The first 8 weeks of a pups life

So I haven’t really come back down to earth since last weeks high!! Being there for the birth was just so incredible!! Jase and I now have to wait until the pup is 8 weeks old until we can take him home. The first 8 weeks of a puppy’s life are so critical for its development that they must stay with their mum and littermates.

The pups will learn so much from Lara during the first 8 weeks. She will (hopefully) teach them basic 'canine manners’, which the pups will naturally imitate. The way Lara reacts to the people and situations around her will inherently help to shape the puppies’ personalities. In general, a calm, well-behaved mum will usually raise calm, well-behaved pups.

Lara is such a happy mum

Lara toileting the pups

At birth, the pups are blind and deaf, they only have their sense of smell and touch. For the first week or two, all they do is sleep and eat. This is a very critical stage of puppy development as all that sleeping is when puppies do most of their growing. During this time the pups can't pee/poo on their own, they need their mum to help stimulate them by licking their genitals. As Lara had a cesarean, she struggled with her maternal instincts during the first 48 hours of the pups being born. She fed them happily but she wouldn’t toilet them. David and Kerryn had to help stimulate the pups to toilet them in the first few days – but thankfully Lara’s maternal instincts have kicked in and she is now being an incredible mum.

Feeding is tiring for mum and pups

Sleeping pups after a big feed

The pups grow so quickly that you can actually see their progress each day. Towards the end of the second week the pups will begin to open their eyes and then at about three weeks – their ears open up and then their little teeth will start to come through. The puppies’ also learn so much from their littermates in the first 8 weeks. By the time the pups are three weeks old they are waddling around and trying play with their siblings, they also start to feel the urge to pee/poo without stimulation from mum. The pups will get weaned off Lara’s milk around three to four weeks and David and Kerryn will start introducing them to more solid foods.

The pups love snuggling

During these 8 weeks it is critical for the puppy’s development that the breeders expose the pups to all sorts of sounds, smells, textures, people, dogs, and other animals.

Before the pups come home a vet will come and give them their first set of vaccinations and they will be wormed and micro-chipped.

The pups are one week old today! Thankfully David and Kerryn are kind enough to let Jase and I visit them every weekend. So stay tuned for lots more photos and stories!

One Week Old