I am happy they are together because I don’t have to meet their emotional and physical needs (like running). I don’t want to be the center of their universe, they can make their own decisions, they know the rules I patiently taught them.

I love both of them and I have a strong bond with each. I feel they love me unconditionally as they don’t need anything from me. They can hunt, they don’t need my food, so they don’t cuddle with me for the food I give them.

This article only lightly touched on aggression. My understanding is that it’s a real thing as they get older. Our dogs can get out of hand if we don’t keep an eye on them. I think reigning in aggressive play early on has made a huge difference from what I have been reading.

Thanks for sharing your experience, Louise ❤️. So sorry to hear you had a bad experience with dog trainers. 🙁

We have 2 yellow lab puppies. Got them from a breeder. They never recommended not to get 2. We didnt research getting 2. Eight after we got them we realized something was wrong. Wrong being they were always fighting. They dont settle down. They didnt hurt each other though. They are 8 months old now. Looking for some advice. We crate them separately. When they are oit of their crate in a play area or on the pool deck we play with them separately. They get rowdy together. It seems way too rowdy. Almost abnormal. Thing is we feel like we can’t let them roam around the house or a bigger area…. we have to take turns. We literally set timers to take turns

Hi Claudette,

I heard that if you buy treats, and to be very discreet from the other puppy i.e. take them out to “do your stuff” one at a time and as soon as they piddle on the grass give them the treat within 3 seconds or they’ll not understand. And don’t let the other puppy see the treat given to the other or he’ll think he deserves one too and forget to piddle and just want the treat. Then take the other one separately and do the same. Apparently, they’ll associate getting a treat by going outside to “do your stuff”.

Now, that said, We have not tried this yet, we just heard about the idea today. What we’ve been doing is putting them each on a leash; take them together; being so young, they didn’t know how to walk on a leash but they’re learning; one would roll and the other I would drag ever so slightly to the steps of the porch; yes they had to learn to use the steps; and surprisingly they did learn. I broke my hand, its in a cast; after falling again trying to carry them down the steps at 4AM; I had to ask my family not to carry them anymore and to use their leashes 100%. This has really helped me.

Our two lab pups are now 9 weeks old, same litter, we brought them home at 6 weeks; they sleep in the same crate right now and they stay in the same pin together during the day and I have the help of two children and a husband. We just bought a book written by Richard Wolters called, “Family Dog”. apparently 10 minutes with each dog a day, repeatedly; this means 20 minutes of your time you will have two well trained dogs in 16 weeks of repetition training. It’s a book designed for training your dog from puppy stage.

You wrote this in April so I may be a little late with my reply…but stay with it. Labs are super smart dogs. The book was recommended by one of my husbands customers who has also trained two pups from the same litter. She’s the one who also recommended the treat for potty training. We use the piddle pads in the pin; one likes to lay on it like its a comforter and the other piddles on it sometimes and yesterday I cleaned the slate floor about 8 times…even though we’re taking them outside, and they are piddling in the grass; they’re still having accidents. They have torn apart the piddle pad a few times too. So, I bought some better chew toys to help occupy them; a small Kong, a kong ball and a kong tire. each has a treat in it. They like to fight for what the other has but soon take full attention to the chew.

I must say, some days are better than others. We stop giving them water by 6PM should probably stop at 4. Bu,t this is Houston, TX so we’re careful to make sure they get plenty during the day. They eat 3X a day 3oz per meal each. Dry food.

Don’t fret about the breeder environment… I heard it can happen even in the best environments. Ours too came home with giardia parasites 4+ count… but the breeder environment was clean and she lived on a beautiful ranch and the puppies and mother stayed in a clean air conditioned building so I don’t blame her…the mother most likely drank standing water from a puddle with all the rain we’ve had and the puddle had parasites in it and her milk spread it to the whole litter; we notified her so she could let the other new puppy owners know to get them checked and she paid for our vet bill. She was shocked too to find out because none of the other owners called and her vet did not find it before we picked them up…but one of our little guys had a bad cold too and when his sniffles and coughs seemed concerning after day 2 we rushed him in to the vet hospital. Our older Yellow Lab was on a farm and all the puppies were kept in a caged pin and they jumped and peed/pooed all over each other and he came home parasite free… the farm was nice but their environment was nothing like the one we picked up our new White English lab pups from. Things happen and we’re all just very thankful we were able to catch it early and give them medicine. They had tapeworms too and the little guy also had to take Amoxicillin for his little cold. But 10 days later all is well.

Back to training – Do consider getting two crates; we plan to get the 2nd crate and separate them at around 3 months; we’re going to let the crates face each other. The boys do have rough play together which concerns me, but I believe my son and daughter and my husband and I spend a lot of time bonding with them so they are getting plenty of family time. My husband keeps reminding me they’re young, with 00% raw behavior, everything is new to them; we’ve started discouraging their rough behavior over the last few days. Separating them; only to have them do straight back to tearing into each other…my son (9) has started this new hissing noise which gets a response so we all use the hiss noise now too. I think consistency is the key.

We got them June 22, (6 weeks old) during the summer, on purpose, so the kids could have time to bond and help before school starts; Although we’d hoped for the April litter we ended up with the May; I googled “training litter mates” and found this article and it seems quite concerning…but what can you do? We have two litter mates.

We’ll wait for the new training book to arrive Sunday from Amazon and we’ll just have to follow the new training regimen, and continue to do repetitive things making sure we all do and say the same things. Pet Smart dog training is not offered until their fully vaccinated and at least 4 months old. Now I’ve always been a lab owner and so has my husband. Our single neighbor has 3 labs and we watch her walk them all separately, once in the morning and once in the evening. 3 separate walks per dog, that’s 6 walks; that’s what I call commitment. I trained my own lab while working full-time and came home for lunch every day; ate a tuna sand which and spent my 1 hour with my puppy. Fed her, walked her and back to work I went.

I’ve read most of the older comments on this site prior to your question about how to train 2 lab pups at once and while separating them seems harsh; I think maybe separate crates is a good idea for night time and when you leave the house, remember their little bellies are tiny so take them out within 20 min’s of feeding and giving water and again every 1.5 ~ 2 hours; mine sleep a lot 3 naps a day; the afternoon is always the longest nap; we put them in the crate whenever we leave the house and make sure to take them outside “to do your stuff” before we leave and we crate them together at night for bedtime. Bed by 9PM; we take them out around 12:30 to 1:30 when we hear them wake up or move around; and they usually get up again around 4AM to 5AM; we just put them on the leash walk them outside, they’re so tired they “do your stuff”, both piddle and poo and we put them back in the crate and we always say, “good boy” during the piddle and poo. This “good boy” response always seems to trigger the other to go; many times they’ll go in tandem. Once one has gone and tries to distract the other; I’d pick him up while we wait for the other; but after my 2nd accident and I’m in a cast I just hold the leash tight enough so the other can finish his business.

We’re not done yet, but I think we’re on the road. If anyone has had a baby and had to wake up for night feedings you’ll know what it’s like to have new puppy; and why not have twins – twice the work, yes but twice the love right? and after 2 years of the puppy stage; we’ll have two well behaved dogs on their way to adult dog hood… who love to play fetch; swim, walk, cuddle, just like the good ole days before our older labs passed on. I’ve always had the older one around to help with the younger one which is definitely a recommendation; but we did not have a chance this time. Who knew how sick he was and he went so quickly once we found out.

Wish us luck as we wish you luck and I hope this post finds you and your pups doing well!

Hi Kelly- can you give me some advice on how you potty trained 2 pups at once? I have 2 yellow lab pups, brothers, they are now 10 weeks old. They were the 2 left in the litter so we took both. Unfortunately this “breeder” (not really) that we got them from did not really take good care of them. They were filthy and when we took them to the vet, we found out they were both sick- tested positive for parasites. They are on their last week of medication now. But because they were already sick, we did not want to bring them outside so they go potty on puppy pads (not always). Since they are doing better, I tried to bring them outside to go potty, but no luck. They laid on the puppy pad, chewed on the leash, cried… I waited an hour until bringing them back inside. As soon as we got inside, they both went.

Right now, they live in a pen and yes there is a puppy pad there and they do use it but they still go everywhere too. Should I get a crate now? And if so, do I get one or two? They sleep together, if not on top of each other, they are touching. How do I crate train two boys? It looks like it can be done…I just don’t know where to start. Thank you for your help. If anyone can reply here that would be very helpful!