You can get two puppies from the same litter, but you have to raise them as two separate dogs, and almost nobody does. That is the honest answer. The puppies are not the problem. The plan is.
The logic always sounds sensible. They'll keep each other company. They'll tire each other out. Two for the price of one. What you have actually signed up for is two dogs' worth of work, and if you skip it, you end up with two dogs who are obsessed with each other and politely indifferent to you.
I worked with a pair of littermate brothers recently. Teenagers, big, strong, very sweet. They had been walked together, fed together and slept together their whole lives, and if one got taken out alone, the one left at home would howl the street down.
"They are twins in a way. But they have never lived life individually. So they have zero independence."
Their energies were completely intertwined. If one dog felt something, the other caught it. One spots a dog across the park, both rev up together. One barks, the other joins in, and the pile gets louder. Underneath the noise sat the real problem, which is value. The world is up here. The brother is up here. You are down here. A dog bonded to its brother instead of its people has no reason to choose you, and if that pair ever slipped a gate, they would pick each other and the world, and goodbye to you.
Pretend you have two separate dogs
That is the whole fix, and I mean it literally. From the day they come home, you have two separate dogs who happen to share an address. Everything runs per dog. I structure a dog's day in cycles rather than walks: a short block of PLAY, then ANCHOR, then CALM, with EXPLORE in between. The four modes are explained here. With littermates, that means cycles per dog, per day. Not one cycle with two dogs attached to it. One dog at a time, every time.
PLAY is one-on-one, with the person the dog is with. Not with each other. They already play with each other beautifully, and that is exactly the problem. Every wrestle with the brother builds the brother's value. Every game with you builds yours, and your value is the thing that brings a dog back to you when it counts.
The tethered dog is in training too
While one dog works, the other is tied up nearby and ignored. People assume that dog is just waiting his turn. He is not. He is doing the harder lesson of the two: my brother is playing with my human, and it's none of my business. You're not leaving. You're just there.
He will whinge. Owners hear it and panic, because it sounds like separation anxiety. There's no separation here. It's just FOMO. The whole family is standing three metres away. He's going, I'm missing out, I'm missing out, I'm missing out. Let the wave pass and keep playing with the dog whose turn it is. Whinging that earns nothing stops being worth the effort.
One dog, one lead, one outing
Each dog also needs to go out and see the world without its shadow. It does not have to be far. Drive one street over, do a cycle, come home. The lesson is bigger than the outing. The dog on the lead learns, I can see life on my own. The dog left at home learns the matching lesson: he leaves, he comes back, and nothing terrible happened.
Skip this and you get two dogs who have each seen hundreds of parks and never once seen one alone. The first time life forces a separation, a vet stay, an injury, a family split, neither dog can cope, and that is the version of littermate trouble that ends up in the sad forum threads.
You don't share a crib
Separate crates, from the start. You might have grown up with a sibling. You still didn't share a crib. A puppy who cannot fall asleep without its brother pressed against it has never learned to settle on its own, and you will pay for that the first night one of them has to sleep somewhere else.
When do they get to be together again?
Later, and properly. Once each dog can play with you alone, walk alone, settle alone and hold each of its modes without the other one in the room, you start putting them back together. In my programs, one person walking both dogs calmly is one of the last sessions, not the first. It is the graduation, not the starting point. And the bit owners don't expect: the brothers still get plenty of each other. They just stop needing each other, which is a different thing entirely.
Already got two adult dogs?
Same answer, same setup. Plenty of the two-dog households I meet are not littermates at all. One dog was anxious, so the owners bought it a friend. Now you've got double trouble. The fix does not change: separate cycles, one-on-one play with the person the dog is with, one dog tied off while the other works, solo outings, and back together once each dog can stand on its own four feet.
It is a lot of work, because you have two dogs. But you chose to have two dogs, and you are going to have them for the next fifteen years. Fifteen or twenty minutes per dog, a few times a day, is cheap for that.
If you are still at the deciding stage, read before you get a puppy and count the hours honestly, twice. If the puppies are coming regardless, my puppy program is $440 and starts before your puppies even come home. And if you are already living in the howling, that is what private training is for. The first session is $400, and yes, both dogs can come. Just not out of the car at the same time.
Common questions
Should you get two puppies from the same litter?
You can, but only if you raise them as two separate dogs, and almost nobody does. Everything runs per dog. Separate cycles, one-on-one play, solo outings, separate crates. Skip it and you get two dogs obsessed with each other and politely indifferent to you.
What is littermate syndrome?
It is what happens when two puppies are raised as a unit instead of as two dogs. They take their cues from each other, one reaction sets off the other, and neither has practised being alone. Puppies are not born with it. It comes from the raising, which is why it is fixable.
Can littermates sleep in the same crate?
No. Separate crates from day one. You might have grown up with a sibling and you still did not share a crib. A puppy who cannot fall asleep without its brother has never learned to settle alone, and you pay for that the first night they are apart.