Do mother dogs get sad when their puppies get taken away?

Question

When a dog has her puppies they usually get taken away and put up for adoption. Does the mother feel any sadness?

Answer 1

Yes.

And if dogs can laugh then they can also cry.

It’s no joke: Even animals ‘laugh’
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7348880/

Answer 2

I believe that mother dogs do get sad. For instance my dog had a puppy not long ago and when she had it she took it our neighbor's house and so we brought it back. And because she took it over there we had to take the puppy inside our house so she wouldn't take it back over there because she bites people especially boys. And when we took the puppy she started to cry. Plus the puppy was almost a month old so in other words yes dogs especially mothers do get sad when their puppies are taken away. And if your dog doesn't cry it DOESN'T automatically mean that they aren't sad that their pups were taken.

Answer 3

I reckon the mother looks sad because you dint give them as much attention. Puppy's need a lot of attention all the time and when the puppy's get attention the mother gets attention. have i said attention enough lol :) anyways puppy's in the wild don't stay with there mothers forever so why should they stay with mum in the domesticated environment? It's not as if the mother was never taken away from it's mother or anything lol It's natural

Answer 4

No that's what happens in nature too. You will notice in weening the babies, Mommy will nip and bite at them to make them go away. And they do. Later in life if you brought the two together again they probably wouldn't even know any difference from another dog.
I love dogs more than anything but we need to realize that they don't have the same set of emotions that humans do. While they DO feel love and pain etc. just as we do, they DON'T have the same emotional attachment to their offspring or mates.

Edit: I've seen hundreds of litters growing up in a show home, I never witnessed anything other than a normal looking to the leader to see how they responded. If nothing appeared out of the ordinary everything continued as usual.

Answer 5

my chihuahua had 5 puppies, one came out dead, and then the runt didnt live very long because the vet. said something was wrong with its liver. It didnt seem to bother her, she treated the one that came out dead like it was still alive and the runt died about a week later on the way to the vet, and it didnt seem to have an effect on her. Then we gave two away to my friends and she didnt really care, she actually seemed more happy because shed actually be free from them nursing on her 24-7 haha...so i dont think dogs have an attachment to their puppies, only when they are first born. Gee was my dog mean when they were first born you could not come within a foot of her puppies and she would growl and she was usually nice. The love them but they arent going to get attached to them, but i think when a human disapears, i have noticed for days at a time they will be upset or looking for them in the usual places.

Answer 6

After the puppies are weaned, it is natural for the mother to have less of a relationship with them than before. By the time they are ready to go to new homes, the relationship between pup and mother is a lot like the relationship between an unrelated adult and puppy.

There is indeed anxiety and even sadness at separation. Dogs are very social animals, and any dog who loses a "packmate" will be affected. However, this is temporary. Especially if the rest of their pack--especially the human leader--stays intact, the loss of the pups is only a temporary source of sadness.

Answer 7

By 8 weeks (when pups should be leaving) Mom is quite ready for an empty nest (rather like the lady at work with two post college sons she wishes would LEAVE). Now if someone is tom fool enough take them at 2 weeks - she will be frantic.
Sometimes pups miss mom & littermates but a few leave without a backwards glance....

Answer 8

Yes. And if puppies or kittens are taken from their mothers too early, there can be health problems (as the mothers' bodies are set for nursing).

Answer 9

I think she feels an absence, perhaps separation anxiety. I am almost positive she feels the loss based on personal observation, but I don't think it lasts, any more than the loss we feel as mothers when our children are born (I felt a personal loss that my uterus was now empty), or when they are weaned from the breast (I felt a loss there too, a bond), or when they first go to school. All bittersweet moments, and I would bet that animlas experience much the same.

Answer 10

Of course they do. Believe me. There is real bonding going on between mother dogs and their puppies. As much as humnas. Just that we'll somehow people didn't stop to think about that. I thought about buying an entire litter and the mom dog and dad dog. But man it's expensive. You would have to dedicate a huge amount of time taking all the puppies to the vet, cost of feeding, them. You would need a huge back yard. Some people do.I applaud them for doing that. Their awesome. I sometimes feel bad about mom and dad dogs being separated from their puppies. Too sad.

Answer 11

Maybe, you can never tell for sure although it is natures way. My dog still sees his mum and dad but they don't get on so perhaps it's just as well they don't live together!!