Down in Puppy Town

I am at present flooding Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr with — let us not put too fine a point on it — pictures of puppies.  Fortunately, this move has generally been well received.   Finnmar described the image supply, on behalf of her colleagues, as the “next ‘aw’ moment” and an anonymous well-wisher was kind enough to request its continuance on formspring.

Conversation with my own colleagues has revealed a small variety of questions and queries and “oh, I didn’t know that moments” about very young puppies, so in the spirit of self-indulgence and public information, I thought I would make a modest list of Facts! about this topic.  It’s knowledge, bro.*

• Puppies are not only blind at birth but also deaf.  Their ears start to open at around the same time as their eyes, which is any time after ten days old.  This process I described on Twitter thus:
  • The eyes of a puppy open like a zip, from a keyhole in the corner nearest the nose to the final outer edge, around 36 hours later. #
  • They are unfocused blue orbs and regard the world with languor rather than curiosity. #
• When a puppy is born, its rear legs aren’t yet fully functioning.  A puppy stands up for the first time on all fours sometime after the first week of life, but the action is so wobbly at first as to be indistinguishable from general flailing.
• Easy movement on all four legs takes longer for puppies from the short-legged breeds, including Norwich Terriers.  This doesn’t seem to slow the puppies down too much, as they have a proto-mobile action that owes something both to seals and to breaststrokers.**
• Despite their limited range of senses, newborn puppies are not mute.  Even healthy puppies have a range of expressive wails that summons their dam.  My experience has been that dog puppies are much quicker to use these than bitches.
• Some puppies make barking sounds very early; others don’t.  My younger dogs seemed to learn to bark by copying the older dogs.    There is a point in the life of a juvenile dog — at a few months old, perhaps — at which its voice “breaks” and its little yappy bark becomes deeper.  Sometimes this happens in an instant, much to the surprise of the dog!
• Young puppies nails grow rapidly and need trimming so they don’t catch on each other or their dam while feeding.  See a further point on this here.
• When born, Norwich Terrier puppies’ ears are flat and on the side of their heads.  By the end of the first day, their ears “pop out” and will later move around to the top of the head (although sometimes they drop, and then re-prick, as they get bigger).
• Red Norwich Terriers are born with a grizzle coating of dark guard hairs, which makes them look dark brown.  These hairs will later die and can be plucked out, painlessly, to reveal the red coat beneath.
• Black and tan puppies have a sleeker coat at birth with less-obvious guard hairs.  When born, they are often almost completely black, with the tan on their faces and legs appearing much later in a manner similar to a receding hair- or tide-line.
• One reason that very young puppies often yawn while being handled is the way in which all dogs use yawning to calm themselves or others.  Too much handling is stressful for puppies unless they are being handraised (ie, without their dam).
• Nursing puppies are surprisingly tidy as the dam both stimulates their excretory organs by licking them, then cleans up after them.  Once the puppies start to take solid food, things work by themselves and the responsibility for cleaning up falls to the breeder!

Since not everyone is interested in breeding trivia, let me conclude with a slideshow.

* A hat-tip, as ever, to Stephen for this phrase.

** A puppy that can’t stand because of a shallow-sprung chest is called a swimmer and requires intervention, usually taping of the legs, to get it up and going.  These puppies don’t always thrive. Fortunately I have no experience of this — which means that my explanation may be incorrect.