Freckles Bonding With Tucker

[Guest LJS1993]

Lately it seems like Freckles has really bonded well with Tucker, with Tucker bonding likewise with Frek. In many ways Frek has really started to "mom" Tucker. She will groom him from time to time, and is very protective of him at the dog park. I have to be carrying Tucker around in her sight or else she starts to get anxious as to where he is. I think Freckles would have been a good mother if we would have chosen to breed her thus not having her spayed. Is this pretty much atypical of dogs? Are BC females exceptionally good mothers? It's almost like Frek and Tuck speak their own language at times. It's so cool to see Freckles laying on her back, playing around, letting Tucker nibble on her. Great behaviors to observe.

[flrpwr52]

Zoe watched out for and took care of Ari when she was little and now the 2 big girls do the same for Kya. They don't let too many dogs get close to Kya, at the dog park, without one of them near her.

Kya has just turned 7 months and I can see there are changes happening. All of the girls still play well together but Zoe and Ari are starting to give her more space and don't watch her as much.

 

It is so much fun to watch them interact and grow up together.

[Bo Peep]

I had a spayed female BC that took on a litter of kittens. She would let them nurse on her and would lick them clean. Of course I had to feed bottles. The mother barn cat had abandoned them. I have it on old video tape. They were black & white and they looked like puppies at that point. Only time you could tell was when they raised their heads and "meowed" How funny.

[Alaska]

Some dogs (not just our hallowed breed) are darn good surrogate moms:

 

 

Read the whole story here: Finnegan the Squirrel

[clara]

My female black Lab mix I had when we got Ling was very aggressive toward other dogs (she was an older rescue and I did not have nearly enough dog savvy/experience to deal with as well as I could have), even puppies most of the time. But for some reason when my sister brought Ling into the house, Monie took her over, groomed her all the time, slept with her, played little puppy games of tug laying down with her, let her steal her toys, protected her fiercely from any rough housing play Bingo tried to instigate, etc.

 

Monie had bone cancer, and liked to snuggle with me on the couch a lot in her last month of life since she couldn't use one of her rear legs. Once during this last stretch, she and I were sitting in the big living room with the sliding glass door open, and she heard Ling yelp from being run over by Bingo, all the way out in the back part of the yard. She sprang to her feet and barrelled out that door on three legs faster than I could blink, and knocked that boy right on his butt before he could blink. Trevor likes to say that Monie was the queen of our house, and trained Ling very well to be the princess she is today.

 

So my muttly Lab mix was an excellent surrogate mother, I imagine it just varies from dog to dog, not breed to breed. It is fun watching it happen though!!! They'll be tight the rest of the their lives probably.

[mbc1963]

My male dog has some of the same tendencies. He's not overly social, and can be downright mean when he's grouchy - I have to watch all his new meetings closely, in case he gets tense and goes after the other dog. But there was a tiny black lab puppy at the park where we walk, and after they walked near each other for a few minutes, Buddy got absolutely GOOFY with him! He let the puppy "hug" him around the neck while biting his face, let the pup hit him really hard, and would even fake roll over three times, as if the puppy had really knocked him for a loop. It was hilarious to watch. So, maybe not a surrogate mother, but a surrogate "fun uncle?"

 

Gotta love the way they give puppies a break.

 

Mary

[setsail]

My friend recently got a male aussie pup. Her border collie mix has shown a little dog aggression and leash aggression. He also is very dominate with Jackson. She was worried about him and the puppy together. Wiley LOVES his puppy. He grooms him, licks him, lets the puppy climb all over him. He gets anxious when the puppy is crying. He lets the puppy push him around. So it is the same behavior between 2 males. But Wiley has always had a dog to "protect". It was obvious that Jackson was "his". If Jackson gets in a little scuffle Wiley defends him. Then he lived with another dog and often protected him. For the past year he has been an only dog and his anxiety has been very high and he resource guards my friend from other dogs. He's had his puppy for about 2 months now and if finally relaxing a bit.

[sandra s.]

Kessie can't stand actual puppies, but she treats Kyla almost as if she still had a "puppy license". Kyla is over a year old, though (past puppy license age before we even adopted her). I really don't know why that is...it's fun to watch though. The kid will chew on her ears, climb around on all of us, knock toys on her head, steal her stuff, and even practise "dominance" signals like a muzzle bite, and she has no problem with any of that at all. At some point she will get enough and show her teeth for a moment - game over.

 

I'm sure I only get half of what's going on between them, but what I see is often funny enough! I'm also pretty sure their relationship has something special because they're both BCs.

[silhouettestable]

Thunder (a neutered male) liked playing Daddy to our new pups when they came home. He was always licking them, letting them chew on him, crawl all over him, snuggle with him etc. and for the first while he would put himself between them and our other dogs. Back when we had great danes and we got a new kitten our female dane (Perdie) would protect the kitten from her brother Pongo. Pongo always had a look on his face like he's love to eat the kitten but Perdie would lick the kitty until he was soaked and growl and snap at Pongo if he came near. Just to be safe the kitty stayed in the basement away from the danes when we weren't at home. Of course, that kitten loved to play inside Noah's mouth. He'd get playing with Noah, who would open his mouth to bark or play bite and the kitten would be right in there, upside down with his paws wrapped around Noah's face and biting onto his lips or cheeks. I wanted to name him Spaz but my daughter called him Cutie-Pie

[NorthfieldNick]

Lu, who is 6? maybe (rescue) treats Nick, who was 3 in June, like a puppy. Let's him beat her up, etc. Although when she's had enough, and he ignores the warnings, she'll grab & flip him. Can't be too bad- Nick always comes back for more. Lu had puppies before I adopted her (3 years ago), and she goes NUTS for puppies! Even the sound of them crying on TV sets her off. She tried to mother any half-grown dog we meet on trail. She is, of course, spayed now, but that mothering instinct just kicks in!

 

Come to think of it, Lu even mothered the very sad bottle lamb I had in the house two years ago (made it through this lambing season with NO bottle lambs- thank goodness for easy-foster-mother Cotswolds!) She crawled in the box with the lamb and wrapped herself around it to keep it warm... she loved that thing! (She pretty much avoids sheep. In her mind sheep=hotwire=ouch). 'Course, that lamb was hell on the BCs until the day he got butchered!

 

My sister's lab protects their bantam chickens. A friend's dog was over playing & he went after the little hens. Magic came out of nowhere & body slammed the poor dog & growled at him! We were all surprised! Magic looks ashamed when she barks at the UPS man- not a mean bo.e in her body- but good golly, don't go after "her" chickens!

[Shadows Mom]

Penny mothers Shadow too, its very cute We were worried Penny would.. umm.. I dunno.. eat Shadow or something

[vickim]

My Whisper does not like puppies, even though she was a mom, probably several times over, before she came to me to live. I've notice it in my home, when a visitor brought a puppy over (the pup jumped on me from behind when I wasn't expecting it; that made me yell and that was all it took for Whisper to attack. Tht pup was only playing, but Whisper took it as an attack). In the pet store, there are sometimes puppies, and she's acted agressive towards them. I don't take her to the pet store at all anymore. My niece recently got two Pit Bull puppies and brought them over to show them off--she stayed outside with them and I refused to let Whisper out to interact with them. I would say that it's just a Pit Bull thing--she seems to hate any all all Pits, but the puppy in the pet store was a BC.

 

I err on the side of caution. I don't let her near puppies, or go anyplace that might have puppies (except the vet; then she is on a very short leash). Maybe there is a gene for mothering?