A guide to significant stages in puppy development (1-12 weeks)
You may have thought about different changes your puppies will go through in the first weeks of live and more so, when are those milestones gonna happen.
First two weeks are quite calm. Puppies are either sleeping or suckling. First days after being born, puppies are quite chatty. This is going to calm down very quickly. The most crucial thing is for them to drink colostrum within 24-48 hours, which contains immunoglobulins capable of passing through the intestinal wall only during those first hours of life. However they have to drink milk every 2-3 hours, so they have to drink for the first time within three hours after birth. If not milk from the mother, than at least formula milk.
Their eyes and ears are still closed and they cannot urinate or defecate on their own, so at this stage, they are completely dependent on their mother. The mother therefore licks the puppies to stimulate excretion. The first breathtaking milestone is the opening of the eyes. It’s something we all look forward to. This happens around the second week of life, but our pyrs opened their eyes around day 16. The ears open shortly after that. You will notice that the puppies will start to react when they hear you coming. At this time they are already starting to stand and walk on all four limbs.
Around three weeks, their thermoregulation will also start to kick in. Until then, you have to take care to ensure their bodies are warm to the touch and if not, you have to get them warm by a heating lamp or some other heating device. It is ideal to start deworming at the age of three weeks, because it can be nicely alternated with the vaccination, which comes at the 6th week. You have to deworm every two weeks so it would be week 3,5 and 7. After the age of three weeks, everything starts to happen very quickly. They start to play with each other and they start to urinate and defecate on their own. Between 3-4 weeks of life, their teeth will also start to grow and the mother will be less willing to breastfeed. When this happens, you will know you have to start introducing solid food. I usually start with meat, such as chicken breasts with vitamine-mineral premix, or kibbles soaked in hot water or broth.
They can be completely weaned between 5-8 weeks of life. In terms of behaviour, between 7-8 weeks there is a period of fear when puppies seem to be afraid of new things and it can last until around the 12th week. Therefore, it is important to slowly socialize them and introduce them to new people and objects from 3-4 weeks on, so that this period goes as smoothly as possible. In the end only as much that between 11.-13. weeks of life, the imprinting phase occurs, when the puppy attaches itself to the person or animal that spends the most time with it during this period, so it is best that they are already at home with their new owners at this age.
