Puppies are well.
Clover and Paintbrush
They all had pedicures again yesterday, Sage is recovering well from his abscess, and weight gain continues.
We have a new name on the Leaderboard for the Heavyweight Champion of the Whelping Box: Lupine!
Lupine says: Training for the title is hard work!
Lupine weighed 38.1 ounces this morning, narrowly beating out Sage (38.0 ounces); Clarkia is in third place at 37.75 ounces.
Clarkia resting up for the competition.
The puppies were eager to show off their walking skills this morning.
Sage
There is still a lot of tipping going on but you have take some falls to get good at anything — excellent life lesson from the Wildflowers: Just keep getting up.
Eyes continue to crack open more and more — this is Mariposa peeking out from a triple-decker puppy pile.
The mouthing behavior is increasing…
…and this signals ability/willingness to engage with the external world in new ways. You will start to see new things in the whelping box — it is an appropriate time to give them expanding experiences.
Mallow with one of the Bobs
I take advantage of their willingness to engage by sitting in the whelping box (thank you, Lori, for the whelping box deluxe seat) and individually handle each puppy, letting them interact with me by sniffing, licking, and nibbling. A rough job, right?!
Buttercup
The puppies eat about every 1.5 hours. Some worry this is a drain or burden on the mother — but probably because they have not experienced the effects of oxytocin.
When puppies nurse, oxytocin is released, causing the available milk to “let down” and Daisy visibly enters an Oxytocin Bliss.
Oxytocin releases milk, promotes maternal behavior, and appears “to play an important role in modulation of social bonding processes and stress regulation, and may be crucially involved in the promotion of mental health” (Olff et al., 2013, p. 1892).
All of the reading I am doing points to the importance of positive maternal care in the development of the newborn brain. The more we can get our mother dogs engaged in maternal behavior, the better it is for those puppies — and the people who will love them as they grow into adults.
Daisy and Larkspur
This means we should use oxytocin to our advantage, encouraging and supporting frequent nursing of puppies.
I have had no complaints from Daisy about this — I think she might actually be an Oxytocin Addict.
EVENING: PHOTOS FROM THE DAY
Mallow and Mariposa
Today I noticed lots of open mouths…
Paintbrush
…and opening eyes.
Doesn’t this look like Lupine just took out her brother — and is glad about it?!
Puppies were sitting today! This is Sage.
Mallow and Clarkia
Clean fleece and fed — the puppies are ready for bed.
Official Day 12 Puppy Pile
Good night!
Work Cited
Olff, M., Frijling, J., Kubzansky, L., Bradley, B., Ellenbogen, M., Cardoso, C., . . . Van Zuiden, M. (2013). The role of oxytocin in social bonding, stress regulation and mental health: An update on the moderating effects of context and interindividual differences. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 38(9), 1883-1894.