Intoducing Sire to his pups..... - Page 2

Pharaoh's father babysitting the litter.

They were eight weeks old and trying to nurse on him.  The drops on my camera lens were puppy drool.



Michele

Paula,
Cute pictures! Your desk looks remarkably like mine


Michele,
The ears on Pharoah's dad speaks volumes LOL cute!

Stacy

I agree with Molly there is no reason to risk the safety of the pup.  And If you don't need to it's best avoided, neither get anything out of meeting the sire.

However my situation I have two adult males I need to keep separate (my BF's police dog -the instigator.... and my stud- who would rather not be bothered but does not take kindly to being challenged by the young male).  I don't have outside kennels so with the dynamics of my situation I did introduce the sire to the pups.  He is very calm with them, no problems at all, so I allow it to have the pups exposed to the house (outside their pen). 

My bf's police dog is clearly not safe with them and I would never even try.  When he is in his crate or they are in theirs he is very stimulated and his prey behavior is extremely elevated, there is no doubt he is a danger...if the sire behaved like he did even a little bit it would have been a no brainer to keep them separate.

I think the biggest risk is less a matter of the dog actively attacking the pups than the pups pestering the dog until he corrects them, in a non confined situation, a dog would choose when and if he interacted with them and simply go away out of their reach if he didn't feel like it, but if he can't easily and quickly get out of their reach, he is likely to snap at them and the pups response of prolonged yelping could easily trigger prey behaviour.

Of course there are males that interact well with pups, but most do not choose to do so for long and I can't see any benefit to taking the risk of doing so.

Here's a pic of my dogs taken from the roof of my old house in London in the 1970's, showing Brooke with her litter, her younger sister, parents and my Miniature Dachshund, the ones that preferred to avoid the pups simply got out of their way by lying on the wall.

Right - a dog with a proper temperament (male or female) should not "attack" or see a puppy as a prey item.  The danger comes when puppies unknowingly push the wrong buttons, get into the face of a dominant dog and get a bite correction that they A) don't deserve and don't understand, and B) could hurt them seriously or kill them.

Example - my Eagle was wonderful with puppies until he was 3 years old or so - he would lie down, roll over, play gently with them and was so wonderful that I always allowed my puppies to play with him (supervised).  Until one day, a 10 week old male puppy got in his face for a moment - innocent on the puppy's part - he wasn't trying to be dominant at all of course - but Eagle gave him a correction bite - a side-ways bite that would have been very appropriate for another adult dog.  But due to the angle, one canine tooth sank to the hilt in the pups' cheek - requiring a drain, stitches and a traumatized puppy.  Now keeping in mind that had Eagle intended on really biting him, the puppy would have been instantly killed.  So even though the correction was actually a fair one, and appropriately given - it was too much for a baby puppy.  That was the last time Eagle was ever allowed to "socialize" with young puppies even though he was not "attacking" the puppy, nor viewing it as a prey item, pursuing it or even acting aggressive toward it.  Just not worth the risk.

molly

this is a friend of lakota of laurel creek and i have 9 wk old french mastiff pups and the parents in my house. my male has been like a mother to them when my female isnt around. he even watches the pups to be sure our outside dogs dont hurt them when they go out. from the day they were born my male loved on them and licked them and was gentle with them. they even slept under his neck. he wouldnt hardly move when those babies were laying on or around him. i dont leave them alone with him because he is so big (160 lbs so far...he has another year to fill out) and i dont want him to roll over on them by accident but he is a great dad.

Thank you for all your info and opinions,very gratefull.here`s a pic of the pups at 11 days old.

 I have always let my males interact with puppies once the puppies are active and playing - but ONLY when I am supervising.  There is not usually a problem but I would NEVER leave them unattended with a male (or a female other than the mother).