Adults with Puppies

At Corwyn, we like to let our adults help with puppy raising.

For the first few weeks, only momdog is permitted near the pups - the adults are always kept segregated unless we are home to supervise. The dam will normally protect her pups like a lioness, warning the curious away from her babies in no uncertain terms.

As they get older, the adults are permitted more and more leeway with regard to the babies. Usually the females are permitted more access than the males. In a few weeks, the girls may be allowed to step a toe or even all four into the box to smell and interact with the pups, but often the boys are only permitted a nose over the edge of the box. It's funny to watch the pups surge eagerly towards any large dog they see, then back up when they smell that it's not mom. In time, they greet everyone with enthusiasm, but at first, all they are interested in is FOOD. It's also funny to watch as the boys peer over the box, then back away in horror as the horde of curious puppies stumble towards.

Once the pups are old enough for brief outdoors excursions, we put them out (supervised) with various adults besides their mother. The adults keep watch over them, lead them back to the group when they get lost, and discipline them for rudeness (who can resist gnawing on dangling tails or attempting to get a snack from any convenient body part?). The big dogs also serve as a deterrent for hawks, because altho we live in a suburban neighborhood, baby puppies are a nice snack for a passing predator.

This interaction with the adults gives them a good foundation for interacting with strange dogs when they enter the world on their own. They learn to be polite, submit when asked, and that full frontal assaults are generally frowned upon. Sometimes my momdogs feel their pups can do no wrong, and fail to discipline them for infractions such as biting, yanking on their ears, clambering all over them, and barking at them. Some of the moms just lie there, grinning benignly, saying "Oh, the perfect little dears..." Others maintain discipline like a military squad.

With her largest litter of 10 pups, Z separated them into two groups for eating and bathing. Nobody was permitted to stray out of their appointed group, and resisters during bathing were firmly pinned with a paw. This worked well so that all the pups got an equal turn at the milk bar, and was pretty funny to watch. A pup would begin sneaking and wriggling its way from the pile it was in towards the slurping pile at mom's side, only to be rolled directly back the way it came by mom's nose, squawking in protest.

It's possible interaction with pups not their own contributes some to the innate mothering instinct. This is the only reason that seems to make sense for why the females might be permitted to interfere with the pups before they are weaned. It's hard to know - most dams seem to deliver and care for the pups without an instruction manual.

Here is a photo of Z outdoors with some of her grandpups

(this is Rowan, at about 3 weeks).