Puppy development is fascinating — how do such small, helpless creatures, entirely dependent on their mother for everything, grow into the dogs that become our best friends? While we were still breeding, we kept a journal following two of our litters from newborn through the weeks that followed, so families (and their kids) could watch a litter of puppies grow without taking on the stress of whelping themselves, or putting more puppies at risk of ending up in shelters. We’re keeping that journal here as a look back at what that journey actually looked like.
Meet the Mothers
We followed two first-time mothers for this journal. Even for experienced breeders, there’s real apprehension with a first-time mom — no one really knows how she’ll whelp, or what kind of mother she’ll be to her newborn puppies until she is one.
Buttercup, our English Goldendoodle, was almost 3 years old and expecting her first litter. Typically relaxed, mellow, and sociable with other dogs, we were curious whether that sociability would carry over into how she cared for her puppies. An ultrasound suggested 5–6 puppies (ultrasounds are only reliably accurate for the puppies visible on screen at once — it’s easy to recount the same puppy from a different angle). In the final days before her due date, she was enormous — if six puppies looked like that, we joked we’d hate to see what fourteen would have done to her.
Coconut, our F1 Teddy Bear Goldendoodle, was 2 years old and also expecting her first litter. She loved people of any age but was slow to warm up to other dogs, often needing a few hours with an unfamiliar dog before she’d relax and play — which left us wondering whether she’d show the same initial wariness toward her own puppies. Her ultrasound consistently showed the same two shapes side by side, giving the technician real confidence it was a small litter of two. That raised a different worry: with no competition for nutrients between just two puppies, would they grow too large for her to deliver safely? She grew comparatively little over the rest of her pregnancy, which supported the small-litter read, but it meant sleepless nights near her due date watching for any sign an emergency c-section might be needed.
What we watched for
Across the weeks that followed, our journal tracked the same developmental milestones any new puppy owner will want to know about: when a newborn’s eyes open, weaning, early habituation and behavior, puppy biting, grooming, vaccinations, and the early stages of house training. Watching two very different mothers — one relaxed and social, one cautious and slow to warm up — go through the same journey side by side was as much a lesson in temperament as it was in biology.
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