Dogs Show Parental Behavior—Don’t They?
They say i decide but i i never did that i i respect nature a bit too much and the female that doesn't accept the nail she has some reasons for that that's a good one so if you're playing with three medium puppies but then you see a really fearful one in the corner you might want to think about not taking one of the three.
hi and welcome to another 10 minutes with professor abrantis good episode for you today we are going to talk about parental behavior your dog's mom your dog's dad how important are they what do they do lots to cover here so professor of.
Branches parental behavior um where where do you want to start with this well we can start by well you already explained that it's the behavior of the parents with the mom and dad and uh i think normally people ask about mums you know so let's start with maternal behavior.
Right okay maternal behavior all right maternal behavior is is many things and it's very complicated and very easy to because the goal is to have the youngsters to survive and be healthy and be able to fend for themselves until the age where they will reproduce and.
Pass their genes to the next generation again so what mothers do well mothers do a lot first they have the choice of partner and after that mating after that they carry the puppies then they give birth and then starts nursing and then starts the education of the puppies which is.
Very important because when the puppies are born they they have the kind of disposition innate disposition to show certain behaviors but i don't know what those behaviors will achieve or as we used to say the meaning of those behaviors so they have to learn it it's the mother that is teaching them.
What things mean what they do how what response they can expect so the mother is teaching them dog language and that happens very early when they begin moving around then you can see they begin interacting with another so they are sometimes a bit.
Nasty to one another out of ignorance and then they learn that oh if i bite so much then i get beaten myself so i better control myself next time and the same happens with the mother too they they when they see the mother they they think that she's kind of a milk machine you know and they they attack.
Her right away because they want food food milk milk milk and there is a time where the mother needs to recover so she's not available 24 hours a day so she where she has to teach the puppies no uh you stop there and she does that she she shows them very clearly some breathers and dog owners.
Get very scared that think oh she's being bad to the puppy she's being violent she's tired of them she needs to go out now or something it's not true the mother is actually teaching them dog language teaching them to be dogs they don't know how what it means to be a dog they need to learn to be social they need to learn to to accept that there is.
A line to respect others too not to cross that line and they have to to learn what are the consequences of crossing the line so let me ask you about um how would you know or would you think that a dog was going to be a good mother do they need to have had a good mother as an example is it all instinctual.
What what makes a good mother i don't have data sufficient data to give you a conclusive answer to that and i think that both factors play in one if they have the good mothers then they they retain some of that but i think much of it is instinctual as well.
Because i've seen uh dogs that had them you know poor conditions to to grow up and and uh and they developed into really good mothers so i i think him the the the jury is still out on that one okay and then i want to go back to something.
That you mentioned earlier also which is uh the mother's role and um choice of partner sometimes you know in our modern society they don't have any choice of partner no and so how how is that affecting the what we're seeing we choose which partners they're going to have because.
Our purpose is with the breeding the animals so they have to accept what we what we give them and sometimes they don't uh and and that is a bit of a problem i've never forced my females to accept the male if they didn't of course i had suggestions because i had a purpose with my my breathing.
Because i wanted to make my my behavioral studies so i i i introduced them to one another and then let's see how they reacted and if they if they reacted okay and if the female accepted the male and she thought that he was good fine let's go with it uh but if she if she didn't.
I i wouldn't force it like many breeders do they say i decide but i i never did that i respect nature a bit too much and the female that doesn't accept the nail she has some reasons for that i might not understand them but she has some reasons to do that okay so let's talk about the fathers so paternal paternal behavior how important.
We we talk about the mothers a lot but how important is is the father of the puppies that that's a very good question actually if you look behind me i have a little poster there that illustrates paternal behavior for a dog to be to show paternal behavior is not a question of of being the real father but.
Of of having the opportunity to be that if in the in the pack there are puppies a male with a certain level of self-confidence and respect for for itself will say well they are my puppies probably they are my purpose yeah they are so and you will take good care of them and.
It's interesting because it starts at the time where the mother begins to kind of create a certain distance and then the the puppies begin moving around being very active and um and the male gets interested in them and of course you know i described earlier how the the mother teaches them um behavior uh like.
Um pacifying behavior and submissive behavior and keep distance not cross the line all that the fathers do exactly the same the puppies are incredibly interested in getting accepted by the male the male gets close to the puppies they all swarm around the the male to you know.
And leaking and and laying down in front within a full um active submissive behavior for the male to lick their bellies and to show that the male accepts them they don't get scared by getting an adult to to show them their place quite contrary they apparently consider.
That i'm guessing but they consider that a proof of that the they can trust that adult to come and protect them in other situations that is at least what um the behavior allowed me to kind of conclude interesting you have to be careful of course because we are we don't know you.
Know we don't know what they think we don't know what they we don't we don't know we are concluding from observations sure if you're able if you're lucky enough to be able to see both the mother and the father of a puppy you're considering adopting how much of their behavior can.
You expect to see in your puppy how you know how how does that work yeah if you saw if you saw bad behavior from the mother would you take the puppy from them no i would if i see bad behavior from the mother the father and i always want to see others if they have.
Uncles and aunts and half siblings i want to see them and if i see bad behavior from from any of them then i would not take the puppy that's for sure my rule of thumb was show me the best and show me the worst in the leader what would make a puppy the worst like why would you say puppy you're the worst in the liver one that.
That is more timid or or anything extreme you know that would be the the death stream show me the extremes okay and then you ask yourself would i take one of those if if if they were the only ones available and if you say no i wouldn't take them then don't take any of the others either.
Because those that you won't take share a lot with those that you would take you understand yeah so i would but if you look at those extremes and say ah it doesn't matter if these are the only ones available i take them then you can take whichever of them because.
They will share a lot of of the things that you apparently like okay so that's a rule of thumb that's a good one so if you're playing with three medium puppies but then you see a really fearful one in the corner you might want to think about not taking one of the three yes medium behaved puppies and if the one that annoys you most you still think.
No i would take this one anyway so you can take anyone all right great um if you want to know more about puppies we actually have a great course at the ethology institute it's all about puppies you can learn about puppies a little bit about maternal behavior and.
All this stuff that we're talking about and as always if you have any questions go ahead and drop them in the comments and we'll see if we can get you some answers so check out all about puppies at athology.edu you can also read articles on maternal behavior and articles on puppies you can even buy merchandise you can take courses.
Certification courses for all you dog trainers out there you can get an ethology institute uh certification all kinds of good stuff at athology.edu thank you again professor abrams and we'll be back with another 10 minutes with professor breakfast thank you.
