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We have had our two Rottie pups for a little over a week now. They are beautiful 12 wk old sisters (no clear dominant yet) and my hubby and I are trying to decide if we should crate them separately. They have adapted well to the new surroundings and seem to love sleeping together and I hate to split them up, but my husband's been doing some research and has presented me with some articles that insist they should be separated for sleeping, eating, training, playing and worse yet, one article suggested that the best thing for them would be to send one to another home. I can see the value in some alone time and am not sure how to approach this (particularly now when they are learning their new environment and rules). Any suggestions from experience?

I as a breeder never sell sibling pups together... It is twice the amount of work and twice the amount of trouble.. Not saying to cant be done..but I would definately separate them in your house.. Simply because from experience they form a bond with themselves and not with you.. If you and your hubby are willing to train separately as well as together..one take one and you take the other..switch and then together you will have a better chance to succeed... But outside their crates and such they should be able to snuggle up to each other for comfort.. It is hard to disipline a pair of dogs especially when you dont know who did it..

Good luck..

Dawn and the gang

We kenneled our two dogs together as pups and adults, they do have a distinct bond to each other. We were prepared for two and took the puppies on as a family of four (and everyone over the age of 12) but it is a ton of work. We did make sure to walk and train them when they were seperate as well as together, this was 8 years ago so very pre-Brad but the way things have worked out is that the female is very dependent on the male, he could care less alone or together but now we couldn't seperate them without serious problems. The draw back to one kennel was that if you needed to time out them as pups they were still together in the kennel, we didn't have seperate spaces for them.
My suggestion would be to crate them side by side but seperately, I think they need to have their own safe space to be in.
Meaghan/DragonRider
P.S. Kudos to Dawn for being a model for a responsible breeder!

They should be kenneled separately so they have their own space but close to one another is ok. Making sure they each get their along time with the family or time apart from one another for training and fun time is very important.