This is interesting as I too, have never heard of a dog depending so much on another dog. He must have separation anxiety and acting out. I am not a dog expert, but I think the owners should keep exercise the separation time continuously and regularly to break the habit. It may take weeks, or even months to do it but persistence will pay off.

Are your friend considering giving the dog back to the breeder? If they have small children in the house, they should follow the vet's advice.

Most reputable breeders don't allow people to take two puppies for a very important reason- Littermate Syndrome. It's why people who train guide dogs train one puppy at a time. Nearly every single time they try to train two puppies together, littermate syndrome rears it's head and one puppy nearly always ends up unsuitable for guide work.

What happens is that one or both puppies become entirely emotionally dependent on the other and become extremely distressed when they're separated. As a result, they won't bond with their human family. Eventually, it oftens ends in the two dogs fighting constantly when they reach maturity, and they have to be separated before one severely hurts the other. By that point, a lot of damage is done emotionally and mentally to the dogs.

I suggest your friend give one of the puppies back to the breeder and make sure to get the dog they keep in training classes. It's nearly impossible to keep two puppies and stop littermate syndrome. The breeder should have never allowed a family to take two puppies in the first place.

I spoke to them last night and Bob is going back to the breeder tomorrow, when they have the day off. There are children in the house, so they aren't taking a chance. They haven't had him long and he is still a puppy, so hopefully an experienced dog handler can correct him before there is permanent damage or behavioural issues. They're going to try and keep Anne because she isn't dependent on Bob, happily goes on walks without him, and loves people.

[USER=84]@Pogykt[/USER] Thank you for giving a name to it. I wasn't aware this existed, but thinking back I have always adopted adults or one puppy at a time, never two puppies. It can't happen all the time, as I know a collie owner who raised two together that were fine, but I guess there are always exceptions. I think he might have had other adult dogs as well, which might have been what made the difference.

Do you know any other cases, or if there are ways to correct it? Can adult dogs in the house affect it?

[USER=63]@Frisbee[/USER] It's definitely different when there's adult dogs around. Adults dogs will teach puppies manners and correct their behavior, as is typical in the wild. But two puppies, alone, will bond closely with each other and block out their human family and never learn manners or good behavior.

AFAIK, there is no way to correct it except for now separating the puppies and trying to heal the damage done. Adult dogs in the house really would only work as a prevention when you get the puppies. There's nothing to be done for your friends dogs now, regrettably, except to separate them and give them a chance at better lives.

Well, I caught up with them at the weekend. It seems they took Bob back on the Friday bank holiday over a week ago and kept Anne. Anne's been absolutely fine ever since, she's still pleasant, friendly, and loves people. She was sitting by the park bench, quite happy and very tired after a long session of tennis-ball chasing.

Bob is now back at the breeder with his parents. They haven't heard much since, although getting him there was apparently very difficult. From what they saw he became a lot more manageable the moment he was back with the older dogs, so hopefully they can correct him and whatever issue he has will be fixed so he can have a good life.

I'm not an expert on dog training but it is indeed true that some dogs are more dependent than others, probably caused by a trauma they had in the past (i.e. beaten by previous owners or bullied by fellow dogs) or being taken away from their mother at such an early age, long before they could grasp the idea of independence. When I watched Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan often used his dog Daddy to help withdrawn and dependent dogs become more sociable. He exposed the dog to his other "balanced" dogs until it become more self-assured.

Consulting expert advice or assistance would be the appropriate thing to do. A dog trainer will pay attention to little nuances and help your friend's dog open up to other dogs.

I have heard of this type of behavior before, but perhaps not as extreme of a case. Usually, I was told that the calm dog is sort of an "Alpha Dog" figure so the other dog mimics their good behavior. However, when the other one isn't around to keep the dog in line, they just act out and don't know what to do with themselves. Perhaps this is an extreme case of this sort of cause.

We have also a puppy that are over-energetic, when he saw a thing he suddenly put into his dog house. I did not know why he was so energetic? But he was so funny and lovable. He always lick our faces when we blew his mouth. Any suggestion on how to train our dog to be calm and relax? We always feed him a nutritious food.

Dogs behavioral issues are natural, it simply means your are not an experience dog handler since you misunderstood your dogs behavior. The way you describe the problem, I think your dog is experiencing separation anxiety maybe it's because both of your dog have develop a great bond to each other. I think forcefully separating them will only make the problem worst for both dogs. I had also experience owning a dog that suffer separation anxiety with their owner (in this case my dog is affraid to be seperated with me), so what I did is I take my dog outside the house for walking to energize them and make them active. Then try to play with my dog using different puzzle toys and sometimes I stuff food on their toys like peanut butter to keep them occupied every time when I leave my house. And most importantly I desensitize my dogs anxiety trigger. Our dogs has their own ways to know when we are them leaving alone. For example, when every time we get dress or when we get our keys, our dogs immediately know that we are leaving them alone. To address this problem I train my dog let them know that not because I am wearing my jacket or getting my keys I am leaving them. How to do it? I watched TV while I am holding my keys and wearing my jacket, it helps change the dogs perspective on what you normally do when you are preparing to go out of your house.
I hope I shed light on you problems and it's my pleasure to share what I know with you.

I think the reason of it was their own natural behavior to claim there territory. Like their ancestor wolve they are aggresive when they saw someone walking in their territory. I having the same problem with my two dogs 🙁