[MarkyMark]

Howdy, first post; I'm hoping this will be a very helpful site.

First off, I would like to say that I have successfully trained dogs before so I am not concerned about the training aspect of it. This is my first time working with littermates. My concern has to do with the fact that these are two Labrador Retrievers about 11 months of age and over 70lbs. If one is seperated from the other they will go NUTS; the yellow lab (bigger of the two) will actually bust out of his metal crate trying to find his smaller, black brother. I cannot work with them together because of the obvoius distractions. They sleep in seperate crates and have since the day they were brought home. I would really like to seperate them and have them sleep in different rooms so they will become acustomed to not being around each other.

Will putting in different rooms while they can still hear each other work or do I need to put them on different levels as far from each other as they can get?

I can't seperate to walk them; the black one will SCREAM (even with a bark collar) and the yellow one will bust out of his cage and wreak havoc.
So is there an effective way of seperating at night while still allowing me to sleep? I need to teach some sort of tolerance

[MarkyMark]

bump it back to the first page!

[opokki]

Originally Posted by MarkyMark

I would really like to seperate them and have them sleep in different rooms so they will become acustomed to not being around each other.

Try crating them in separate rooms and see what happens. If it doesn't work you'll have to separate them gradually...moving the crates about a foot or two away from each other daily.
While your working with one try giving the other one a stuffed kong to work on. This will help keep him occupied and less focused on being away from the other dog.

[nightsincali]

Ya, well, just let me tell you that you will have to wait until they are at least 8months old to fully train them. completely and utterly. They are inseparable.

You can train them in one of two ways. One- rip thm away rom each other or two- wait for them to get a little bit older...

[Cbaker]

Originally Posted by nightsincali

Ya, well, just let me tell you that you will have to wait until they are at least 8months old to fully train them. completely and utterly. They are inseparable.

You can train them in one of two ways. One- rip thm away rom each other or two- wait for them to get a little bit older...

Why would you need to wait till 8 months ? My dogs are just now 7 months old and sit, stay, come when called, speak, give their paw, play dead, retrieve, stay @ a distance,stand, release on command for fetch,& almost heel. They do not pull on leashes and walk together in a pack.

Reward based training can start as early as 6-7 weeks.

Only compulsion methods is it recommened to not start till 6 months of age.

As for the training, take each dog out seperate for a run, swim, fetch. If you yourself are not feeling like keeling over, how do you expect a animal with 10 times your energy level to feel that way. This draining could possibly quiet him down a bit.

Your definatley going to have to ignore the behavior (and buy a stronger kennel).
Kongs are a great idea and I love them as a toy. You can use the stuffing and freeze it so it lasts a little longer.

And before using any type of bark collars, spray collars or correction methods please consult a local trainer or behaviorist in your area.