[Dailydrool] adults and puppies

[Beverly Szaton]

I think I have advanced this theory before, but I'll do it again and I have
no proof of this. It is purely anecdotal and based on what I have seen with
our own dogs.

I believe that adult dogs (other than the Mother and a chosen few) avoid
much interaction with small puppies.Small puppies being under about 12 or 16
weeks of age. I think that there is a built-in inhibition against playing
with little babies. They are small and breakable. They scream when things go
wrong or they get scared, and it is easy to scare a baby dog. Therefore,
adult dogs avoid puppies until the puppies are a little bigger physically,
and can hold their own in a wrestling match or a gentle game of alligator
mouth.This also makes sense from a survival of the species point, if you
want to do it that way.

Mitchell was one of the few adult dogs I had that always played with babies.
He would lay on his side and let them chew on him, climb on him, bite him,
pull his ears,his tail, his feet.He never retaliated. He would lay there and
his tail would wag. He LOVED puppies.

I think that you have to give the two time. When the pup is a little bigger,
my guess is, they'll become much better friends. Don't push it.

MomPerson to Nigel, Llewis, Conley and Cooper
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