What a difference a week makes. (Click on a photo to see a larger size.)
The photo on the left was taken at two weeks, the one on the right was taken at three. Although the puppies’ teeth have not poked through, they are clearly visible within the gums and the canines are about to erupt. By next week they’ll have teeth and we will be weaning them away from Daisy and onto solid food.
I never tire of watching puppies play. Their favorite game is one we call “Mouth Games,” a mock fighting game. Mouth Games involves mouthing and “biting,” usually on the face, head and neck. When two pups play this game they will usually take turns being on top and it’s interesting to see them switching roles back and forth as each pup tries to keep the other interested in playing. The game has nothing to do with aggression and is all about learning bite inhibition. The critical learning comes when one of them bites too hard and their playmate calls a halt to the game. That’s not fun, so they learn early on not to bite very hard.
It’s much easier for puppies to teach each other not bite than it is for us to do it. That’s not to say we won’t have to do our part to teach them not to use their teeth on humans—I’ll post more about that later—but that’s why it is absolutely essential that puppies grow up together, in the litter, for eight weeks. Pups that are taken out of the litter too soon, as often happens with pups given away in parking lots or classified ads, tend to be very mouthy. This can be a very difficult problem to correct. We only get one chance to get this right.
The puppies’ instinct for play is amazing. We did some video of Frank, a 9-week old puppy from a previous litter, playing Mouth Games with his 9-year old mother Boogie, as well as with our youngest dog, 8-month old Sidney. At only 9 weeks, Frank knows all about play bows, shoulder rolls, body blocks, taking turns on top and bottom, and general dog play etiquette. When you watch the videos, note how gently Frank plays with his mother and how rough he is with young Sidney. That’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T!
So how does this start out? Here’s a video of this litter playing mouth games. Watch for this type of play on PuppyCam.
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