Two years ago today, we had to choose which of the litter was to come home with us. Six and a half week old bundles of gorgeousness and mischief. We chose our little girl, Willow: Of course, we then had to wait another week and a half for her to come back with us. We weren't to know then that the little boy we rejected would also end up with us later on: Today, they aren't quite the same little bundles they once were, but they're my joy, my heart and my life.
It was such a hard choice to choose between them. J kept saying we should just take both, but I knew that wasn't a good idea due to potential litter mate syndrome. In the end, another couple we vaguely know decided to take him. Being born in rural France, there weren't the numbers of people wanting pedigree Labradors that they'd have had if they had been born in Scotland (where the parents were originally from). So, when we found out that the family had decided that it wasn't the right time for a puppy after all, we figured it was fate, and so we decided to take him, too. I was paranoid about LMS, so put in lots and lots of work to ensure that they had plenty of time apart, and I think that the six weeks that we had with Willow alone, before Shadow came to us, helped enormously. I always say to people, I wouldn't change them for the world, but I would never have litter mates again, either! The constant worry that you may have to re-home one of them if they become aggressive toward one another, plus all the extra work you have to put in to try to ensure that doesn't happen, not to mention trying to train two puppies - then adolescents! - at the same time. Man, it's exhausting.
I didn't know there was such a thing as "litter mate syndrome". I just thought it wasn't a good idea to get two pups at once because (1) they bond with each other instead of you, and (2) flat out EXHAUSTION of humans involved from having two pups! Still, sounds like you weathered the storm and ended up with two great dogs.
I'm not sure how based in evidence LMS is. That doesn't mean to say I don't believe it exists, I do, I just wonder how much is down to the owners' lack of care or time. "They" say that, when you have two pups at the same time, at least one will never reach its full potential. I think that Guide Dogs found this when they historically housed litter mates together with puppy walkers. So, even if there's no aggression between them, that could still hold true. Since I don't have a benchmark, I couldn't say whether it's true for mine. But I do know the masses of work I put in, which I am sure is far above and beyond what the average person would do. And I still know wholeheartedly that they would be far "better' in terms of their training if I just had one. Simply because there just aren't enough hours in the day! W&S are very strongly bonded with both me and my husband, and on the surface don't seem massively strongly bonded to each other - they don't sleep together, ever, because Willow likes her space. They're quite happy to be separated when one goes out without the other, and can mooch separately when on the same walk. However, Shadow does get very protective/possessive/jealous of other dogs interacting with Willow. Would this be any different if they weren't litter mates? I don't know. It would probably be vastly different if they were very well socialised, but the fact of our life is that they don't see other dogs very often. So it's impossible to tell how much things like that can be attributed to lifestyle and how much to the fact they were brought up together. I have to say, I had it easy with these two. They were both delightful puppies. I never had a crocopup stage with Shadow, and Willow's wasn't too bad, and was over by 14 weeks. Toilet training was a bit of a chore with Willow, but that's not the end of the world. Adolescence wasn't too horrible, because I knew what to expect and I just kept going back to basics with training. That's not to say it was always sunshine and lollypops; there were times when I was humiliated walking down the street with two lunging maniacs pulling in opposite directions, and always when the people you least wanted to see it were out. I had the odd particularly awful walk where I'd come and spill my guts on here, but generally, they were very good pups! I don't know how I'd have lasted with two more challenging dogs. We've had a few visitors recently at our new place, and all of them have commented on how well W&S look, both physically and emotionally. Their breeders came over for a day and they said, "they look so happy!!!". And that's what it's all about Sorry, I've waffled on far too long, but that's because, like pretty much everyone on here, I could talk about my dogs all day and night
Wasn't he, though?! Amazing to think that, not long after this, he was a skinny little monkey that struggled to gain weight! His head is far too small for his body there
This was an artichoke flower she had just stolen from the vegetable patch and taken back to her "lair" - you can make out the yellow bits on the photo - that's the branches from the huge willow tree she loved to play under, and that she was named after
