training 2 puppies successfully

Question
I have two 8 week old german shephard puppies, one male, the other female.  They seemed to be inseparable!  Both are doing relatively well learning to potty train better everyday.  I take them for a walk 2 times a day for about 10 minutes each time.  The male seems to heel very well and stay by my side.  The female on the other hand pulls ahead and constantly attacks and distracts the male.  How do I fairly and successfully train the two?  Should I separate their walks for now, training one to walk on the left and the other on the right?  Help!  
Secondly, my female also has few "lesions" possibly 4mm x 4mm in diameter around her pelvic and to the sides of her vaginal area.  Looks like an irritation of some sort.  The male does not appear to have any skin problem.  Are there other avenues beside "food allergies" that may cause this?  Help!  Thanks again for all your help and knowledge.

Answer
Hi Angela,  First off, before you can train two dogs to work together (it's called brace training), you need to teach them separate first.  So you need to train each one alone, find out which one is the dominate (which will probably be the female from what you are describing) and then train them together in brace.  You use what is called a coupler to connect them together.  You should have the dominate dog next to you, and the more submissive on the outside.  The dominate dog will guide off of you, and the submissive will guide off of the dominate when they walk and work together.  

Your female has a small infection, possible caused by her urine.  Very common in female puppies as they haven't learned how to keep themselves clean yet.  You can keep her washed and apply a triple anitbiotic ointment on it until it heals.  Its sort of like a diaper rash, so you can use the old-fashioned method of cornstarch after the legions heal a little.

Hope this helps, and good luck,

Dawn