A video recorded at the Sent from Heaven kennel in Deutsch Haslau, Austria, showed a mother golden retriever displaying her astonishing mothering skills, and she did not hesitate to teach her puppies a lesson, without swipes, scratches, or bites… But with something much more important.
The female dog named Rosalie knows exactly what she is doing. This was her fourth and final litter, and the puppies were already 8 weeks old, just as they were progressing through weaning.
The scene captured precisely this moment: the puppies were desperate to nurse. When Rosalie enters the room, the little ones lunge at her and try to reach her teats, but Rosalie wants and needs to teach them to stop nursing from her so they learn to feed on other things and manage to survive without her.
The golden made her boundaries clear with firm growls and barks, which the puppies immediately heeded. Once they had calmed down, Rosalie’s attitude changed completely: she came closer again, sniffed them, and attended to them affectionately.
It is her way of weaning them and, along the way, teaching them something that will serve them throughout their lives: Mom will no longer be available whenever they want, and they will have to learn to control their excitement and respect her signals.
And that is precisely why the first weeks alongside their mother and siblings are so important. Puppies do not just grow up alongside them: they learn how to be dogs.
By playing with their siblings, they discover, for example, how to control the force of their bite. If one bites too hard, the other may yelp or end the game. They also learn to interpret growls, postures, and other signals that tell them when another dog wants to play, is uncomfortable, or simply wants to be left alone.
Mom also sets boundaries. She does not always let them nurse, play with her, or do whatever they want, and these small refusals help puppies gradually cope with frustration and self-control. Rosalie demonstrates this perfectly: only when her little ones calm down does she come closer again.
That is why, except in exceptional circumstances, it is not recommended to separate a puppy from its mother and littermates before 8 weeks. Separating them too early has been associated with a higher risk of later behavioral problems, such as fear, anxiety, reactivity, and difficulties interacting appropriately with other dogs.
These lessons occur especially naturally within a litter, and a human can hardly reproduce them in the same way.