From left to right: West Highland White Terrier (Terrier Group); Siberian Husky (Working Group); Border Collie (Herding Group); Brittany (Sporting Group), Greyhound (Hound Group-Sighthound); Basset Hound (Hound Group-Scenthound); Pug (Toy Group); Bichon Frise (Non-Sporting Group).

      Understanding Puppy Development

      Puppies are learning soon after birth, so it’s important to understand what goes on during those critical first weeks of life.

      Puppies learn so many lessons from their mothers and siblings. Mothers have to lick puppies in order for them to urinate and defecate, and they also lick the pups clean afterward. This is how puppies learn to stay clean. If they don’t have this experience with Mom because they are removed from her too soon, they may have trouble learning house-training later; this is often a challenge with puppies bought from pet stores.

      Puppies learn bite inhibition, meaning not to bite down too hard, from playing with their siblings. When puppies play, if one chomps down too hard on another, the recipient will yip or snap and stop playtime. The chomping puppy doesn’t want to stop playing, so he learns to lessen the intensity of his bite. Puppies learn bite inhibition from their mother, too, especially as she wants to start weaning them. Puppies also learn to share with their littermates. They learn about competition for resources, such as toys or their mom’s milk. These are important social lessons that are critical at this age, which is why it’s important not to take puppies away from their families too soon. Good breeders and rescue organizations will keep puppies with their families for at least eight weeks.

      When a mother dog has only one puppy in the litter, called a singleton, he is at a disadvantage. He may not learn bite inhibition very well because he doesn’t have brothers or sisters to teach him when he bites too hard. This could prove to be a problem for you because the pup could be very mouthy. He also never has to share or compete for anything, so he may find it very frustrating when he suddenly doesn’t get everything he wants when he comes to your home. You will need to spend extra effort in training a singleton puppy.

      Some people want to get two littermates or young puppies at the same time. This is certainly appealing, because the puppies will spend a lot of time together and be playmates, but it can cause several problems. Puppies raised together can become overly dependent on each other because they spend all of their time together, especially if they are crated together, so they never learn to be alone. Then, when one of them has to go to the veterinarian or gets to go somewhere without the other, the puppy left behind becomes traumatized. Too much dependence is not healthy.

      Another challenge of raising littermates is that, because they spend so much time together, they bond more closely with each other than with you or other members of your family. Dogs bond most closely with whomever they spend the most time in positive experiences. During the critical socialization window, if a puppy spends the majority of his time with another puppy, then that’s who he’ll bond with. You’ll likely find that they don’t listen to you, especially as they mature, which will make training them a greater challenge.

      Some littermates also can develop aggression toward each other as they get older. Sometimes, aggression may develop to the point where it is not healthy or safe to keep both pups together any longer, which is heartbreaking.

      Raising littermates or young puppies together can be done, but it requires a lot of extra work and dedication. You will need to ensure that each puppy has his own crate and own bowl. You must separate them daily for individual bonding time with you and other members of your family. You’ll need to train them individually and take turns taking each one on trips and adventures. With all that you need to do to raise a puppy right, the extra effort may prove to be a greater challenge than you are prepared to tackle. This is why so many professional trainers do not recommend getting littermates.

      A Long Way from Wolves

      In the past, common theory was that dogs evolved from wolves. Modern research has shed some doubt on this. The more we learn about dogs, the more we realize that their past may not be as closely aligned with wolves as previously thought.

      Whether dogs started out as wolves or not, they are now a long, long way from Canis lupus. Can you imagine a pack of Pugs taking down a caribou? Not likely. Humans have shaped dogs, for better or worse, into the domestic animal we know and love today.

      Why is this important to understand? Because if you think that your dog is behaving like a wolf, and you try and respond accordingly, you will be way off base. Wolves are pack animals. A pack has a nuclear family consisting of a breeding pair and its offspring. Males take part in raising the young. There is generally a hierarchy, from an “alpha” male and female at the top to the lowest “omega.”

      Experts used to think that dogs were pack animals, but as they study village dogs all over the world, they are starting to realize that this is not likely the case. Village dogs are dogs that may have once been owned by people but came to be strays, or they are descendants of previously owned dogs. They sometimes are claimed by local people who feed them on occasion, but they are not in-home pets like the dog that you’ve brought home.

      Such dogs have fallen into a natural state, living near dumps and in cities where they forage for food. They don’t form packs. Instead, they form transitional acquaintances, sometimes teaming up with one or two other dogs for a brief period of time and then moving on. Males do not help in rearing pups. The village dogs do not team up to hunt together. Instead, they are mainly scavengers. It is not in the best interest of a scavenger to team up with buddies.

      People who try to treat their dogs like wolves are barking up the wrong tree. For example, your dog growls at you when you reach for his collar, so you assume that he is jockeying for an alpha position. You flip him upside down in an “alpha roll” and hold him until he stops struggling. Big mistake. A dog may growl at a collar grab because the gesture has been associated as a negative experience or because he is afraid. Now that you’ve forced your dog into a frightening position and held him there, you’ve convinced him that