A family is raising awareness about littermate syndrome in dogs after their 2-year-old daughter was mauled by their four 12-week-old puppies. People magazine reported that the child was found unconscious and possibly missing an eye on their house earlier this month and the parents suspect that the puppies attacked her.
Puppies could experience littermate syndrome when they become highly dependent on one another. It can affect dogs of any breed and even those unrelated or adopted puppies raised together. Experts advise that the key to raising sibling puppies is to treat them as individuals.
Felicity's Life-Threatening Experience With Puppies
Felicity was outside with her mom, dad, and three other siblings doing yard work for their housewarming party in early June, according to an update written on GoFundMe. The four 12-week-old puppies that they got three weeks earlier joined them. The mother was not worried because the pups had not given the family any reason not to play with their children.
Sierra Michele, Felicity's mom, left with her friend to get presents for the party and left her four kids with her husband. However, when she got back home, they both realized that Felicity was not with either of them. Her husband and 13-year-old daughter started to look for Felicity. The little child was found unconscious with blood all over her face.
According to Felicity's dad, she might be missing an eye. They rushed Felicity to the hospital, where they concluded that there was only one thing in their backyard that could have caused that kind of injury to their daughter - the puppies.
In another update, Sierra said that her four dogs ate Felicity's ear and mutilated her neck, face, and upper body. She was then transferred to a children's hospital in Fresno, where she underwent three hours of plastic surgery and is now recovering well, although her face would still need a number of surgeries over time.
Sierra and her family hope that Felicity's life-threatening experience with puppies will spread awareness about the dangers of Littermate Syndrome to prevent such incidents from happening again.
What is Littermate Syndrome?
According to the West Suburban Humane Society, littermate syndrome is a serious behavioral condition in young dogs in which they bond too tightly with one another, which drives their fear of people and other dogs. Also, they tend to experience extreme separation anxiety and issues when encountering new situations when they are alone.
Signs of Littermate Syndrome
The website Great Pet Care listed some signs of littermate syndrome in puppies and dogs that pet owners should look out for. Here are the following:
- Fear of new people, dogs, things, and places- Puppies may avoid interactions with unfamiliar people, dogs, things, and places, and become very still, quiet, or suddenly bark or growl in the presence of new things or situations.
- Separation anxiety- They become uncomfortable and exhibit destructive behavior when they are separated from their littermate.
- Does not eat alone- They only want to eat with their siblings or littermate.
- Inability to play with people or other dogs- They only focus on their littermate rather than people at home or other dogs. Those who always play in pairs may be exhibiting signs of littermate syndrome.
- Difficulty in training- Puppies from the same litter may take longer to be trained than other puppies because they are distracted by one another.
Relief veterinarian and veterinary behavior consultant Dr. Heather Graddy noted that anyone who wants to raise sibling puppies should be prepared to raise not only one dog. The good news is that not all puppy pairs develop littermate syndrome and pet parents can prevent it by identifying signs and symptoms and through specialized training methods.
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