But the most immediate lessons they learn come from play. As they begin chasing, retrieving and play-fighting with their siblings, they develop their physical abilities and begin to see where their strengths – and ultimately their place in the pack – lie. This is the very beginning of their preparation for fully-fledged membership of the pack. In time the natural herders, stalkers and attackers will emerge.
By the time it is eight weeks or so old, a wolf pup will be ready to venture a little further afield. It will begin to chase insects, birds or other creatures that gather around the pack. The play rituals it undergoes with its siblings and other members of the pack will intensify. The young wolf will develop its abilities to run and jump, wrestle and bite, skills that it will come to need when it joins the hunters. Any ideas a young wolf might have of heading off on the hunt will be quickly dispelled, however. Leaving the den at this stage would make it vulnerable to attack by predators. The senior wolves will give pups a signal, delivered in clear, unequivocal terms: ‘Stay at home; you’re not ready to join us yet.’ They will also choose one senior wolf to remain with the pups. Once again, the hierarchy of the pack – and the young wolf’s place within that structure – is driven home.
By the time it reaches its fifth and sixth months, the wolf pup is developing fast both physically and mentally. Inside the den and around its perimeter, the building blocks are continuing to be laid for its emergence – eighteen months or so down the line – as a mature, adult wolf.
It may seem hard to equate the life of a wild animal to that of the lovable creature that shares your life but it is crucial that you do. The stages of their development are very similar, as are their capabilities at each age. Certain wolf instincts are hard-wired into the brains of domestic dogs, and it is only by seeing your pet as a domesticated wolf that you will be able to understand its behaviour and learn how to deal with it effectively.
In this book, I’ll explain all about looking after dogs from birth up to six months, and show the ways in which your puppy’s ancestors continue to affect it today.
Chapter 2 - Your Puppy’s First Weeks of Life
Most people will acquire a puppy some time after it is eight weeks old. For you to understand your puppy properly, it is important that you understand what goes on during those first eight weeks. How has it developed? What have been the most important moments so far? What factors do you need to bear in mind as you take over ownership of a puppy?
THE EARLY HOURS – BIRTH AND BEYOND
The first few moments of a dog’s life are traumatic. The newborn puppy emerges from the warm, safe, dark environment that is the womb into a world filled with new smells and sensations.
Fortunately its mother will be there to reassure and care for it. She will be fixated on its welfare for the crucial first two to three weeks to come.
Because it can’t hear or see, the newborn puppy has very little concept of what is happening during the first ten days. It does not yet have any concept of its self or its siblings. It can do little more than sleep, drag itself on to its mother’s teat when it feels the need for food and whine when it is feeling cold, hungry or in pain.
The mother’s role is all-encompassing during this phase. As well as feeding her pups, she also stimulates them to defecate and urinate then eats their faeces and licks up the urine so as to keep the den clean and free from germs. Not only is she the sole source of food but she is also the only means of keeping warm. A newborn pup can’t generate or retain heat so contact with its mother is vital for its survival. This is why the mother hardly strays more than a couple of feet from her newborns during this phase of their young lives.
Yet even at this point, the first signs of personality and status are emerging within the litter. The mother’s teats are arranged in pairs along the length of her belly, with the best supply of milk available from the middle teats. Already the litter will have begun jostling for access to these prime feeding stations. Some will have forced themselves on to the best teats, while others will have been forced to feed off the less available outer and forward teats. Some may even have been pushed away from the teats altogether and it’s possible they might die.
TEN DAYS TO THREE WEEKS OLD
The first major turning point in a dog’s development comes at about ten days. Around this time the eyes begin to open, ungluing themselves from the inside to the out over a period of three to four days. They then learn to focus. At the same time their hearing is beginning to come into operation as well.
With these senses functioning, puppies become aware of the environment around them. Although they spend a huge proportion of their time sleeping they are also noticing – to their surprise – that they are not alone: they have siblings. They learn to recognise their mum by look and by sound as well as by smell. They start sniffing the perimeter of the whelping box as if signalling their readiness to explore the wider world. They will begin getting up on their legs, trying to find their balance and co-ordination and make their first tentative steps. There is a lot of investigation of what they are capable of – and what others are capable of. The puppies will begin climbing over each other, trying to gain height advantage over their siblings. There is a lot of sparring and blatting at this point. There are practical lessons to learn too. At this time, for instance, they learn to lap water from a bowl.
All this activity comes in short bursts, however. Within a maximum of five minutes they will be asleep again.
THREE TO EIGHT WEEKS
By the three-week point in puppies’ development, with their eyes, ears and nose all now functioning, they are reacting more to sight, smell and sound. They start to bark and make more sounds. They start to wag their tails. They start scratching themselves and shaking their heads. And they start play fighting with their siblings. This is an extension of the interaction that’s been going on already, as they bite each other and try to climb up to give themselves a height advantage. They are developing answers to some key questions. Where do I fit into this pack? What am I capable of doing physically? But they are also asking the question, what – and who – is outside the immediate confines of the whelping box. They are ready to claim a little independence for themselves.
In the wild, it is now that the pack really comes into its own. While the pups were being suckled by their mother, the alpha female, the excitement has been building in the rest of the pack. The other wolves – both male and female – have been producing prolactin, which makes them ‘broody’ too. Now, as the mother invites the father and the rest of the extended family to join her, they start to perform their role as surrogate parents.
Wolves from all parts of the pack hierarchy will do their bit to educate, assimilate and act as mentors for the new pup. This is how the pup gains the important information it will need in order to be a properly functioning – and happy – adult member of the pack. They will set boundaries – gently dragging the pups back when they wander too far from the den. In short, they are teaching them the rules and the language of the pack.
A domestic dog is living in a very different social organisation – but it is still vital that the dog begins to get the information it will need to function within that organisation. And it is vital that that knowledge is imparted now, when its most important imprinting is happening. It is up to us, as humans, to perform the same role as the pack that would be its teachers in the wild.
HANDLING PUPPIES
It is around three weeks old that breeders should start handling puppies, getting them used to the sight, smells and sounds of humans. This is vitally important for the rest of the puppy’s development so from the outset the aim is for the puppy to associate human contact with warmth, comfort and above all safety.