By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 19:03:53 +0000

Fantastic article, and spot-on. I’ve read many similar articles, because I keep butting heads with misinformed rescue/shelter workers who continue to propagate this silly dogma (pun intended). They may be well-meaning, but they’re misinformed and they think they have some kind of expertise because they work with dogs all day. But they’re qualifications are actually quite lacking and their information is quite unscientific. They never understand the difference between causation and correlation. I’ve adopted two sets of feline littermates and three sets of canine littermates, and none of the exhibited any “syndrome”. I think the reason is because we naturally (common sense?) followed all of your advice in this article. Yes, humans are more likely the cause of behavior issues, and those issue would have likely occurred if the dogs were NOT littermates. So the cause is not genetics; the behavioral issues are likely to be a combination of other factors, starting with their human’s behaviors and/or training abilities.

Comments on: Littermate Syndrome in Dogs: Is It Fact or Fiction?

By: Rick