Day 28-Today’s Life Lesson; “Learning the art of the small dog bed-love it or leave it”.

Miss Pink with Sugar learning the ropes about a small dog bed…..

The puppies are getting more adorable by the minute, so it’s a good thing that they are heading for their next part of their journey in a little over a week or I don’t think I could stand it!

Their eyes and facial expressions have become so animated; they are recognizing and responding to our voices and calls from a distance, and even just sleeping they melt my heart! (Okay, so in all honesty they don’t melt my heart when I have to get up at 2 or 3 am to do a middle of the night poop clean-up to make sure they aren’t wearing it by morning, but they more than make up for it during the rest of the day!) They are seeking out companionship and playtime with humans and they are awake for much longer periods during the day.

They are also progressing wonderfully on regular food. They still nurse, but now twice a day they get “supplemented” with puppy food to take some of the stress off of Sugar so the demand on her isn’t too high and because they simply need more food for those growing bodies and brains! Slowly over the next few weeks their puppy food intake will increase and they will be weaned from Sugar to allow her to return back to “pre-puppy” status.

Sugar wondering “When are these puppies getting weaned???”

The litter doing a great job a learning to eat politely

Patiently waiting for me to climb into their space and play with them!

Miss Krackle (right) has been an incredible aunt for the puppies, and Sugar seems to adore her companionship during this litter! Sometimes Sugar will even get up from her place to search out Krackle and lay by her 🙂

I’ve always chuckled trying to figure out why these big labs love small beds but I love them for it!!! Some people say that it offers a sense of security being in a tight space like a small dog bed which makes sense-I just wish I would have known that before I spent hundreds of dollars purchasing large dog beds for them when they first came to our house! (At the end is an article about the small bed/big dog phenomenon:)

Miss Green has decided that laying her ear in the water bowls feels oh so good….

This is the cuteness that overwhelms me-every.single.day.

Even though they are four weeks old, they still get to train on skills that they are going to need in their future. We work every day on calm, fun skills and the boring “learning to do nothing and trusting me while I hold you on your back” skills!

And then we add a few “look adorable and let me snuggle you” skills just for good measure!!

Loving snuggle time~

Ask A Vet: Why Does My Big Dog Love To Sleep On A Little Bed?

by Dr. Kathryn Primm

We laugh when we see photos of very large dogs trying to curl up in tiny dog beds. We wonder why in the world that big dog would choose to lie on that little bed when there is a bigger one visible in the photo.

To try to explain this phenomenon we have to look at who the dog is.

In such a situation, there are clearly at least two dogs in the environment and one is large and one is small. It is not the case in all situations, but most veterinarians would agree that small dogs tend to have the attitude of much bigger and tougher dogs. And bigger dogs are often gentle giants who accept their lot with serenity.

We can’t always explain why an individual dog prefers one thing over another, but all dogs want to feel safe and secure in the place that they sleep. Having a bed in a size that is small enough to touch the dog’s body on all sides may make him feel swaddled and safe. Some dogs certainly take the swaddling concept to an extreme, like when a Great Dane tries to sleep in a Chihuahua’s bed. But the swaddling and safety concepts may still apply.

We can surmise that the smaller bed belongs to the smaller dog and so it is a prized resource. Because the small dog likely has a very plucky nature, the large dog may look to the smaller dog for guidance. So he might feel protected in the bed that has been pre-approved by the smaller dog.

Our human tendencies make us want to believe that the smaller dog ousted the big dog from his more desirable big bed, but this may not be the case. Only someone who carefully watches their dogs interact could say for sure.

One thing is for sure- we have fun captioning photos of big dogs spilling out of tiny beds and they seem none the worse for the wear and may even prefer the tiny bed every time!

Ask A Vet: Why Does My Big Dog Love To Sleep On A Little Bed?

by Dr. Kathryn Primm

Share this:

Like this:

Related

Leave a Reply Cancel reply