Just wondering if you believe that a puppy removed from the litter at 8 weeks would remember his mom? I have three options in terms of boarding my 6 month old dog next month, and one of the options is with the breeder who offers boarding only for dogs that come from her litters. Each option has pros and cons. One of the pros with the breeder would be my Madden would be with his mom, but in reality, I don't even know if the dogs know that or not. The cons are the distance to get Madden there (about 1 and a half hours), and the fact that they do not sleep inside (though I'm not really too concerned about that). They (she currently owns four girls and one boy that she breeds) are outside for most of the day in a big corral sort of thing and in a barn type structure at night (with fans if it's hot). I've never seen the inside of the outbuilding so I don't know the sleeping conditions in there. Just wondering what your experience is with dogs and their offspring.Thanks.

I don't think they remember their mom at all. I brought DaLLas to see her mom about four to six months after I got her.. and it seemed like neither knew each other.

From my one time experience I don't think they remember either. When I adopted Jack from the breeder he was 4. I had his mother who was then 7 and they got along great but that was it..no extra snuggling, etc. just two dogs living with one another.

We have 2 of Grace's boys with us, and they do have a unique relationship, different than with the other dogs. I have had 2 of the girl pups back over at the house, and Grace initially snarled at them, but then warmed. I just figured it was because Grace is the low female in the house, and she was telling them that they were under HER when they arrived.

We'll have one of the other girl pups staying with us for the week as of tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. And in September, yet a different one will be staying with us. We'll let you know how it goes.

I have now stayed with Monty's breeder (shared a hotel room) twice at big shows on the east coast, the first being the Potomac in April of 2007 (he was almost 18 months old at that point), which was the first time he had seen his mom since he came to California the day he turned 8 wks old. All he wanted to do was hump her. ;) Granted, there was a girl in season in the room, too, and he wanted to hump anyone/everyone at the time, but he didn't have any different reaction to his mom than to any of his breeder's other dogs.

He was absolutely overjoyed to see his breeder again, though! :D

I'm also curious about this - if Roscoe will remember Portia or not. Or even his siblings.

Pups that I have bred come back for boarding and they live in the house with me and my dogs and play in the yard/swim in the river. One person drives an hour to drop off her pup because she knows the care she is getting while with me.I know these pups remember their mom and their sister - because they board often enough starting at a young age. Not to mention butt sniffing for recognition :-)Murphy will still lay on the ground and try and nurse on his mom and she stands there and puts up with it. If she did not remember him as one of her own there is no way she would tolerate it.

I have seen a lot of puppies and litter mates, sibs, half sibs, mothers, fathers, and more distant family. I would say the reactions are mixed. Aster always saw a lot of her mother until they had to put Maggie to sleep. In later years, they didn't pay much attention to each other. Earlier, long after Maggie quit playing with other dogs, her and Aster would play. Whether Aster has any idea she was once Maggie's puppy, or even remembers living here as a puppy, I have no idea.

One thing that complicates things is the signals we give them. Xanthe and her younger half sister Gayla love a chance to play together. Do they know they have the same father, or are they both a couple of puppies with limited chances to play with other puppies?

Drum didn't. He stayed with our breeder a few times when he was grown up, principally for showing, and he didn't remember his Mom as his Mom. He did figure out pretty quickly that like most Moms, she wasn't going to take any of his lip ;)

One of our pups comes back to stay on a pretty regular basis. She is 3 now, purchased by a close friend and I always board her when they travel.
I know that they remember each other, but as mom and daughter? Not sure about that. As Cocoa grew up the dynamics changed a bit, but they still get along well.

Julie's post got me thinking. Monty remembered his breeder, which probably means that he remembered his mom. However, dogs are dogs and not people. They don't have the same emotions as we do. To Monty, his "mom" was just another dog. He may have remembered her, but now that he's not a puppy anymore he doesn't really need a "mom." Does that make sense?

Now that Nixie is staying with us, I can comment on this a bit more. I just don't know. Nixie is Jed and Jackson's sister...she was Orange Girl. When her dad dropped her off, she ran up to the house with no fear, ran up to us all excited, was very excited to see the boys. She is very licky and kissy with mom and the other dogs. She was at home immediately. Now I don't know if it's because she remembered us and the dogs, or if she recognized the smell, or if she is just such a great, well-adjusted puppy and is thrilled to have "dogs" around, since she is the only dog at her house. It sure LOOKS like she remembers everything. I guess we'll never know for sure.

We are in Texas and our breeder is in Oklahoma, so Jake hasn't seen his parents since he was 8 weeks old. One of his brothers (littermate) lives close by and they seem to remember each other. Jake plays different with him than other dogs. It seems rougher to me. We have a neighbor chocolate that is always getting out and we hold her until her owner comes. Jake plays with her, but not as physically.

Funny story on this topic...We keep in touch with Nittany's breeder and we found out that her mom is 14 y.o. and living in LA. Since we are in orange county, I thought we might have them meet again. I asked the breeder if she thought they might recognize each other after all these years and she said "Uh...no".

I'm not so sure, so it's worth giving it a try!

To Monty, his "mom" was just another dog. He may have remembered her, but now that he's not a puppy anymore he doesn't really need a "mom."

We were watching pretty closely just because his breeder and I were both interested in how they all "remembered" one another. He seemed to be treating everyone (dogs) the same as when he was meeting/greeting any dog he had never met before- during both trips back east. Personally, since he was in a room with a girl who was in season that first trip, I think his brain was a bit rattled and he probably wasn't recognizing scents from the past nearly as much as he was hoping for scents for the future. ;) LOL