Raising 2 puppies

Question
We recently just got 2 puppies, they are pug, beagle mix, one male and one
female both 8 weeks old but the male is two days older and they are really
great dogs, but I noticed the male is less friendly than the female, we try and
play with him, but he tends to seem uninterested, when i pet him he tends to
back up, other than that he is a great dog, When we first got them a week and
two days ago the female would try and take all teh attention if we were
playing with the male she would squeeze her way in, and if we pet him or he
was laying on our laps she would sit on top of him to get the attention, Could
this be why he is reluctant to play or be petted by us? If so what can we do to
change it, we have been trying to play with him alone , while the female
sleeps or we will take her outside and play with him inside, or the other way
around

also the two dogs do fight or play, im not really sure i think it is all fighting
but my boyfriend says that it is play sometimes. Is there a way to stop the
fighting sometime one will squeal out loud but they dont stop, should we get
in the middle or just let them work it out,

Thank you for any help

Answer
It is possible the male received less attention before you got him, and just doesn't relate to people as well.  At 8 weeks, he should quickly learn to accept attention.  This is an important time for puppies.  If he was left go until 12 weeks, it could be a much bigger problem.  

Young Labs, which I know best, and other puppies tend to very bad about
biting.  You see a litter of them, and all the ones that are awake are biting
another one or themselves.  I am not even sure they realize that when they are
alone, if they quit biting, they would quit being bitten.  At 3 to 4 months
they are getting their adult teeth, and it seems they spend every waking
moment biting or chewing.  I maintain a Lab's favorite chew toy is another
Lab.  Otherwise they settle for any person they can.  I wouldn't worry about the fighting.  The yelps could be from one or the other being removed from their litter too soon.  They can only learn to play nice by playing with other dogs.  This is a link to a picture of a German Shepherd I had and a visiting lab.  They were enjoying having another younger dog to play with.  Gretchen was the only dog we had, and Ella lived with a couple of other Labs that were too old to play like that.  http://www.photolocker.net/images/Labman/gretchenandellaplaying.jpg