Puppies showing their rank as early when suckling on mum?

June,

When your puppies are feeding on the mother, do you find that one puppy always gets the middle tit, and likewise the same puppies get the next tit in line either side and some always get the outside tits?

Shaun came up with this when I attended his workshop.His theory is that certain rankings have certain places on their mother at feeding time, so of course when Cariad had her babies I took great notice of where everyone was at feeding time, sure enough they all had 'their' places and there was always a somewhat heated debate when the 'wrong' one went into someone else's place It was particularly easy to monitor these pups because they were all easily identifiable, all of them having distinguishing markings, although the 2 ink marks sometimes confused me!!! However, when Lona had her babies, they were all initially somewhat similar in looks, one red girl stood out, and boy did she rule the roost, her ears went up first, by 4 weeks of age, she had a second in command, another girl, whose ears went up shortly after, and she was another bossy little madam. Both of these girls fed in the middle, in Cariad's litter there was an ink mark girl, her ears were up by 4 weeks, and she was and still is, a diva, again she could be found in the middle, which supports Shaun's theory incidentally!!!! There was an ink mark boy in Cariad's litter who was a determined little blighter, I have a piccie of him trampling over his 2 sisters to get back to mummy, who was busy having another baby at the time. I had put him in a box with a hot water bottle and his sisters and despite being only about half an hour old he set off back to Mum!!! He fed in the middle too, however he seemed to 'lose' status as he got older, he was also the heaviest weighing in at 1lb 8ozs at birth. I have no idea why, but he clearly no longer ruled the roost, the 'Diva' did!!!

Thanks June,

Thats very interesting, for anyone who doesn't know Shaun's theory, here it is...he is not sure wether they are born with their natural rank or that it is developed in the first 5 weeks of their life....

It is scientifically proved that the middle tits have more nourishment than the outside tits, so the alpha would get the middle tit and as in life when older gets the best food, also the alpha will be surrounded by his litter mates and keep him warm.....my own view is its a bit like how bees and ants look after the 'queen' or most important one......

The lowest ranks get the outside tits and the not so good food source again as they will when older and get the stomach contents of a kill.....

I think this is how we can cause problems with some dogs, especially the breeds closer to the wolf by what we feed or dont feed them...

Also, the theory is that the pups feed where they would feed on a kill when adult, so the higher rankings feed in the middle and the others spread out towards the back and front,it did seem to bear his theory out, apart from inky boy who started out in the middle and holding onto his 'territory' against all comers, but he definately changed and seemed to calm down and became a lot quieter. Difficult to explain it really.

I have split these posts from the original thread as I consider this topic worthy of discussion in its own right....