This study examined how ewes influence the development of their offspring’s relationships with other lambs. In the first experiment, twins lambs were either raised with their mother in small groups or separated from the dam after birth and raised together artificially. The amount of time a lamb chose to spend with a twin or familiar pen mate was used to determine the lamb’s preference. The assessment was conducted at four-weeks of age. The lambs reared with the dam would approach their twin first and spend significantly more time in contact with their twin than with a familiar lamb. The familiar lambs reared artificially did not discriminate between their twin and a familiar lamb. Therefore, the dam’s presence is required for the lambs capable of identifying their twin. The dam tends to act as the focus of the twin lambs and therefore may directly or indirectly affects the development of the relationship between the twins. In the second experiment, 4-week old mothered and artificially reared lambs were repeatedly exposed to a contact partner. The exposure lasted five days and the lambs were exposed to one another for approximately 14 hour during the evening and 5 hours during the day. The dam was absent during the exposure to the contact partner. The distinction between an unfamiliar individual and the contact partner was assessed. As well, the behaviour was observed when placed in a pen with their contact partner or an unfamiliar lamb. In this experiment, lambs did not prefer their contact partner or the unfamiliar lamb. When the lambs were paired up with their contact partner in the pen, the artificially reared lambs bleated significantly less than when they were housed with an unfamiliar lamb. Therefore, it appears that artificially reared lambs were capable of recognizing their partner. The inability of the dam-reared lambs to be able to discriminate between their contact partner and an unfamiliar lamb may have resulted from these lambs spending less time investigating their contact partner during the exposure period. It therefore appears that the dam affects their lamb’s ability to socialize with other lambs, even when they are not present during an encounter. As well, the dam plays an important role in the development of the relationship between siblings along with lambs of the same age.