7 weeks old and I had never heard off littler mate syndrome until I went on a Facebook page for dobermans and you would think I had committed a crime by wanting 2 sisters! It terrified me that I would have to get rid of one since they are now 14 weeks old and very attached to me and my children. I researched it a little more and decided that they were all over reacting. I have had dogs all my life and a lot of the symptoms they talk about are normal multi dog issues. Your post was very helpful and reassured my thinking that my girls will have a healthy happy life,

130. Kimberly on December 22, 2014 at 8:59 am

     I wouldn’t be able to advise you on your dogs, because our trainer was evaluating our dogs. The benefit of working with a trainer is that they can not only explain your dogs’ behavior, but they can watch how you interact with your dog and give you tips, because they can see things that you can’t see.

     So find a trainer that you feel comfortable with and you’ll see things turn around with you and your puppies.

     Best of luck!

131. Bevin on December 21, 2014 at 7:31 pm

     Hi Kimberly,

     We blindly got littermates thinking, “oh they can keep each other company”. As soon as we brought them home we started reading about the “horrors” and recognized our ignorance. At 14 weeks we are in love with both of our lab/husky mixes, they are wonderful, but we are having some issues despite our best intentions and actions. They are no longer coming when we call them and are having lots of accidents in the house regardless of our previous progress. I wonder if you could share some of the insight that your trainer gave you about training? We try to separate them here and there, but it’s challenging. We can’t have them out together and spend time with them, because all they do is ruff-house and play with each other. When we have them out one at a time they are all cuddles and fun, but then the other starts whining. Any insight would be very helpful.
     Thank You,
     Bevin

132. Kimberly on September 10, 2014 at 6:59 am

     You did exactly the right thing. I think people who have difficulty with littermates simply bit off more than they could chew. I do admit that we may have been lucky with our first set, because we had enough people warning us that we found a dog trainer who could help. Today, I wonder if we hadn’t had those warnings, if we would have had a positive or negative experience.

133. Lewandowski on September 10, 2014 at 12:47 am

     It’s nice to get a fresh perspective like yours on littermate syndrome. I was considering picking up littermates before I picked up my first dog, Linus from the animal shelter. I ended up not bringing home two because of all the reasons you mentioned above. I consulted with many others just as you did and in the end the consensus was that it was a bad idea to bring home littermates.

134. Kimberly on July 30, 2014 at 1:05 pm

     Congratulations on the dogs and the potty training progress. I have found that are girls are harder to train than the boys. Rodrigo and Scout were trained within a couple months. The girls took longer – Sydney wasn’t fully potty trained until she was 4-5 months old. Zoey was about 4 months. The boys were trained at 3 months.

     Definitely stay in touch; it’s always helpful to share notes.

135. Michelle on July 30, 2014 at 12:43 pm

     What a wonderful website i’ve found! so thankful to be reading your experiences. i came home one month ago with two golden retrievers – Pepe and Lola. they are now three months old and i feel we are getting somewhere with them, at least in housetraining. we’re trying to do things with them separately as much as we can but a lot of patience is needed! i will continue visiting the site/blog as we progress in training them as i may need to ask you all for help 🙂 all the best-

136. Kimberly on June 28, 2014 at 4:10 pm

     Good luck, Julie!

137. Kimberly on June 28, 2014 at 3:58 pm

     I cannot tell you how many people I’m meeting who have had a positive experience with littermates; it makes me so happy. It’s nice to know that we weren’t just lucky.

138. Kelsie on June 28, 2014 at 1:13 pm

     My parents have adopted littermates twice now. They first set was two male Samoyeds followed by a male and female Bernese Mountain Dog. The Samoyeds fought occasionally, but it was always because of an error on our part. Maybe something high value was left out or we created a frustrating situation for them. The berners never fight. You’ll hear a growl out of the female every now and then when she gets annoyed with the male, but that’s it. I think getting littermates can be a wonderful experience for the right family.

139. julie on June 26, 2014 at 2:49 pm

     We are going to give it a try tonight. We’ll see how it goes. We met with the trainer on Monday, and got some advice, so hopefully it will go ok.

140. Kimberly on June 23, 2014 at 9:37 am

     I’m so excited for you two. Have fun and best of luck!!!
     Oh and thanks for the picture. So gorgeous.

141. julie on June 23, 2014 at 9:02 am

     We haven’t started yet. We are still getting our bedrooms ready for them. Our trainer friend is coming over later today to meet them and consult with us. We hope to change the sleeping arrangements very soon.

142. Kimberly on June 23, 2014 at 8:54 am

     Hi Julie – it’s me here to harass you – LOL
     Did the sleeping arrangements work out?

143. Kimberly on June 23, 2014 at 8:47 am

     I’m behind too – 150 blog posts behind. I’m slowly catching up by visiting 10 blogs a day, but people keep writing. LOL

     Great to see you again 🙂

     Is it kind of strange that I’ve been Googling “Littermate Syndrome” lately and leaving our experience? I’m not trying to tell people that they’re wrong, I’m just showing that there could be a way to succeed if you are up to the challenge.

144. Jen K on June 23, 2014 at 8:11 am

     There is some really good info here! (I’m behind and trying to at least catch up a little on my backlog of reading.)

     It’s funny because I think that most of the risks people warn about for littermates could be applied to any multi-dog household, especially when new dogs are adopted at the same time. For the most part, I’d just think having 2 new dogs to train and socialize (esp if puppies!) would be more work than I’d recommend the average person or family take on.
     Of course, if done right – as you have – it can be fine. But not everyone is so dedicated and dog-savvy!

145. julie on June 21, 2014 at 8:00 pm

     Thanks. I will let you know how it goes. We do know a trainer, and we will be talking to her soon
     I posted pics of my girls on your Facebook page
     Have a good night Kimberly

     Julie

146. Kimberly on June 21, 2014 at 7:49 pm

     I think you should try and separate them to see how they do. Rodrigo and Sydney slept together in the same crate until they were too big and then they slept in their own “room.” They slowly grew up and didn’t need to sleep together anymore and I can’t remember the last time they sought each other out.

     Scout and Zoey stopped sleeping together when they were about 3 months old. All of our dogs sleep in the house and they each have their favorite spot. I don’t know how they’d do without each other and I know that people say that we should keep them apart, but I happen to like that our dogs love being with each other.

     We also live on 5 acres and stick close to home so it works for our family. I don’t like dog parks and worry about the health and safety of our dogs in that environment.

     A lot of people wouldn’t agree with how we raise our dogs, but they’re happy and healthy and our trainer and vet approve. The one recommendation I have for anyone with littermates is to hire a dog trainer. Even if you don’t think you need one, hire one anyway. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes. Now that we have 4 dogs, it’s important that we keep order in our home and working with trainers for our dogs has really made a huge difference.

     Thanks for the comment and please let me know how the sleeping arrangements work out.

147. Julie on June 21, 2014 at 6:07 pm

     On Memorial Day I lost my 14 year old Rat terrier Casey . She had a stroke that night and they couldn’t save her. It hit me hard, and my Mother and I decided to get another dog very soon after. We decided we wanted to get two (one for each of us) So 2 weeks ago we found a Min pin breeder and we got two baby girls from the same litter. (They were born on April 15th, my Birthday. I took it as a sign) We are totally in love with them already . One is a red Merle Min pin and the other is a chocolate Merle Min pin. (Zoie and Ginger)
     Well, today I was looking online for advice on crate training when you have two puppies. I ran across a ton of those scary “Don’t adopt two litter mates” stories and it freaked me out. I was happy to come across this site, because I was feeling a bit uneasy. They seem to be fine so far, and we are trying to do things with them separately , so they get used to being apart. They have already bonded to both of us. They are so loving and adorable, and it would kill me to have to get rid of one of them. I would love to have a place to come to for advice and story telling so I make the right decisions for my girls. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. We will soon be separating them at night so we can sleep with them. I hope it will be an easy transition, but I worry they may whine without each other. My Rat terrier slept with me from the day I brought her home, but with these two, we decided to put them in a sleep pen at night until they get a bit older. They are 10 weeks old now, and I want to start them off on sleeping with us soon before it’s too late. Any advice on that would be great.

     Julie

148. Kimberly on June 20, 2014 at 1:45 pm

     Our dogs definitely have a hierarchy and it’ll be interesting to see if it remains. Having 2 established dogs made adding Scout and Zoey 100x easier – wow!

149. Tiffany's Diamond Dogs on June 20, 2014 at 12:16 pm

     Actually, I think litter mates are much easier! Litter mates tire each other out too, which is great 😉 But on a different, serious, note, I really don’t understand where most of these claims about litter mate trouble came from. Bella and her brother, Jack, were added to our family as litter mates. They had no trouble bonding to the people more than each other. Once my mom let the dogs sleep inside, Bella slept in my bed. The dogs would go for walks together (I would walk them together), and they would occasionally play together, but otherwise Bella would be much more interested in being with me and Jack would be with my mom or brother more than me. I also recently read in “Animals Make Us Human” by Temple Grandin, that litter mates are LESS likely to fight and jockey for positions. They’ll naturally defer to one another, and ours definitely did (though Bella was a more bold puppy, and Jack was a little more reserved, which is probably why Bella naturally became the leader). Dogs who are unrelated cause more fights because they are what Temple refers to as a “Forced Pack” (which is unrelated canids stuck together); the dogs have to come up with some form of hierarchy and then they have to all act accordingly in their agreement to keep the peace-and that too was definitely true. That was news to me, but it definitely made sense. When Terra came into the family at over a year old, she would start fights with Bella and jockey to be the top dog because she was also a bold personality. Once she accepted Bella as the canine leader, they got along much better. Bella lives separately from her brother now, but they seem just fine with it.
     So I definitely think litter mates are easier, though I don’t think I would do that by myself. Kudos to you for doing so and showing that litter mates ARE easy and that it definitely can be done 🙂

150. Kathy on June 16, 2014 at 8:36 pm

     Right, and my previous pair (they were just about a year apart in age) were both males as well, and never any problems — they were the best of friends; the three of us “moved as a unit” Lol! I still have the older of the two, he is 14, and all three males get along great. When my friend brings over his male chihuahua-mix, my three huge dogs submit to the chihuahua! He is totally in charge! LOL! So, four male dogs in one place, and the smallest one is the boss. Not to mention the two male cats, and the male husband. At this rate, I and my one female pet, Cali the calico cat, gotta stick together 🙂

151. Kimberly on June 16, 2014 at 8:16 pm

     I so agree with you and this can be applied to so many things in the pet world. I can’t tell you how many times people have tried to scare me away from various things by stating an opinion as fact.

152. Kimberly on June 16, 2014 at 8:15 pm

     Thank you so much for sharing your experience. This is amazing. Because another warning I heard was littermates of the same sex would be a problem, but I know people with 2 boys or 2 girls and they have no issues.

153. Kathy on June 16, 2014 at 5:33 pm

     I wrote on your Facebook page, but I’ll also say a comment here. I have littermates, and they are awesome. They are both males, and they “wrestle and rumble” together, but that is not fighting. I think humans (especially those inexperienced in reading dog behavior and dog “signals” and body language) mistake “wrestling and rumbling” for “fighting”. Remember that littermates have been tumbling and tussling together since they were old enough to see and walk. Sure, now they are larger and it seems like all noise and teeth, but they are just doing a large version of what they did before they were weaned. In our case, my two boys were the last two to be adopted from the litter. I got Charlie Brown, the very last dog — nobody wanted him because he was considered the alpha. He is a handful, but he has bonded with me, so that is just a myth. Cooper was returned to the rescue agency as “damaged goods” (he broke, and subsequently lost, a front leg). His original family didn’t want him. We adopted him after an afternoon reunion when it was clear that the two pups adored each other. Cooper has ALSO bonded with me. Yes, it is difficult to train them together, and I do credit Cooper’s original family with “helping” in that regard, since they had him during the housebreaking months. I have previous experience training two male dogs of similar age (not littermates) so it wasn’t something new to me. I think you need to be experienced, and you need to ignore the myths. Every one of those claims is a myth. Ok, yeah, they are expensive, but having just ONE pet is expensive LOL! Thanks for letting me share my feedback.

154. Pamela on June 16, 2014 at 5:18 pm

     So I had a problematic experience when I adopted litter mates. But I put the blame on not having much experience with dogs. Now I would know to do the things you did and I’m sure i would have missed many of the problems.

     Y’know, if people shared good advice for people who adopted litter mates instead of fear mongering, we’d probably all be much better off.

155. Kimberly on June 16, 2014 at 12:35 pm

     Oh I do too. I know that it’s hard for the puppies to be separated. When they’re in the house, they can be in separate rooms and when they’re outside, they’ll go off and do their own thing – but they’re always touching base during the day. Rodrigo and Sydney mourned when we lost Blue and when Sydney was resting because of her cruciate, she would cry when J took Rigo for a walk without her.

     But you’re right, our dogs form a circle around me when they think I’m being threatened. I always thought I had to protect them; we protect each other. Coyotes don’t come on our property anymore 🙂

156. Flea on June 16, 2014 at 8:59 am

     This always baffles me. My litter mates are 12 years old now and best friends. Yes, they’ve bonded with each other. I love that. I don’t have to worry, when I leave home, that they’re neurotically missing me. They have each other as best friends. But don’t let anyone come between Flash and his mama (me) or he’ll tear you apart. It’s wonderful, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

     I say that now. They’re both still alive. I fear the day the first one passes.

157. Kimberly on June 13, 2014 at 5:59 pm

     Thanks for sharing this, Bethany 🙂 That’s so sweet. I love learning about the long life of dogs, because I want all of ours to be with us forever.

158. Kimberly on June 13, 2014 at 5:50 pm

     I think with everything dogs, it’s all about education; we need to do more sharing and less scare tactics. If someone gets all of the information (good and bad) we give them more power to make a better choice.

159. Kimberly on June 13, 2014 at 5:49 pm

     That’s how I felt with Rodrigo and Sydney. When they would fight, it was because of something I did or failed to do. I learned a lot and we haven’t had problems with Scout and Zoey. They’ve never fought.

160. Colby on June 13, 2014 at 4:59 pm

     It’s nice to get a fresh perspective like yours on littermate syndrome. I was considering picking up littermates before I picked up my first dog, Linus from the animal shelter. I ended up not bringing home two because of all the reasons you mentioned above. I consulted with many others just as you did and in the end the consensus was that it was a bad idea to bring home littermates.

     Today I have 3 dogs in the house and they are all doing well, but I still wonder what it would have been like if I brought home Linus and one of his siblings.

161. Kimberly on June 13, 2014 at 7:36 am

     That’s totally the case. Scout is nearly 8 months old and we’re waiting for him to start challenging Rodrigo. Rigo has done a great job keeping him in line and he did challenge Sydney a couple times but she easily reminded him of his place without fighting. It’s part of how dogs communicate and as Rodrigo gets older, Scout will be able to move into the leader role if it’s open. I’ve always thought that it was my job to keep the peace – as long as I was alpha of our pack, then everything would be fine and it has been.

162. Jen on June 13, 2014 at 7:31 am

     I’ve never had litter mates but I have 2 dogs that are very expensive and had dominance issues in the past even though there is 2 years separating them. Am I missing something or isn’t that the case with many multiple dog households?

     Great and informative post!

163. Mason Canyon on June 13, 2014 at 6:15 am

     We have liter mates. Two of our English Shepherds are brothers and one is a half brother. We have had problems with them, but I think it falls back on us because they haven’t been neutered. The alpha of the two brothers and the half brother both want to be alphas. They were fine all 3 together for a few months and then the two started fighting. We keep them separate and all is well. We don’t regret getting liter mates. In fact, I’m glad they have their brothers with them.

164. Stacey on June 13, 2014 at 6:06 am

     I have had liter mates twice. I never had any trouble with Noel and Reba but we did all the things you did too. They were very close but I never thought their bond was stronger than mine.
     Toby and Prince were my next set. Toby was my dog and Prince was my daughter’s but she brought him back to us when she was having life issues. At first, since they had lived apart a year, we had some issues but with guidance they resolved themselves. They became very close but again, it did not affect my relationship with them.
     Toby died of cancer last year and that was rough on Prince. Prince was depressed and felt lost for awhile after his brother died but he has adjusted.
     I am not an expert but I’ve had multiple non-litter mates and I do not think it is much different with litter mates. Yes, there can be aggression issus but that can happen with any dogs. My worse two for fighting were Champ and Prince but they were not litter mates. Yes, there can be depression if seperated later but again that happens to all dogs. Nadie was depressed too when Toby died and she was not his litter mate.
     I agree with you that if you are aware of what can happen and actively work to avoid it, there is no reason not to have litter mates. I also agree that the biggest issue with litter mates is the cost while they are puppies and being trained but I think it is well worth it.

165. Jana Rade on June 12, 2014 at 11:24 pm

     It seems not all litter mates succumb to this syndrome but when they do it can get quite ugly. Particularly in how closely they bond to each other, ignoring the rest of the world and unable to be separated. Glad you guys were able to avoid this problem.

166. Samantha Vermillion on June 12, 2014 at 10:53 pm

     Hi,

     Yes, i agree with you completely. Adopting a little doesn’t cost a little, infact it is very expensive. Some ignore the budget for food and health care of our pets before adopting, then they fall into issues.

     Thanks for sharing.

167. Bethany on June 12, 2014 at 12:54 pm

     My family got litter mate huskies when I was a pre-teen. They were expensive (there was no pet insurance back then) and they did fight occasionally (which was expensive.) But even though they loved each other, they were very bonded to the family and had no issues with eventually living apart: one sister was my mother’s the other was my brothers and he took his with him to college as soon as he were able. To attest to their happy, litter mate quality of life, my mom’s husky lived to 15 (taken by cancer) and my brother’s girl left us peacefully just one month before her 18th birthday.