# Dominance Issue with 2 female litter mates



## Concerned parents (10 d ago)

We have two female litter mates that turned one yesterday. A few months ago we noticed our Zena starting to get very possessive with her food and intimidating Dakota. We separated them and that worked well. Now Zena has been posturing and pushing Dakota with food, toys, everything. Yesterday they got into 4 fights within two hours and one was in the car. I guess we are naive to think this may be a phase. We are deeply concerned that we will have to give up one of them. We have had Dobermans for the last 30 years with no issues like this. We love them both dearly and this is deeply upsetting. Do you have any insight or suggestions for us? Thanks!


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

You’re most likely dealing with littermate syndrome. I’m not sure how to handle it, as I’ve never had littermates.


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## Pupmum99 (Jan 4, 2022)

I’d be getting in touch with a canine behaviourist asap really. In the meantime feeding them separately and keeping high value items out of the picture in shared spaces til you have professional guidance


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