Interesting Results... Rearing of pups comparison - Page 3

Laris-- BTW, if you do conduct your proposed experiment (allowing "mum" to totally raise the the next two litters of "mum" and "daughter", I guess you'll have to use the same stud or studs as before (with the same partner), if you truly want to obtain some relevant info. and comparisons. That's a big task--wouldn't really expect you to take it on---but, I must admit, it would make for some interesting reading.

The studs were different. But nonetheless, as LMH rightly pointed out, mine seems to be the case of genetics over nurture. But I am not discounting nurture does not play a part. They could be a lot worse if not for the nurture. I also believe nurture was the explanation for the aggressiveness of the "daughter", she was the lowest in order within my 5 dogs and constantly got bullied by her siblings and her aunt. I think she developed the fear towards other dogs hence her aggressive behaviour is more of a defense tactic. Yes, I intend to use the same stud for both mum and daughter. As far as nursing go I intend to let both mums nurse all the pups, but when I take the pups out I would let the mum (grandmother) accompany them to demonstrate social grace. Yes, LMH, It would be interesting to see what comes out of it.

Laris, I too would be very interested to hear your observations of future litters you raise in this manner your planning to. This is "uncle echo's" first litter, But we are seeing some definate posative results so far, I can't wait to see what happens with the next litter he rears for us. Please keep us posted Laris !! Thank You for your contributions to this thread so far, Very much enjoying your comments.

Hodie - Thank you for your post. Could you email me privately to discuss this issue? ladywolf45169@yahoo.com Thank you.

Everyone should remember that in a dogs genome there are more than 2.5 billion base pairs in the DNA. No two litters will be exactly alike in any way, including genetical determinants of temperament. Secondly, letting two females nurse each others pups, and play with them, could be very, very dangerous. I just heard a week ago about a similar situation where the two females, also closely related, got into a horrible fight severe enough that one of the females was euthanized and one of the pups severely mauled before all was said and done. It it one thing to allow dogs to socialize and, from reading my posts you know I agree with that, assuming one has the experience and room and common sense to do it. But when the females are in heat, or have pups, all bets are off.

Hodie, thanks for your concerns. You are right about letting two females nurse each others pups could be dangerous. In my case, upon hearing the mum's new-born' pup's cry, the daughter was really anxious when her mum gave birth while she was nursing her own pups that were born 2 days earlier. She was probably thinking that the cry from her mother's whelping box was from her pup. Fortunately, daughter grew up alongside mum and mum is rather domineering and daughter is submissive to mum's alpha dog status so it was incident free. I was careful in introducing the pups to the "surrogated" mothers. They nursed separately from each other until the pups are about 4 weeks old when mothers are tired of nursing teething puppies. I wouldn't encourage others to try but I think I have a controllable situation.