Two puppies of similar age – scared of littermate syndrome

Hi,

I bought my puppy at the beginning of February, a blue Staffy girl. I’ve brought her home 3 days ago.

However, my mother was convinced she needed a puppy too and so 3 weeks after I bought mine, she bought her own English Bulldog puppy girl. She’s 1 month older than mine.

I am incredibly frustrated by this because I’ve heard really bad things about Littermate Syndrome, I’ve wanted a dog for years and I have my chance and now it’s potentially ruined.

We keep them fairly separated. Mine sleeps in my room, they eat in different rooms, I also train mine separately. I let them play together at random times throughout the day and that’s the only interaction they really have but even that, it seems quite aggressive playing. Biting each others faces, pining each other and sometimes it escalates into snarling and barking. It’s always supervised and we seperate them when we think it’s too much.

Is there anything else I can do to avoid littermate syndrome?