 Thank you for all of your responses.
The mother and daughter are both very relaxed. They are my only dogs. The only time pup got stressed was when I locked her away from the family. That played out with peeing and pooping in the house and crying ...but she has never liked being alone. There is now no stress from either one thank goodness but I understand your concern. I have relocated them to a room where I have large kennel so I can shut Minnie mom out but still be in same room when I'm not supervising. This seems to have helped.
A few years ago I had one of my dogs adopt a baby kitten. The dog was 5 years old and never had a pregnancy. The kitten suckled and very quickly my dog developed milk and she nursed that kitten for quite some time.
My one year old did not seem to have false pregnancy. She did just recently seem to have a hormone surge but I think it was after the suckling and milk came in. but I'm not an expert.
They are both sweet and calm girls and through the day today they have seemed to tag team the mothering. Most of the nursing is mom and daughter does the bottom licking. No one is stressed or killing. But I still don't leave the daughter with family un supervised nor at night. And mom seems very content to share the load.
Thanks everyone. |