We know how important our moms are in our lives. When we stay far away from our mothers, there isn’t a single day that goes by when we don’t miss her. As a dog owner, you might wonder, is it the same for our doggy friends? ‘Do dogs miss their mom?’
Read on to understand more about our furry friends.
Do Dogs Miss Their Moms?
There is no conclusive research as to whether dogs miss their mothers, but dogs do recognize their mother’s scent. A newborn puppy will need its mother’s constant care and he will miss his mom, if separated as soon as he is born.
However, by the age of twelve weeks, if the pup has received good socialization at his new puppy home, he will do fine without his mom and might not even miss her.
Orphaned puppies would need a great amount of care from humans, as pet owners. They might not miss their mothers since they did not get to spend much time with them.
But an adult dog may recognize his mother’s scent even after years, especially if they have spent many first weeks together.
How Long Do Dogs Miss Their Moms?
For the first eight weeks of his life, the puppy needs to get the mother’s care and the mother’s milk. After that, the puppy may be separated from the mother. So, if your puppy has been separated from his mom before the period of 8 weeks, he will miss her for a few weeks.
Your puppy might show obvious signs of missing his mother like watching the door and you might see him crying for a while. But this won’t last long as he gets accustomed to the new home and socializes.
A dog will eventually accept the new home and the new owners as his forever place.
Later on in life, older dogs can recognize their mother’s scent since they spent the first few weeks together. However, one can only assume if he did miss his mom.
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Do Puppies Miss Their Mom?
Puppies need to spend the first eight weeks of their life with their mothers. If the puppy is separated from the mother during this time, he will not only miss his mother, he will also miss out on the necessary nutrition and social skills his mother and littermates will teach him.
When you bring a new puppy home, he might be confused, nervous, and might even cry for a while. But this is completely normal as he is in a new and unfamiliar place. However, the young puppy will soon learn and love his new home. He might not miss his mom after that.
Do Mother Dogs Miss Their Puppies?
Mother dogs do miss their puppies. Her maternal instincts drive her to protect and nurse her puppies and she will be able to recognize them even after years pass.
However, after the puppies turn seven to eight weeks old, the mother dog will gradually become distant. The more litter she gives birth to, the less emotional attachment she will have towards them.
Mother dogs might not miss their stillborn puppy or a dead puppy if they have one or more live puppies to take care of. However, if she loses all her puppies, a mother dog can go into a state of depression and mourning.
How Long Do Puppies Miss Their Mom?
For the first eight weeks of their life, puppies should not be separated from their mother at any cost. Then they can be taken one by one. Taking all of them at once can send the mother dog into mourning.
The puppies might miss their mothers, especially when they are in a new space. They might show:
- Refusal to play
- Anxiety
- Hiding
However, with patient care and constant soothing, the puppy will stop missing his mother within a few weeks.
On the other hand, an adult dog can remember the scent of his mother for around 1.5 to 2 years.
Do Mother Dogs Get Sad When Their Puppies Leave?
Separating your puppies from their mother will cause sadness in the mom dog. Separating the puppies from their mother should be a gradual process. The mother dog will be especially protective of her puppies the first few weeks after their birth.
Taking away all the puppies at once can lead to the mother dog mourning. So, separate one puppy at a time from the mother dog. This requires lots of patience.
Look out for the mother dog to complete the weaning process of her puppies. Take the puppies one by one so that they do not go into mourning or depression.
Do Father Dogs Know Their Puppies?
Father dogs are not as invested as the mother dogs are in the birth and nurturing of their puppies. They do not spend much time with their litter and thus may not recognize them.
Unlike a female dog, male dogs do not carry a parental instinct that strong. Of course, if the puppies get to spend their time with their father, the father might become sociable with them.
However, it is still debated if the father socializes with them realizing they are his children or if he socializes with them like with any other dog.
Do Dogs Forget Their Parents?
Dogs never forget the scent of their mother, if they have been together for the first few weeks of their growth. He will always recognize the scent of his mother.
As for his father, your dog might recall him as a familiar dog if they have spent time together while he was a puppy. However, can he recognize him as a father is a question that is still under research.
What To Do When Puppy Misses Mom?
Keep your dog engaged and soothe him through his restlessness.
- Using the mother’s scent to calm an anxious puppy
- Taking him frequently to the dog park
- Keeping him active all the time
- Spend time with him and create a precious bond with him.
- Soothe him through his anxiety and just be there for him
Staying away from his mother can be hard for a pup. But as a pet parent, you can do wonders.
Do Dogs Miss Each Other When Separated?
Dogs that share a deep connection and have spent a lot of time together will miss each other when separated. They will find it hard to settle without knowing where the other one is.
Loss and separation can gradually lead to depression in your dogs. They can lose interest in life. So, if you ever have to separate two dogs, do it gradually. It requires a lot of patience.
Do Dogs Miss Their Siblings?
Puppies will miss their littermates once they are separated from each other especially if they had spent their first weeks together, growing and playing.
If the new surroundings and the new owners socialize the puppies well, the puppy will adjust to the new homes and owners. They might be happy on their own, apart from their litter.
The question as to whether they miss their siblings is still under debate. But most of the time, a dog can identify kin.
If the dog has spent at least 16 weeks with his mother and littermates, chances are he will be able to recognize them. He will remember his siblings’ scent and their presence to comfort them.
Sometimes, separating the siblings is not a bad idea as they can develop littermate syndrome, a behavioral problem present in dog siblings that stay together for more than 8 weeks.
Do Dogs Miss Their Owners?
Yes, dogs do miss their humans, especially if they have a deep attachment. Your dog will wait for hours on end for you to come back.
Dogs can understand when a familiar human, an individual so important to them, is no longer there. He will miss his owner and will not forget his owner immediately.
Do Dogs Miss Their Owners When They Die?
Dogs do miss their owners when they are gone. However, it is unclear if they understand that their owner has died.
Dogs miss their owners and show obvious signs of the grief of separation. It is unclear if the dog understands that the owner has died. There are a lot of anecdotal stories about dogs grieving the death of their owner, like the story of Hachiko.
However, it is possible that these dogs were waiting for their owner’s return and did not understand that their owner had passed away.
There is no conclusive theory if dogs understand that their owner had died, all we can do is assume they know and support them if they show signs of grief.
Do Dogs Get Sad When They Change Owners?
Changing owners or rehoming can be a stressful event for dogs. If a dog leaves an owner with whom he is happy, he can miss his previous owner an awful lot.
He might show signs of depression and separation anxiety, if he has to leave his happy home, into new surroundings with new owners.
If his previous owner was abusive and neglectful, he may show signs of fear and aggression towards their new owners. Changing owners is a stressful process for our furry friend, so make sure you are patient with him.
Would Your Dog Eat You If You Died?
There is no surety that your dog won’t eat you after you die. Your dog or cat can eat you after your death.
A larger breed of dogs such as a great dane or german shepherd can cause more damage than a smaller breed of dog. But this is just because a large dog is more powerful to cause significant damage.
An absence of a response from the owner can trigger anxiety in the dogs. This will lead to them licking, nibbling, and ultimately eating the dead body.
Another reason why dogs do this is to survive. Once the owner is gone and they have no source of food, their only option is to survive the corpse.
Also Read: Can Dogs Eat Squirrels?
Conclusion: Do Dogs Miss Their Mom
As the owner of a new puppy, you might frequently ask, ‘do dogs miss their mom?”
Dogs need the presence of their mom in the first eight weeks of their lives. Later on in life, the dog never forgets the mother’s scent that gave birth to him and nurtured him.
