Helpful Information

Unfortunately littermate syndrome is one of these things that a lot of people are unaware of until it is too late.

So what is littermate syndrome? 

Well this is where you have two puppies or more and raise them together which can cause some behaviour problems. This is more common if you have puppies from the same litter. 

What are the behaviour problems that come from littermate syndrome?

They are more likely to bond with each other than with people, so this can cause reactivity towards people and other dogs. This can be a form of barking, growling, trying to hide, and even biting.

Also they can become fearful if separated from their companion and a lack of independence.

What can I do to help prevent littermate syndrome?

Not all siblings or puppies raised together will get littermate syndrome but the best way to prevent this is to train the puppies, each puppy has their own space to sleep and also walk them separately just until they gain confidence being apart. This will help them bond with you more other than each other. 

What is enrichment 

Enrichment is where we provide different activities that can stimulate the dog's senses, body and mind. These things can improve a dog's quality of life, by preventing boredom when left for long periods of time at home. It can help with building your dog conference and mental stimulation is critical to a dog's health.

Here are some things you can do at home for enrichment:

. Use a snuffle mat to feed your dog or you can just put some treats in for them to find.

.Put some food in a kong or any other feeding toy. You can put stuff like dog friendly peanut butter or yogurt with some other bits of food and to make it last longer you can freeze it.

.Roll some food or treats in a toll and tie it.

.You can play “find it” with a toy. This is where you get a toy that is only used for this game and go into another room and hide it, you then let your dog in and tell them to find and reward them when they do. To get the dog to understand the game you may need to start off simple with them in the room at first then make it more difficult as they get better.

Enrichment games are good for mentally tiring your dog out as dogs should get between 12 to 17 hours of sleep a day. You can get behaviour problems due to a dog being over tired.

We offer behaviour modification programmes that are designed to help dogs overcome unwanted behaviours such as separation anxiety, and fear. I use a combination of training techniques to help dogs learn new coping mechanisms and develop positive associations.

The most important thing to understand with any behaviour modification program is that it will take time to change any behaviour. It is not like on the TV where they fix all the dog problems in 10 minutes, it can take weeks, months and sometimes years depending on the dog and how long they have been doing it for or even the breed can be a big factor.

When using the exciton method the dog will likely experience what is known as an excision burst. This is where the dog may have stopped doing the unwanted behaviour then all of a sudden it comes back and worse. The most important thing to remember is to stick to your training program as it will stop again as long as you don't reinforce it or quit.