Mother Instinctively Joins Her litter Flawlessly

The puppies slept, fed and stayed  within a foot of Mother's breast.

​Now a week later and just as we are waiting for the puppies eyes to open, she takes breaks of 20 to 60 minutes. Watchful, yes, but definitely comfortable being 10 yards or so away from the puppies. Whereas just a week previously she needed a gold plated invitation to either leave her litter to go potty or eat.

In today’s video, We see Ovation enter the nest area, check it for cleaning purposes, and then deliberately, cautiously sit down and then lay down. Her entry process target zone is a yard or so away from the cluster of puppies.  This target zone of about a yard away is very consistent from mother to mother and from litter to litter.

There is great variation in how adroit the mother is at actually avoiding sitting  on or hurting her puppies.  Young puppies less than 2 weeks of age can easily be crushed and/or smothered by mom if she would inadvertently lay on top of them.

Such “crib death” is the second leading cause of neonatal  fatalities during the first two weeks of life.

Ovations’s entry creates enough of a disturbance that the puppies become aware of her presence  and awake. Their sense of smell and the sounds/vibrations from mother and the other puppies draw them to the appropriate nursing Zone.  Bitches milk contains of pheromone which will draw the puppies to her And probably is the reason for such energy and stimulus that the puppies display when they first become aware of Mother's presence.

One minute mother is lying benignly next to a pile of puppies two or three feet away and the next minute all pups are swarming around her finding their way to their next meal — Pretty amazing!

We next see the puppies feeding energetically and (at this stage in their lives) with much more strength and vigor than we observed last week. They can swallow from any 360 degree position that they attach to the nipple.  We are treated in this video by seeing one do a 360 Degrees somersault!

And in the final video segment, we find energetic nursing sounds are emitted by the clan as they are tanking-up on their mother's milk.  These sounds are distinctive, repetitive, and reproducible from litter to litter to litter.

Puppies are wonderful, I hope you agree.  Questions or observations, please leave a comment below.  

Thank you!