First Nail Trim

The puppies are two weeks old today and there are a lot of exciting things happening in their development. Let's start out with ther first nail trim.

The pups have fully-formed nails when they are born and they grow quickly, forming needle-like points. When the pups nurse they knead the area around the nipple with their front feet to stimulate their mom to drop her milk and their nails can cause deep, painful scratches. It’s important for us to keep the nails trimmed. At the very least it’s uncomfortable for the mother to be scratched like that. In the worst case the scratches lead to infection.

We use a human toe nail clipper to cut off the sharp points. The puppies squirm around a lot, but it’s a reaction to being restrained, not having their nails cut. As long as we’re careful not to cut into the quick it doesn’t hurt them. As they get used to being handled the whole operations becomes easier. Harriett’s gotten very good at trimming the nails of a squirming pup. They are surprisingly strong.

Another milestone at two weeks is that the puppies are beginning to hold themselves up when they move. Soon they will be able to walk. If you look closely at this picture you’ll see this pup is starting to pull his back feet under his body. He’s already got his front feet straight and is able to lift his chest off the ground. In another week he’ll be walking.

And finally, we’ll start watching for teeth. They aren’t there yet, but you can already see the bumps in the gums where the teeth will be coming in. We monitor them closely because we can start to wean the pups onto solid food as they get their teeth. The canines will be the first to come in another week or so.

Many other physical changes will be happening over the next two weeks. Their muzzles are getting longer, their eyes are open and the will begin to see, and their ears will open enabling them to hear. By the end of the fourth week the pups will look and move like little dogs. Now is the time for us to take an active involvement in their behavioral development as well.

Both of us will handle each pup a few times each day and once the teeth come in we begin working on bite inhibition. If the pups don’t have positive human contact over the next eight to twelve weeks they will never be able to recover. By starting now we will insure they will grow up to be well adjusted, sociable dogs who will make wonderful human companions. Our goal is that when they go back to the shelter for adoption they will seek out contact with people, won’t mind being held, and will not be mouthy.