These two are sisters from the same litter. They are 8 months old. We've had Aimee (top) since she was 8 weeks old. We adopted her sister, Ayla, just a few weeks ago. I met both these puppies when they were 7 weeks old and, other than color, they pretty much looked alike. So I was stunned when I went to meet (then) 7 month old Ayla and she looked so completely different from what I was expecting. I expected her to be of similar size and build as Aimee, just a little darker. But everything about her is totally different. Ayla has a narrower head, longer, floppier ears, shorter legs, thicker, softer coat, and more. Ayla is also a few inches shorter and 10lbs lighter than Aimee. Their personalities are polar opposites too. Aimee is my ADHD child, super energetic, excitable, and "mentally deaf" (super hard to get her attention when she's interested in something else!) most of the time. Ayla is really mellow, sensitive, and responsive. If I didn't know better, I would not believe these two were related at all! Who else here has had littermates so very different from each other?
When I did puppy socialisation classes, there were two labradoodle litter mates who looked entirely different from each other at the age of about 14 weeks. One looked like a flat coated retriever/saluki cross and the other was all curly. It was fascinating to me!
I’d be interesting to know if purebred littermates usually look alike. Have you seen the parents? My sister has a brother and sister whose mother was a purebred husky and father was half Lab, quarter Rottie, and quarter Belgian Shepherd. The littermates look totally different - to be expected I suppose, they could take after Mom or Dad - one is smooth haired and husky-looking, the other fluffy and looks like a Golden Retriever. Funny thing tho is the husky lookalike has perfect recall (nothing like a husky) and the fluffy one comes when it suits him. Both have incredibly sweet personalities.
What do you know about the sire? If the sire and dam are very different (one working and one show line for example), then the pups can be quite varied. Or the other possibility is multiple sires in the same litter. My boy Brogan came from a rescue litter which had three sires with the one 100% Rottie dam. Didn't know that when the litter was small, but those of us who stayed in touch as they grew to adults could tell that there were clearly three 'daddies': (1) pure Rottie, (2) pit bull and (3) mystery mix (probably Lab/Rottie). Brogan was from door number 3, but the litter's foster mom kept a female puppy and she was clearly from door number 2!
Ella is a pedigree lab from a show dad and a pet mum. Ella and her sister look completely different (in my opinion). Here is Ella And here is her sister Obi Obi got the more traditional, broader head and bone structure and, I believe that she is shorter than Ella (Ella is probably just on, or just above breed standard). I think Obi looks much more like their "brother" from same parents but different litter Ella was desexed at 6 months, both other dogs are intact. I've always wondered if that has something to do with it...
It is possible to have two different fathers in one litter. Some breeders do this on purpose. http://www.akc.org/expert-advice/news/feature/stud-double/
It's those pesky recessive genes. If you had a DNA test done and your sister also had one done, they would not be the same..... It's why Show breeders use inbreeding and line breeding to get the conformity in their litters.
That would certainly make sense with mixed breeds. But these are AKC registered purebred labs so I just expected them to look more similar. But, yeah, there's all variety of lab so characteristics could appear from generations ago in one and not the other I suppose.
What? I'm a future show line breeder - I haven't bred a litter yet, but I will in the future. Show breeders are no more likely to inbreed than working line dog breeders seeking working characteristics. To be honest, in my experience, show breeders are less likely to risk health consequences of doing so and a great deal more educated about the risks.
I remember when we picked out Tilly, there was quite a bit of difference in size and personality between the pups. Knowing what I do now I realize the size of Pups is not necessarily a good indication of how big they will grow up to be. (Cooper was 5.5# at 7 weeks, and Tilly was 7.5# at the same age. Tilly weighs 68# now and Cooper is 80#) Cooper is bigger than her mom and at least as big as her dad, but I believe she was the runt of the litter. Both Tilly and Coopers litters only had one dad. I wish I could see some of the other dogs from either litter, to see how much alike they were, in both size, shape and personality.
It was not a slam on the Show Breeders but it is a fact here in the U.S. that in-breeding and line-breeding are done to achieve conformity. The issue is not that it is done, it is when it done for too many generations which leads to genetic issues. All one needs to do is look at the common relatives in a four generation pedigree to see such breedings.....many breeders are moving away from it now but it IS still done...it is how Breeders develop their distinctive lines.
