New mother bites

[Rex]

Hi,

 

We have been working with border collies for 18 years now on our farm. We use them to work with our cattle.Now we have a 6 year old female border collie. Two days ago she gave birth for the first time to 3 puppies.

It was a difficult birth, the first puppie was to big and died. The 2 other ones are healthy.

She is really defensive towards her puppies.

She is happy to see me, wags her tale, licks me,

but from the moment she even thinks that I'm going to touch her puppies, she goes for my hand.

she doesn't really bite (yet) she just touches me.

Does anyone have experience with this?

What is the best way to handle this?

I hope someone can help me with this...

[AK dog doc]

Some dogs ARE very defensive of their puppies, and if disturbed excessively may either start biting in earnest, move the pups, or kill them. They're all different - some can't wait to show off the puppies, others want you to babysit while they go out for a little mosey, but some don't want you messing with them. I think her warnings are to let you know she isn't comfortable with you disturbing the pups and that she is showing good restraint by not biting outright. She may relax about it on her own in a few days - or she may not. If you need to check the pups to see that they are well (and/or clean the whelping box), you might for the time being do that while she is outside having a potty break. I'd also limit the number of people and the times and circumstances in which they are allowed to see her and the puppies. While it is good for the puppies to get used to being handled (gently) by people, they're not a public attraction, and she may need a few days to get the hang of mothering before she's ready for more human interaction with the babies.

 

If she's doing a good job mothering them and they are growing and plump and not fussing, then it's probably not critical that you do a ton of handling in the first few days anyway. Giving her some privacy (by which I mean a little quiet time, not ignoring her completely or neglecting anyone) and spending a little "friendly" time with her away from the pups (so that she remains on comfortable footing with you, without her maternal defensiveness coming into play) will probably help her feel like life is still "normal" even if different than before. Being a mother is a gigantic adjustment and a lot to handle. Some dogs are more inclined to be social about it than others. I've known perfectly capable mothers who were not comfortable with anyone - even a trusted owner - touching the pups until they reached a certan age, at which time the mother usually becomes less protective (and this time seems to vary per dog.) Bear in mind that your dog is only a few days postpartum and that she is an inexperienced mother.

 

You can test her willingness to let you handle the pups by carefully watching her body language when you are in the room with her and the pups, and how that changes if you approach the whelping box. I do NOT advise putting yourself in a position where she feels a need to bite you. If she feels a need to bite you, you've put too much pressure on her (not to mention that you've gotten bitten, which is not that much fun.) If you can determine what distance you need to be at for her to be comfortable, you might just sit yourself down at that distance and hang out - WITHOUT making any moves towards the pups - until she relaxes. You can try moving closer at small increments, and don't press her til she's relaxed and comfortable with each new increment (and bear in mind this may be something you do over the course of several days, depending on her comfort level). If she gets used to you being next to her and the pups without feeling like you're threatening them, she may be more quickly inclined to trust you to touch them. If she's defensive and you push her, she's going to be more defensive, not less. Also bear in mind that dogs are masters of reading body language, so for some bitches even looking at the pups is putting pressure on them, and if your body language seems to have any intent whatsoever towards the pups she may read that as threatening. Hence the thing about relaxing and just hanging out - read a book, have your morning coffee, read her the stock report from the paper - do something that has nothing to do with her and the pups, but just allows her some time to get used to you in the new context of her puppies. And, of course, praise her praise her praise her for every concession she makes towards letting you near the babies. If she's food-motivated, you can experiment with bringing her treats and letting her come out of the whelping box to you for a snack (assuming she's not busy with mothering), so that you-plus-her-near-pups is HER idea.

 

As a BTW, six is old for a first litter. In female dogs fertility is generally on the decline by about that age (and in males, about 8), so small litters (and therefore large puppies, which are difficult to whelp) are more common. I realize that in working dogs, the bitch may not have proven herself as breeding-worthy at a younger age, and that sometimes they ARE older by the time they've shown that they are good enough workers to be worth breeding; but just bear in mind that with an older bitch on a first pregnancy, the risk of complication is higher, and plan accordingly. Oh, yeah, and as a further BTW, small litters sometimes produce "swimmer pups". This means that since there are only a few pups, they get a ton of food and grow rapidly, while at the same time not being tumbled around by their littermates or having to compete for nipples, so sometimes they end up too much on their bellies, and their little limbs do not develop properly. Sometimes they also have a flat chest (rather than a deep one) from laying on it too much. This is nearly always reversible with physical therapy as long as you get to it soon enough, but you can help avoid it by giving them a surface which has traction (not linoleum or tile) so they can start pushing themselves up and walking on their little legs (instead of just "swimming" around on their bellies). One of my nurses currently has a darling little mini Schnauzer who started as a swimmer pup. She is perfectly normal, though she at one point had hind legs fused in place and twisted. She started PT at 3.5 weeks and was pretty much normal by 5 or 6 weeks. Just FYI.

 

Anyway, it's now nearly 4 a.m. here so I think I'm going to go back to bed. Good luck with this.