littermates syndrome hype???

Question
Hi, Our boys, 8 & 6 years old, recently acquired two littermate golden retriever puppies when they were 6 weeks old.  One is male, Scamp, and the other is female, Shiloh, and they are now 9 months old. They cleared their first vet visit and everything seems to be going great.  They seem ahead of schedule with potty training in a confined penned area.  We thought getting littermates would help them not have separation anxiety when left alone, which is not often, as they are indoor and we both work from home and homeschool.  The dogs exhibited no anxiety when they came
and as they seemed to be content to sleep together.  Shiloh is a feisty agile female, and Scamp is more clumsy and laid back but starting to become bigger than Shiloh.  I can't tell who is going to be top dog, yet.  They play fight and sometimes it escalates to someone getting angry growling and someone yelping cause they got hurt.  I saw this as natural puppy behavior learning how to fight via play.  However, when I went online to see how much of this I should allow, wondering if it would ever become a problem when they got older, I ran into a lot of scarry "littermate syndrome" stories.  Now I'm wondering about the wisdom of our purchase, and how serious or prevalent this is? It would already cause significant heartache to the boys if one of them had to give up their long awaited puppy, so I prefer to help work things out...if even there is a problem.  When will I know if there is?  Some of the things we have going for us, is that they are indoor, they get a lot of attention from us and the boys, they each have a boy assigned to caring for them, and they seem to really like eachother.  We are also willing to take them to training school...although we need to know what age is appropriate for teaching them the basics.  We have started to try to separate them some, but notice that they do have anxiety about being separate unless they are receiving one on one human attention, which we are willing to do.  However, nights seem to be more bearable if we just let them sleep together, because separating them to sleep seems to make them so anxious that they bark and bark and pee in their crates, not to mention keep us up.  Animals like to cuddle, so it seems counter intuitive to separate them for sleep even though that was the suggested anti litermate syndrome instructions.  It seems that by separating them at night and causing the anxiety, I'm ushering in the dreaded problem.  If it ain't broken...don't fix it.  In otherwords, I don't want to create a problem we don't have.  Okay...hope I've given you plenty of information.  Basically, I need to know how serious and common this problem is, what the chances are for us having this problem, and what guidelines should we follow.  Also, when is the age that we can start taking them to behavior training classes?  And if you recommend us taking them separately? Thanks for your help in helping this pack become a uplifting thriving experience for all.- Dorothy

Answer
It's not a really uncommon issue. The rivalry issues tend to be a lot worse if the littermates are the same sex, especially both females. One quick point and I'll get on to the main issue. Shiloh IS spayed, isn't she? You definitely don't want brotherxsister puppies. And dogs have no sense of incest. It's good that each dog has their own child, and I hope the boys spend lots of time with the dogs individually. The problems you are most likely to run into are that the dogs will be more attached to each other than to human members of the family. And that they will become highly stressed if separated from each other. I'd give them a lot of fair and consistent rules in the home, and make sure that they have a chance to interact with the humans and live separate lives. Training class is an excellent idea. And I would enroll them in different classes (even though that may be less convenient). At home, practice separating them for brief periods of time, and then longer. Have individual training session, individual walks, and their own feeding stations. I would crate train them and gradually move them to sleeping in their own crate. Start now, and I'd be looking for a good positive class asap. Be proactive. Don't expect problems but keep an eye on how things are going between them. Is one becoming more bossy, and the other more introverted? Are they unduly anxious if separated? If you have friends with dogs, and both pups are well mannered, you might send one of them away for a sleep-over with another canine pal. Sending one pup to a good daycare occasionally might also be helpful (they have other dogs, and lots of activity, but not their "other") The problem can be severe in some cases, and so mild it's barely noticable in other cases. If you start training them, managing them and giving them their own individual lives, chances are you can have the latter. And if you insist that they learn to be less dependent on each other now, later - at maturity - you won't need to worry about that as much. Best luck. Sandy Case MEd CPDT www.positivelycanine.com