Littermate Syndrome

[ellz]

Throwing this out to the wider DOL community……

 

scenario is Chihuahua littermates, 2 x males.  Went to new homes at 14 weeks, now 17 weeks.  Both puppies live in same household but have different owners.

 

Puppies are fed separately but have access to each other during the day for play.  At night both choose to go to own areas of the house, own beds and own owners.  They have to squeeze between the bars of baby gates to do so, so it’s a very conscious act.  The same automatic separation applies when sitting on the couch watching television. Each puppy is normally found next to, or on, their human.

 

one of the puppies is taken out regularly in the car with his human and will soon be starting at doggy school (albeit beginners because he’s too old for puppy classes).

 

both puppies play well with the other critters in the house (doggos and kittehs) and know their names.

 

Is there anything else that can be done for these guys to eliminate the risks of littermate syndrome?

[Mairead]

Are they both entire males, both neutered or some other variation of this? 

What is the main concern you have?

[sandgrubber]

As an oldie, I think of littermate syndrome as a recently invented worry fad, seldom mentioned before the internet became popular.  Personally I wouldn't worry about it.  Sure, with any two intact males, especially in a feisty breed, you have to be alert to conflict, and prepared to head it off at earliest sign.  I'm not convinced that separating them before adolescence is helpful.  

[DogsAndTheMob]

40 minutes ago, sandgrubber said:

As an oldie, I think of littermate syndrome as a recently invented worry fad, seldom mentioned before the internet became popular.  Personally I wouldn't worry about it.  Sure, with any two intact males, especially in a feisty breed, you have to be alert to conflict, and prepared to head it off at earliest sign.  I'm not convinced that separating them before adolescence is helpful.  

I agree that the problems of Littermate Syndrome are exaggerated. I’ve even seen it used to castigate people who raise two unrelated puppies of different ages together. Back in the 1970s, my mother and I raised and trained littermate German Shepherd brothers and competed successfully with them in Obedience. (My mother’s dog became an Obedience Champion.)

 

Episode 2 of Puppy Culture potluck is an interesting discussion of Littermate Syndrome. 

 

 

[The Spotted Devil]

I think it's less about "littermates" but having 2 puppies that are potentially of a similar size, age, disposition, confidence level etc etc. When a new puppy (of my breeding) joins my household the other bitches will have different relationships with her but she is clearly going to be submissive to them. I do notice that when I have pups of my breeding back to stay, littermates avoid each other and there is some level of tension when they interact, whereas the half-sisters play and hang out together a lot more. It's different when it's males and females. It's also going to be different across breeds and lines. I would not sell 2 puppies to the same household given my own experiences. The owners sound like they are doing the right thing - different puppy classes definitely help too - with younger puppies it's about confidence so learning to deal with the world on their own without falling back on their littermate is really important.

[coneye]

Whats littermate syndrome , what i have read is two pups , two owners , same houshold , dogs  get on well and play ,  dogs  have each bonded with there own owners , just like you would hope  , whats the problem at the moment , i can see two future problems maybee , but maybee not only time will tell .

problem 1 ---- males they may fight when older

problem 2---- if houshold splits up , one misses the other .

 

Other than that whats the problem

[DogsAndTheMob]

This is from memory because I can’t find the original info…Back in the 60s and 70s, guide dog organisations sometimes placed two puppies from the same litter into the same home to be raised. When the puppies came back for evaluation and training, they found that those puppies had a higher failure rate than puppies that had been placed in homes separately from all their littermates. They hypothesised that puppies placed with littermates became so bonded to their littermates that they didn’t relate well to people.

Edited September 2 by DogsAndTheMob

[Rebanne]

I sold a brother and sister to the one person. No problems there. Depends on the breed and the owners ability.

[DogsAndTheMob]

28 minutes ago, Rebanne said:

I sold a brother and sister to the one person. No problems there. Depends on the breed and the owners ability.

That’s been my experience too. My mother and I raised littermates in the same home - twice. All four earned high level Obedience titles, including one Obedience Championship.

 

I suspect that the littermate bond wouldn’t be a problem in a lot of pet homes. Busy families might be happy to have dogs that can entertain themselves by playing together.

Edited September 3 by DogsAndTheMob

[DogsAndTheMob]

3 hours ago, coneye said:

 

problem 1 ---- males they may fight when older

As an aside, if you are thinking of getting two dogs, be aware that a lot of experienced dog people say that male dogs often make a lot of noise when fighting, but female dogs may do a lot more damage. My very limited experience of dog fights supports this.