the pups' eyes are opening

This is the second developmental stage since birth.


Eyes and brain function together at 3 to 5 weeks. Functional hearing happens between 2.5-3 weeks and a fuller sense of smell (besides the current sense for the sugar in mother's milk) comes at about 4 weeks.


They're getting stronger too - they can totter on four legs for a step or two before collapsing in a squeaky heap. Getting around is mainly by wiggling along, using front legs and pushing with hind legs ... sorta like a tadpole, half out of the water.

a more palatial whelping box

thanks, John McG.!

The pups feeding this evening ... it's quite a competitive scrum!

For those that are asking: Allez! is 40cms high, 70cms long. She is slightly larger than Crunchie, the male dog.


She's slight: 10 kgs or so. Allez! and a pair of legs fit comfortably into the passenger leg-well in a medium sized car.

the pups today (29th August - day 9)

The photos have been processed with a software filter to bring out some of the tonal contrast. The lighting in the laundry is only a tungsten bulb, which casts a warm and relatively dim light.

... in Jamie's hands

After the first few days  of constant feeding, they're growing rapidly. I't almost as if they're born as compressed concertinas, and as they draw breath their rib cages expand. The lighter coats are darkening, and the pigmentation is darkening in both noses and paws.

Day 5 - some comments on the first week

At birth a puppy has only three senses: sweet taste (mother's milk), touch and cold stimuli. The eyes are closed at birth; there is no co-ordinated response of the brain to light, sound or smell.

The priorities of a new-born is warmth and food, to which the thermal, touch and taste reflexes are all committed. Puppy movement is one of sampling by trial and error for the warmest option. Contact of the head against the mother or another puppy stimulates a burrowing movement aimed to connect to a teat.
Location of the nipple is achieved by both touch and taste sensitivity to the sugar in milk.

The next major stage is when the eyes open at 8 to 11 days, and the visual system of eyes and brain starts to function from 3 weeks.


Functional hearing starts between 2 and 3 weeks, and a sense of smell at about 4. Movements become more co-ordinated and by four weeks following of the mother and play between puppies occurs.


The reflexes to urinate and defecate matures at 3 to 4 weeks, so the puppy can then eliminate without assistance from the bitch. by 4-5 weeks, the puppy moves to the edge and beyond the nest to toilet.


The period of 2-5 weeks is the time when there needs to be significant interaction between human and puppy if the dog is become well-adjusted. Gentle handling should start by 2-3 weeks. This "imprinting" involves the stimuli of both sight and smell ... and smell to the extent that a Dutch veterinary scientist recommends that young puppies are anointed with the underarm odours of their prospective owners! 


Too much information.

the feeding cycle

one of the seven pups, and the only fair one, asleep after feeding ...

and falling back down amongst the competition ...

two days old

one-day old puppies

... relocated from under the bedroom clothes bench to the laundry.

the first pup being born ...

this happened in the bedroom - there was some frantic nesting activity under the clothes bench, and then the first pup was born. 

After the birth she picked up the pup and took it under the bench.

We thought there were six, but in the morning discovered seven.

at home

resting up - 6th August. 14 days or so to go.

Gestation for dogs is approximately 63 days.