05/31/2024
Jemma cries in the night to wake me up. It's a new sound, one that I've never heard her make before. It's half and half, a growl-bark, and I already know what it means. She needs help. I pop my head over the edge of my guest bed, because Jemma and I have moved in to the spare bedroom together. The low bed frame lets me instantly put a hand on her side, while I assess what she needs. Because this is the same move I make when she's worried about anything, she knows this familiar pattern. I'm here to help. She finds my hand on her side, in the dark, comforting, not alarming, because of our relationship, and the precedents we've set. She looks at me, and looks at her new puppy, who has crawled away from the roiling pile of actively nursing babies. She looks back at me. Her face says it all. Aren't you going to save my puppy? Of course I am, my friend.
She's a first time mom, as of 10 hours ago. She won't need me this close, or this involved, for long. She'll get the hang of things. She'll figure out how to wrangle all these wiggling, squirming puppies. She'll realize she can get up without ruining everything. Until she does, though, I'm right here. I'll bring her food. I'll “save” her puppies. I'll gently and lovingly carry her out to p*e, when her hormones are telling her not to leave, and quickly and calmly get her back to see that all is well. Because of all of these things, her stress periods will be short, or maybe we'll even skip some stressors that would occur if I weren't nearby. In turn, her cortisol levels will be lower. While I haven't found studies on dogs specifically, we know that other mammals pass stress hormones from their blood plasma to their breast milk, and we know that there is no mammary synthesis of cortisol. In other words, a stressed mom leads to a stressed nursing neonate. This can contribute to undesirable behaviors later in life, namely hightened fear responses and anxiety. The National Institute of Health has an interesting study on cortisol in breast milk, and some info on fetal programming, if you'd like to know more.
I also put a lot of thought into supporting physical recovery of the mother dog, for several months after delivery. Again, we may not have data specifically on dogs, but we do know about this process in other mammals. In all mammals, the uterus is held in place by a network of ligaments. Uterine suspensory ligaments are simply amazing. They expand, during a pregnancy, to several times their resting length, in the course of a uterus supporting a fetus to term. They then, rather suddenly in comparison, are lax after labor and delivery. Ligaments aren't as elastic as muscle, and so they will slowly, slowly retract, over several weeks to months. If the mother is resting during this time, and if health care providers (including the breeder, who is the primary provider for these mothers) are ensuring that spinal and pelvic alignment, nutrition and stress levels are well-managed, those ligaments will retract evenly, and to close to their pre-pregnancy length and taughtness. When that's done (and not until that's done!) the mother's abdominal organs are considered secure and held in place once again. Yes, the uterus and its ligaments act as an influence on many things around it, including the colon, the bladder, and the sacral nerve pathways. They also interact, directly and indirectly, with muscles of the back, and with the diaphragm. The diaphragm impacts blood flow from the heart and lungs to abdominal organs. Would you like to guess what a really easy way to tighten the diaphragm, and impact blood flow to and from the abdomen? It's stress. Everything is connected. Without proper physical and emotional support, I am leaving this mother vulnerable to ongoing back and/or pelvic pain, and potentially impacting her digestive, urinary, and reproductive health. This applies both during and after pregnancy, and also if and when she is eventually spayed, and all of those suspensory ligaments are ruptured and detached. These facts are well-supported in human medical research, and you can find out more by reading about abdominal therapy, visceral manipulation, postnatal and pelvic floor physical therapy.
Are we being anthropomorphic in applying basic human postnatal care guidelines to dogs? I don't think so. We're both mammals. We have pretty similar nervous systems and reproductive systems. Some physical care guidelines need to be modified to consider the differences between bipedal and quadrupedal mammals. We need to make sure we're considering canine stressors and motivators, where they differ from humans, and obvious reproductive cycle differences. But I've had babies, myself. I know the stress of not having needs meet when trying to recover and care for a newborn, and I know the huge relief of a trusted family member supporting me. I also know I've never felt more like an animal than when my mom hormones take over. How pompous of us to claim motherhood as a human emotion.
The fact that I have the kind of relationship with my breeding dogs that makes them WANT me there for the whole thing; that makes them call me when they need help? The things I've done for years that make them calmly confident that they'll be supported and safe? That's ethology. That's modern science, and that's welfare work. Yes, they are my pets, but there's more. I consider them family, but I also consider myself their keeper. I hope that I put as much thought and planning into the environmental, physical, social and emotional needs of my dogs as the keepers at my favorite zoo put into our beloved animals there. It's not only about the welfare of the breeding dogs in my program. This extra effort is hugely impactful on the next twelve to fifteen years of every one of my puppies’ lives with their human families.
I was so inspired by a sentiment Kim Brophy shares in her amazing course in applied ethology. I recently worked my way through her Family Dog Mediator certification course. A big internal bell rang for me when she brought light to the idea that we don't actually KNOW much of what we claim to not apply to dogs. How about YOU show ME a study that says that they don't need, and greatly benefit from, things we know are necessary for other mammals? Dogs certainly did not evolve to be locked in kennels, having humans select their mates, and not being able to isolate to have a peaceful delivery and postpartum phase. That part of their history is entirely on us. We started it, and we CAN stop it.
Will every dog want me in their whelping box? Absolutely not. There are some that don't want anyone near them, and we need to put just as much thought into carefully supporting those dogs. However, my program focuses on dogs that are heavily integrated into the lives of their humans, and it starts early. I select for the dogs who will be relieved that I'm there. The ones who wag their tails in anticipation of their treat when we check temperatures. The ones who want to lay in my lap while they nurse. The ones who call out for me when they need help. The ones who welcome my teamwork. It shows itself when I take them to teach classes as demo dogs. It shows when we go to rally trials. How did I build that handler focus? How did I make them enjoy making me happy enough for it to count as reinforcement? I didn't. They came out like that, because their breeders also think like this.
Jemma cries in the night to wake me up, and my heart breaks every time. For every mother dog that has to do this alone. Whose puppy has rolled away across a wire cage bottom, or their dirt floor, or the cold, hard cement kennel, and has to figure it out on her own. Who has to go to the bathroom where she's raising her babies. Who will never have someone bring her turkey soup while she's nursing puppies. Who doesn't know the relief of seeing their human friend's head pop over the side of the whelping box, ready to communicate and offer a helping hand.
Dogs enrich our lives so profoundly. I, for one, would be lost without every single one of mine. Society owes them so much more reverence than they're allowed, especially those ones that are birthing and sharing their babies with our families. Dogs deserve so much more than what they're given. While we all must survive in a capitalist society, maybe we can also look at raising dogs as a public service. A commitment to a better, more humane society. Maybe, for some of us, it's a spiritual path, more profound than anything we've ever heard from yogis, reverends, and gurus.
This is why I'm breeding dogs. I want to give people the option to choose differently. No, I am not naive enough to think that I will put puppy mills out of business. Especially not alone. But there are more people like me. There are people breeding for success in modern homes. We are choosing physical health, mental health, and quality of life for dogs and their humans. It is our primary and passionate goal. The Functional Dog Collaborative is offering support for breeders who feel the same. Maybe, one day, there will be enough of us, and enough awareness of what we're doing, that people will turn their backs on sources of badly bred dogs. On bad breeders themselves. That the solution will be to hold them to a standard, like The Companion Dog Registry is modeling. That the solution will be to shut those places down, as we absorb their dogs into rescues, rather than let them continue producing the dogs that fill out shelters. Maybe, one far away day, our society will not consume mill-produced puppies. It likely won't happen while I'm still alive, but what a movement to be a part of. I have hope. I will be the change. I am breeding the dogs I wish to see in the world.
