The puppies’ first week is most about supporting mom so she can take care of her babies. Mom should get almost anything she wants including lots of food, love and walks. The puppies’ eyes and ears are sealed shut when they are born. They are only able to belly drag themselves around in circles until they encounter something warm and soft. They elicit care from their mom with cries and whines who feeds and cleans them. The puppies brain is developing rapidly during this time, however, they are not learning or forming memories yet since their nerve fibers have not become myelinated which is a protective sheath that increases the speed and efficiency of nerve impulses. But this is still a great time to begin handling the puppies to stimulate their nervous and circulatory systems.

We implement Neonatal Handling in our foster program which is a set of five simple exercises designed to stimulate the body and provide a small amount of brief stress which actually increases their ability to handle stress as adults. If we removed all stress and obstacles from their lives, which is not what they will encounter in the real world, then they would never have the opportunity to experience and recover from that stress. It’s like exercising a muscle, too much and you can barely walk but just enough means a little pain and a little growth - and that’s life!