in the natural world.
A wolf pup spends the first part of its life, around six months, in close proximity to the den where it is raised. During these months it passes through the first distinct phases of its life.
For the first three weeks or so, the wolf pup is utterly dependent on its mother. It remains close to her at all times, suckling from her bosom in the den. During this time, the family unit remains undisturbed by the rest of the pack. Despite being the leader of the pack, even their father, the alpha male, stays away during this time.
After three weeks or so, the puppies will be able to walk and make their first, furtive movements away from their mother. At the same time their father, the alpha, and the rest of the pack begin interacting with them. A wolf pack is a well-oiled machine, a tightly knit team in which each member knows its place and its job. And from the very beginning each wolf is groomed to take its position in that chain of command.
During the pups’ first weeks every adult wolf has become ‘broody’, producing a hormone called prolactin. They know the newcomers represent the pack’s future survival. They know too that more than half of the new litter will not survive into adulthood. Disease, starvation and predators claim 60 per cent of young wolves before they reach the age of two. So as the pups emerge into the den, the pack begins the job of educating their new members about the day-to-day realities of surviving lupine life.
The messages the pups receive during this phase are powerful and formative ones. They see how facial expression and body language convey important signals about status. They learn how their elders use these signals to avoid confrontations. They see that rank is determined by a combination of experience and personality, with the stronger characters rising to the top of the pack. And by watching the way the grown-up wolves interact, particularly with the alpha male, the pups get their first glimpses of how the very top of that hierarchy works.
But the most immediate lessons they learn come from play. As they begin chasing, retrieving and play-fighting with their siblings, they develop their physical abilities and begin to see where their strengths – and ultimately their place in the pack – lie. This is the very beginning of their preparation for fully-fledged membership of the pack. In time the natural herders, stalkers and attackers will emerge.
By the time it is eight weeks or so old, a wolf pup will be ready to venture a little further afield. It will begin to chase insects, birds or other creatures that gather around the pack. The play rituals it undergoes with its siblings and other members of the pack will intensify. The young wolf will develop its abilities to run and jump, wrestle and bite, skills that it will come to need when it joins the hunters. Any ideas a young wolf might have of heading off on the hunt will be quickly dispelled, however. Leaving the den at this stage would make it vulnerable to attack by predators. The senior wolves will give pups a signal, delivered in clear, unequivocal terms: ‘Stay at home; you’re not ready to join us yet.’ They will also choose one senior wolf to remain with the pups. Once again, the hierarchy of the pack – and the young wolf’s place within that structure – is driven home.
By the time it reaches its fifth and sixth months, the wolf pup is developing fast both physically and mentally. Inside the den and around its perimeter, the building blocks are continuing to be laid for its emergence – eighteen months or so down the line – as a mature, adult wolf.
It may seem hard to equate the life of a wild animal to that of the lovable creature that shares your life but it is crucial that you do. The stages of their development are very similar, as are their capabilities at each age. Certain wolf instincts are hard-wired into the brains of domestic dogs, and it is only by seeing your pet as a domesticated wolf that you will be able to understand its behaviour and learn how to deal with it effectively.
In this book, I’ll explain all about looking after dogs from birth up to six months, and show the ways in which your puppy’s ancestors continue to affect it today.
Chapter 2 - Your Puppy’s First Weeks of Life
Most people will acquire a puppy some time after it is eight weeks old. For you to understand your puppy properly, it is important that you understand what goes on during those first eight weeks. How has it developed? What have been the most important moments so far? What factors do you need to bear in mind as you take over ownership of a puppy?
THE EARLY HOURS – BIRTH AND BEYOND
The first few moments of a dog’s life are traumatic. The newborn puppy emerges from the warm, safe, dark environment that is the womb into a world filled with new smells and sensations.
Fortunately its mother will be there to reassure and care for it. She will be fixated on its welfare for the crucial first two to three weeks to come.
Because it can’t hear or see, the newborn puppy has very little concept of what is happening during the first ten days. It does not yet have any concept of its self or its siblings. It can do little more than sleep, drag itself on to its mother’s teat when it feels the need for food and whine when it is feeling cold, hungry or in pain.
The mother’s role is all-encompassing during this phase. As well as feeding her pups, she also stimulates them to defecate and urinate then eats their faeces and licks up the urine so as to keep the den clean and free from germs. Not only is she the sole source of food but she is also the only means of keeping warm. A newborn pup can’t generate or retain heat so contact with its mother is vital for its survival. This is why the mother hardly strays more than a couple of feet from her newborns during this phase of their young lives.
Yet even at this point, the first signs of personality and status are emerging within the litter. The mother’s teats are arranged in pairs along the length of her belly, with the best supply of milk available from the middle teats. Already the litter will have begun jostling for access to these prime feeding stations. Some will have forced themselves on to the best teats, while others will have been forced to feed off the less available outer and forward teats. Some may even have been pushed away from the teats altogether and it’s possible they might die.
TEN DAYS TO THREE WEEKS OLD
The first major turning point in a dog’s development comes at about ten days. Around this time the eyes begin to open, ungluing themselves from the inside to the out over a period of three to four days. They then learn to focus. At the same time their hearing is beginning to come into operation as well.
With these senses functioning, puppies become aware of the environment around them. Although they spend a huge proportion of their time sleeping they are also noticing – to their surprise – that they are not alone: they have siblings. They learn to recognise their mum by look and by sound as well as by smell. They start sniffing the perimeter of the whelping box as if signalling their readiness to explore the wider world. They will begin getting up on their legs, trying to find their balance and co-ordination and make their first tentative steps. There is a lot of investigation of what they are capable of – and what others are capable of. The puppies will begin climbing over each other, trying to gain height advantage over their siblings. There is a lot of sparring and blatting at this point. There are practical lessons to learn too. At this time, for instance, they learn to lap water from a bowl.
All this activity comes in short bursts, however. Within a maximum of five minutes they will be asleep again.
THREE TO EIGHT WEEKS
By the three-week point in puppies’ development, with their eyes, ears and nose all now functioning, they are reacting more to sight, smell and sound. They start to bark and make more sounds. They start to wag their tails. They start scratching themselves and shaking their heads. And they start play fighting with their siblings. This is an extension of the interaction
