# 14 Week Litter Mate Puppies Fighting



## tbourassa (Jan 3, 2012)

Ok, we have a pair of 14 wk old litter mate male golden puppies whos playing is turning into what seems to be nasty fighting. At first we thought is was just due to being overtired. Now it seems even when not tired there playing excalates to nastiness. When it happens we pull them apart and put them in time outs in their sepearate Kennels. Even as we pull them apart they are still snarling/biting/showing teeth etc at each other, I even thought I was going to be bit. We are taking them to puppy classes and they do great with other dogs/people. Its just in the last week that all this has started. Ive read all over that gettting 2 puppies at the same time is not good due to individualism for each dog, pack mentality etc. but I though we were doing well. They are housebroken, out of the playful biting habit (for the most part) and basically great dogs. Now we have this. I should also mention we have 2 other dogs, a old lab who wants nothing to due with puppies, and a 10 yr old flat coat retriever who has no problems with the puppies. No fighting with older dogs at all. If they bother them they just growl and puppies stay clear. Are they trying to establish dominance within themselves? Any suggestions or help would be great as we would hate to have to give one away to stop this.
Thanks
Todd


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Are you sure they aren't playfighting? It can sound and look serious, but it's a normal way that dogs play. 

When we still had two goldens, there generally would be a lot of snarling, snotting, mouthing, dogs taking turns being on top while the bottom dog chewed on legs... 

Something else I thought about... with our dogs, we always kept 2 years between them. This means that the older dog generally had the last say and could resolve things quickly rather than let a playfight get into a full out dog fight. 

The other thing is that we had a "break it up" command for those times when the fighting was going too long. This is probably something you need to teach your dogs and you need to watch them to make sure you are interupting them before they get really worked up.


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## tbourassa (Jan 3, 2012)

They play like you described all the time like this before but now it just seems to be way more vicious and nasty. I am afraid they will hurt each other if no one is around to break them up quickly. They are never left alone to play freely so we are usually there fast but wow if this if fun play for them it is not fun for us!!


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

I doubt they're actually fighting. Our dogs play fight all the time, complete with teeth, (play) snarling, (play) growling, biting, etc. but I would stop them if it gets out of hand. We stop Jack and Chloe if they play too rough and have been stopping Kira (new puppy) if she gets out of hand playing with the older dogs. We generally encourage them to "get a toy" and play tug with that rather than on each others' ears and neck. They know what "get a toy" means at this point and have lots of tug-able options around for them.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

Yes, they are trying to establish dominence between. 14 weeks is about the age they will begin to decide which is the alpha personality between them, and they do it by fighting. You have an uphill battle with this situation, if they don't settle into a pack order between them soon you could be facing bloody battles for life. 

I'm sorry I don't have any advise or suggestions for you, this is why I would not let someone buy or adopt two littermates. Sometimes they do fine and establish a wonderful loving relationship, but a lot of times they don't and are always at odds, especially if they have similar temperments. My three foster puppies that were just adopted were 14 weeks old, and just started having some really nasty "fights", it was time for them to be seperated and go to individual homes. 

I think you may benefit from having a trainer come into your home and help you work with them.


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

This sounds like exactly what we went through with our dogs, Austin and Lincoln, who are 2 months apart in age. We brought Austin home first and a month later, we added Lincoln. We also have Reno, who was 8 at the time.

They would start a play session but they would always end up in fight....and it wasn't play fighting!!! Our previous puppies (Reno and Phoenix, who were also 2 months apart in age never even growled at each other). It was so upsetting that I was almost at the point of rehoming Lincoln (as Reno and Austin were very bonded).

We ended up calling in a trainer who does alot of work through our Humane Society. He attended our home and watched the puppies at play while DH and I stood back and observed. The trainer was there for about an hour and during that hour, Austin and Lincoln only played, there was no fighting. The trainer essentially told us that it was our nervousness and actions that were causing the dogs to be anxious. We were expecting them to fight so hovered over them just waiting for it to happen. 

Shortly thereafter, we relocated to a new home. Up until that time, we kept Austin and Lincoln separated and together only when supervised. We ended up fencing a portion of our yard off for the dogs. I didn't want to build separate areas so we went with one common area. The trainer said "put them out in the yard together" but watch them from inside. Reluctantly, I put them outside together and watched them for like an hour......there were no fights, just play. We realized it was "us" that were causing so much anxiety and tension in the dogs. That was over 2 years ago.....they are best buddies today....all 3 of them are!!!! I couldn't ask for 3 better boys.....

Over the years, they have been able to establish their place in the pack with Reno being the boss and both Austin and Lincoln understand and respect that. They all respect each other's space, know each others boundaries and limitations. I can easily have all 3 in a room chewing a bone and have absolutely no issues whatsoever.

This isn't an easy fix by all means. I would agree with the other posters that you need to have a trainer come in and help you out. You need to have patience and understanding. You may also want to pick up a few books on dog behaviour. The can be very enlightening when dealing with a multiple dog household. 

Good luck and don't give up!!!!


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## luverofpeanuts (Jun 9, 2011)

We have 37 week old littermates now and things have gone about as well as I had hoped..though we have 1 male and 1 female. There have been a couple of times where the play fighting escalated... and "you can just tell" is all I can say about it, so I think I know what you mean. 

While our two seemed to constantly changing as far as who is "alpha" ... any "escalations" have been very short... mostly due to one of them getting nipped a little too hard, or one is overly tired, or overly possessive of some toy. 

Anything I guess would be based on little or no experience in these matters and wouldn't be any more than previous posters; I just thought I'd chime in there and wish you well and hope things calm down a bit for the two mates. 

I guess while they are still young.. I would do more separately with them. Instead of them pre-occupied with being dominant over the other... maybe re-enforcing the fact that *you* are dominant over all of them could be helpful. Personally, after reading on these forums, we practiced the "sit for everything" philosophy and I think it really helped "establish" the order of things... aside from being a good thing to master anyway ;-) 

This is not a good representation.. they've played much harder than this... but it's something to compare against. 
Aspen & Spirit - YouTube


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## Willow52 (Aug 14, 2009)

Without seeing the interaction, it's hard to say, but I think at this point it's playing, 

With that said, when Hank and his brother/littermate were that age they played together often (our daughter/SIL has his brother) and seemed to have fun even though much of their playing at that age sounded like fighting. But by the time they were 10 or 11 months they actually fought. We stopped allowing them to play together. When they were neutered at 1 year we had hoped that might change things but it didn't. They both get along with other dogs, just not each other.


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