What it’s really like to be surrounded by puppies

Clare, fosterer to many dogs, experienced dog person, and friend to me and the charity I founded, Schnauzerfest is currently fostering a litter of 7 recently born puppies and their mum Rosie.

Rosie was taken in by a rescue having been handed over by a commercial dog breeder. Not much has been released about the exact conditions she lived in, but I understand the breeder is retiring and ridding themselves of adult dogs. I hear this often and it is sometimes true. Whether by choice, or, the authorities are closing in on an operation having gathered evidence of breaches of license conditions, or welfare regulations, or genuinely a simple retirement, commercial breeders do close down their businesses. And offload their dogs.

At other times ‘retiring’ means a breeder is only pausing production - a heinous description I know, but it is all about profitable puppy production for them. Or they’re switching breeds and need an outlet for the adult dogs no longer of use. People who put profit first when it comes to puppy breeding are always ahead of what’s selling and what’s falling out of favour in the lucrative puppy market. This industry does not see dogs in the same way I do, or an average person does who thinks of dogs as pets and members of the family. Rosie could have come from any of these routes.

Clare shares on her social media a lot of the day to day life of a fosterer. She aims to show the ups and downs and encourage others to adopt and perhaps foster dogs. This is the first time she has fostered a pregnant dog and her litter. She’s written an honest account for Schnauzerfest of what it’s been like caring for Rosie through the last couple of weeks of pregnancy, delivery and nursing a litter of seven puppies.

« It feels very special to have Rosie’s trust. Especially as when she arrived, she was wary and showing all the common signs of a dog who has never had much human contact, or kindness. Of course I like that she has the care and support this time around, something her previous deliveries would have lacked. But, it is certainly not something I would ever want to put one of my beloved pets through. The risks of death to mum and pups, the pure distress in her eyes when labour started, the pain she was in through labour. Even pre labour she looked seriously fed up and uncomfortable. I will never know what Rosie has experienced before her time with me but for some dogs the actual mating can be painful, unwelcome and traumatic ».

I too can never imagine any of my dogs being put through a pregnancy. It’s common that people humanise things with dogs, but dogs are not humans. I will indulge in a bit of anthropomorphism and say that if any of my dogs could choose, I know they would never want to be forced to mate, or be pregnant, or have 24 hour caring duties for weeks on end when the alternative is a comfy day walking, pootling in the garden at will, tucking into good food and having cuddles on demand. I mean, honestly it is a no brainer.

Back to Clare,

« I enjoy sharing the positive side of fostering, and the happiness of Rosie’s successful delivery and her care of her puppies. However, there is a lot I do not share on social media. The very stressful times, the blood and mess, the worries about one or other of the puppies passing away or not thriving. Or soon after delivery, the worries about retained matter, or developing an infection; she could get hypocalcaemia while nursing which could be fatal in hours if not caught. I felt awful in the days when I took the other dogs out and Rosie whined because she wanted to come.  

It is very easy to see Rosie with her puppies and think ‘how cute’, ‘she’s such a good mum’ because both are true. She is and they are. 

But when we think she has spent her entire life doing this over and over again makes it far less sweet.

Going through that fed up of being heavy and uncomfortable for the last trimester, vomiting, diarrhoea. 

What were the conditions she was kept in like? Was she cold? Uncomfortable? Lonely? 

I saw desperation in her face when she first went into labour. I doubt anyone was there to comfort her all those times before. 

The pain of the birth, the constant cleaning up of the pups, the exhaustion, the hormonal changes, the upset stomach, feeling drained and dehydrated, having to be defensive and fend off any other dogs, being grappled at by lots of little claws and teeth with dry, sore, nipples.

If she had not left the breeding industry when she did, once she had recovered, she would have been put to mate again, just so that somebody can get paid for everything that she is going through.

Looking at Rosie running around the field or snuggled on the sofa having fuss, she looks contented and happy. But I know she is tired and fed up too. But, she is still keeping on top of all the pups needs day and night.

I look forward to the day she is free of this revolving door of stress on her body and able to just be a much loved dog.

She still has 6 weeks + left of this, then she’ll go through spaying when she’s well enough and will recover from that surgery.

Then, finally she can enjoy her summer and the rest of her life as a beloved friend and nothing more.”

Clare knows her dogs well. She is not mixing up giving her all to ensure the puppies are raised well and Rosie is safe, with the intoxicating allure of cute puppies. She knows the toll on Rosie.

When Rosie left the breeder they may or may not have known she was pregnant. It used to be that breeders wouldn’t let the cash crop carried by a dog leave the premise. But, if the authorities are paying closer attention - and there is certainly signs of more of this - the calculation for Rosie could have been that keeping a pregnant dog and her litter of puppies for another few weeks wasn’t worth the risk. I speculate, but it’s based on knowledge of how the puppy industry operates. Unfortunately for me I’ve been closely monitoring it for 14 years and see little improve for dogs like Rosie. What changes is the breeders and dealers stay ahead of the game, adapt and stay comfortably in business, sustained by puppy buyers.

The commercial, exploitative breeding industry sees puppies as purely income, legal or illegal; cash in the bank, or money laundered, it’s all the same. In today’s world, puppies are highly profitable. It is a business fuelled by short term views on what owning dogs actually involves. Across social media puppies bring attention, views, likes and money. Some of the breeder accounts I monitor do a good job of selling cute and pretty. And yet, down the line, the same breeding businesses are uninterested when one of their puppies needs medical care and owners are faced with hefty vet bills and heartache. Yet still their Instagram accounts sucker in the unsuspecting puppy buyers and breed loving public with their videos and images of newly born, or sweetly playing puppies.

Puppies are seductive and humans have been falling for their charms for thousands of years.

Michel and I have shared our lives with 8 dogs. Two of those we bought as puppies, and one, Albert Claude we adopted when he was not quite 6 months old. He was bred in one of the UK’s largest puppy farms, an operation based in Northern Ireland and of such a scale it featured in a BAFTA award winning BBC Panorama documentary The Dog Factory.

Puppies are adorable. I completely understand this. But, dogs do not stay puppies for long. A few months down the line when the puppy cuteness has become wilful adolescence and the proper adult dog is emerging, the relationship between human and dog changes. It should be a beautiful transition into a lifelong devoted mutual friendship. But, when basic preparedness and teaching hasn’t been done because the cute puppy is sweet and toy-like, the once cute puppy becomes the now ‘annoying’, ‘frustrating’, ‘difficult’ dog. Only, all that’s really happened is that the ill-prepared puppy buyer is facing the consequences of bringing into their world a sentient being who has no choices in the world.

A dog is totally dependent on the humans who control everything, from eating, to where it can sleep, sit, go, what it can do, how and when it can voice its voice, everything in a pet dog’s day is controlled by the human in charge. Dogs have no choices and no control.

When a puppy is forced to live a life without understanding, training, or respect, trouble results. This absence of understanding basic dog behaviour and meeting their needs is contributing to the terrible scale of dog discarding which is happening today. Rescues are inundated with people choosing to relinquish dogs because of behavioural issues. But, behavioural issues arise in part from the puppies receiving little to no basic training.

I wish with my whole being that people would look beyond the cute puppies which populate social media and fully wake themselves up to what owning a dog for its entire life actually means. Then they may be less inclined to support this vile and lucrative industry.