Litter Mate Syndrome Explained
Littermate
Syndrome - A Trainer's Perspective
Getting two dogs at the same time seems like an amazing idea. Dogs are social animals, and two puppies can entertain each other and keep each other company. So, what’s the problem with bringing home two puppies at the same time? Professional trainers like myself highly recommend against bringing home two young dogs around the same age, especially two from the same litter. While this sounds like a good plan at first, in reality it more often than not causes a lot of issues including aggression.
In addition
to the issues one might expect with bringing home two pups like double
food and vet costs and double the training work, new puppy also owners need to
focus on how the puppies will develop. Puppies’ brains continue developing
until they achieve full sexual maturity (and after that for a short time), and there’s extensive amounts of research that suggests bringing two puppies home at the same time
prevents one, or both, of the puppies from ever being able to reach his or her full potential.
thankfully for us trainers, this topic has been researched extensively by someone who has extensive knowledge pertaining to creating behaviorally sound puppies. Guide Dog Organizations.
In order fully use their puppy raisers, one Guide Dog Organization opted to try an experiment. Willing homes were given two puppies to raise. This would double the amount of puppies the guide dog organization would be able to work with. Dog's born to these organizations are always temperament tested before being placed and are tracked throughout their development & growth to ensure the best results.
What the
organization discovered was very shocking. Placing two puppies in the same
household always caused at least one puppy to become temperamentally unsuitable
for work, even when both puppies started off as perfect candidates. Even after proper precautions were put in place, the same results occurred.
When two
puppies live together, they learn to become dependent on each other. One of the puppies always
becomes shy, even if both puppies started off as bold and outgoing. This is a large issue, since it means that the shy puppy will never reach their full potential. In fact, this was such a large issue that the guide dog
experiment was stopped as soon as possible, and to this day Guide Dog Organizations will only place
one dog at a time in puppy raisers’ homes. This hold true even when the homes are highly
experienced.
Some other effects of Littermate Syndrome:
- The shy puppy becomes
increasingly withdrawn and never reaches potential
- Often even the “bold” puppy
turns out to be quite nervous and uncertain when separated
- The puppies often become
incredibly co-dependent and start exhibiting high anxiety when separated
- They often fail to bond to their
human family as strongly as they otherwise would, if at all.
- At social maturity, these
puppies may begin fighting with one another, often quite severely.
Even
non-sibling puppies can exhibit Littermate Syndrome when placed together.
Professional
trainers recommend against getting two puppies within six months of one
another, because the risks are just too high. This doesn’t even take into
consideration the other practical considerations, such as the increased costs
of vet care, food, supplies, and training; the extra work of training and
caring for two dogs; or the time requirements of two active puppies.
Can
littermate syndrome be prevented?
Theoretically,
yes, however it’s so difficult as to be nearly impossible in
practice. Remember, even experienced guide dog puppy raisers aren’t expected to
be able to prevent this issue from developing. At a bare minimum, the two
puppies would need to be crated and cared for separately, including separate
walks, training classes, and playtime with their owners. The puppies need to
have more one-on-one time with their new owners than they have with each other,
effectively doubling the work and negating any of the possible benefits (i.e.
companionship) that they were adopted together for in the first place.
Bottom
Line: we absolutely
know that puppies do best when brought home separately. If you want multiple
dogs, consider purchasing or adopting adult dogs who are already done
developing instead.
How to prevent LMS:
· Give the puppies
periodic time apart every single day. That means they should be regularly
walked separately, played with separately, and trained separately.
·
Do not allow the pups
to share a crate.
·
Feed meals separately,
and out of two separate bowls.
·
Remember that both
dogs are individuals. They will have unique personalities, may be motivated
differently, and may have different energy levels and quirks.
·
Bond with the puppies
individually, so that they are able to focus on you and not solely with each
other.
·
Socialize the puppies heavily between 8-16 weeks of age. They
must meet people and other animals without their sibling present, and should be
taken to novel locations separately. Worried about vaccines? Take a look at the
American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior's recommendations.
- When you crate the dogs make sure that you utilize an
individual crate for each dog and never crate them together. You can start
off with the crates right next to each other to ease the separation
anxiety. If the dogs do well, you should slowly start moving the
crates to opposite sides of the room and then to different areas of the
house. This will help the dogs start to feel independent.
- Obedience train each dog without the other dog around.
The goal is to ensure that each dog forms a strong individual bond with
the owner. If attending obedience classes we recommend that you enroll
each puppy in a different class.
- Plan outings with each dog individually. Take the dogs
to parks, pet stores, or any public place on their own! The goal is
to individually socialize each dog to new experiences while they are
relying on the owner and not the other dog. You will want to individually
expose each dog to anything that they might see when they are adults.
This includes; strollers, bikes, shopping carts, cars, trains,
people with different characteristics (beards, glasses, hoodies, different
skin colors, etc) and various types of dogs.
- Take a walk where each dog has a different handler.
After walking together for a few moments, walk the dogs off in
opposite directions and see how they react. If they do not do well
and are stressed, make sure to flag the behavior and create a training
plan to fix it.
- Train the dogs within sight of each other and practice
moving in and out of sight.
- Make sure the dogs can properly meet new dogs and
people when they are together. As mentioned above the littermates
tend to feed off of each others energy. So when meeting a new person or
dog, any excitement or fear will be amplified by having the other
littermate present.
- It is important at this stage to continue some
individual training/socialization trips as well as planning joint outings.
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