Puppy Development Ages and Stages – A Week By Week Guide
Puppy development stages don’t stop after you bring your puppy home at 8 weeks. Puppies have a lot of growing to do in the first 8 weeks of their life, and for many months after.
Puppy development week by week changes quickly. So, for you to get ready for your new puppy, there’s a lot to learn.
Let’s take a closer look at how puppies develop, and what their needs are at each stage.
Newborn Puppies
Puppy development starts as soon as your puppy is born. Newborn puppies are born at the end of approximately eight weeks of pregnancy, with their eyes and ears tightly closed.
They already have a fur coat but they cannot yet control their own body temperature. They are dependent on their mother or another heat source to keep them warm.
Newborn puppies may cry if cold. But they do not have the strength to cry for long.
Although they rely on mom for a lot at this stage, newborn puppies are not completely helpless. They can use their front feet to drag themselves towards a heat source or their milk supply.
Newborn pups have no teeth yet. But they can move their heads about to search for a nipple, and they can latch on and suck strongly.
Their mother leaves them only to eat, drink and for bathroom purposes. While she is away, the puppies will crawl together to preserve their body heat. They may also crawl on top of the heat pad to keep warm. In every other respect newborn puppies are completely dependent on the care of their mother.
Newborn pups have little control over the rear end of their bodies. The mother dog washes them and licks their bottoms to encourage elimination, licking up and swallowing anything they produce to keep her babies and their nest scrupulously clean. We also change the bedding daily.
As soon as they are born we start working with the puppies several times a day. We massage their entire bodies, open their mouths, and run a series of neuroscientific exercises with them to help stimulate their mind, body and neurological system. These are all parts of the system of Puppy Culture standards that we use.
We remove their dew claws before 4 days old. We also log their weights daily to make sure each one of them are receiving enough nutrients and growing as they should.
1 Week Old Puppies
Your puppy will grow rapidly during his first week to ten days. In fact, he may even double his birth weight!
He’ll look plumper and stronger too. And his face will look just a little more ‘dog’ like.
Changes are taking place under his eyelids to prepare them for opening.
A puppy’s eyes don’t open suddenly, it is a gradual process. And usually begins during the second week of life.
At this stage we spend countless hours cradling the puppies and showing them love and affection through our touch. We also continue with daily neurostimulation exercises and they are weighed daily to make sure they are gaining weight properly. Puppies that are having a hard time keeping weight or if it is an extra large litter, they will be supplemented with bottle feeding every 4 hours.
You will notice exercises in our videos like our puppy yoga. The puppies are situated in different possitions including head up and feed down to head down and feet up. This allows increased blood flow. You will also see us tickling thier feet which askes the brain to wake up and respond. In addition, there will be an ice cold mat that the puppy will be placed on which has the similar affect. They also receive extensive cuddles and heart to heart affection after each challenging exercise.
2 Week Old Puppies
Some big changes have taken place during the last week of puppy development stages. Two week old puppies will often have their eyes fully open, or at least partly open. We will not be able to determine eye color at this stage because most all puppies have a cloudy blue ting to their eye color when they first open.
Ears open at this point too, so your puppy will begin to hear.
The puppies are beginning to look a little more dog-like.
We will be handling the puppies even more now. It’s an exciting puppy development stage! But it doesn’t stop there and things are about to get much more interesting. At some point between two and three weeks of age, puppies will begin to stand up and move about. They are so cute trying to move their bodies around.
The puppies will be dewormed as soon as they are 2 weeks old. We deworm over a three day period with Safeguard. They will continue to be wormed every two weeks until they go home.
We continue with their neurostimulation exercises, massages and daily cuddling. The puppies will now be weighed weekly.
3 Week Old Puppies
The last week has brought a dramatic change in strength and mobility. The puppies’ rear legs start to catch up with the front.
Most 3 week old puppies can stand and sit, and are beginning to totter about. They are also starting to develop their individuality.
At 3 weeks old, this is also the point at which puppies start teething – cutting their first deciduous baby teeth. We start to interduce them to the tooth brush and opening their mouth when asked.
Obviously the teeth are appearing for a reason! Towards the end of the third week we will start to offer the first tastes of solid food. Especially if the litter is a large one and putting a strain on the mother dog. We make a gruel that consists of puppy food, milk replacement and warm water.
It is lovely to watch a litter of 3 week old puppies beginning to interact with their brothers and sisters.
This is when play begins and you’ll even hear the puppies start to play growl at one another.
It is at this point that the puppies will be moved from their birthing box to the nursery. The nursery as 16’ X 16’ and features a potty area, play area, eating area and a sleeping area with a heated crate. Using a crate at this age teaches them it is a safe, happy place to be.
We continue with daily neurological stimulation, puppy yoga and lots of love and affection. We also start to trim their nails, brush their coat, clean their ears and brush their teeth.
4 Week Old Puppies
Four week old puppies will look much more dog-like than their younger selves. They are running, playing enthusiastically, and have started to wag their little tails. They are now balls of fluff that want to be picked up and cuddled.
The puppies will start to show bowel control as they move away from the other puppies to defecate. And solid food is becoming a major part of their diet. These little pups will now start to put on the pounds. Their new food and change in diet will also start to produce tear stains on most merle puppies or any puppy that has light coloring around their eyes. This is normal as their digestive system changes. We add small amounts of vinigar to the pupppy’s water to help with this. You can continue this at home if the tear stains are still being produced. This will subside once the puppies are approximatly 3 months old.
If the weather is warm enough, puppies will start spending some time outdoors. They will be introduced to our quads which we use to transport the puppies to and from different areas of the ranch. This is their beginning to desensatizing. They will also be introduced to ground chicken by our hands. This will be helpful next week when they start their beginners obstical course training.
Most of the mother dogs will lose interest in cleaning up after their pups at this point or soon afterwards. This is the time that we really concentrate on potty training the puppies to go in their designated spot.
Vocalizations are becoming stronger at this puppy development stage. The litter will greet their mother noisily when she returns to them, and try hard to follow her out of the nursery whenever she leaves.
The puppies will be wormed again this week.
5 Week Old Puppies
By five weeks old, the mother dog is spending more of her time away from her puppies than with them. The puppies themselves are now eating solid dry puppy food and gradually being weaned off of their dependency of moms milk. We free feed our puppies so that they never feel the need to have to compete, protect or devourer their food.
Puppies will still suckle ravenously when their mother returns and she will now often feed them standing up and only for a short time. They now have pretty sharp little teeth and mom does not take to kindly to it.
Mom will also teach them at this age not to play to hard or bite to hard. Other puppies will start to do the same thing as they learn to play without hurting each other.
This is a key point in the development of the puppies’ relationships with people. So, they will be increasingly spending time with us and our staff learning to be familiar with the sounds and sights of a human family environment.
We allow the puppies to be a part of our daily routine to ensure they are socialized and desensitized to as many noises and sounds as possible. This is when our Zen training really takes a step up. We start to introduce challanging obsticals for the puppies where we teach them to use thier thinking brain and not their emotions.
6 Week Old Puppies
6 week old puppies are fully weaned and gaining weight daily.
A 6 week old puppy doesn’t depend on his mother’s milk any more but he does need her help and guidance. The moms are still with the puppies from time to time but at this point she will not let them nurse in most cases.
Puppies still have a lot to learn at 6 Weeks of age. The puppies are learning not to bite too hard from the reactions of their mother and siblings. They are also learning that it is not ok to bite our hands or jump up on us.
Puppy growth is not quite so fast now. But the puppies will still grow strongly for the next few months.
The puppies will now be exposed to other dogs, children and extreme loud noises like lawnmowers, blow-dryers and vehicles. We give our puppies obstacles to over come and teach them to work out their problems and the proper way to communicate with humans. By now they are exepting treat training and are advancing through our puppy’s beginners obstacle course. Inclusing walking acrros all types of surfaces, water and uneaven balancing obsticales.
The puppies start their crate training process now. We start out with an hour in the crate and increase it over the next two weeks. They are in the crate together. Believe me, they do not like it and scream for about the first 10 minutes.
The puppies start their NuVet vitamins now, are dewormed again, given their microchip and are given their first round of Neopar parvo vaccination.
7 Week Old Puppies
At the start of their 7th week we will be sending out our “Go Home” video to you via email. This is a very informative video that is required to be watched. At this time we will also be discussing pickup locations, times and balances on your account. If your puppy is being transported we will be supplying you with all of your delivery information.
The 7th week, for most puppies, is the final one with their brothers and sisters. They will not be with their mom for this last week. They will take daily outings with us to explore and learn. All that remains is for plenty of great socialization experiences to be packed into this week, with final checks on health with the veterinarian.
By the 7th week they are almost completely potty trained at our facility. This does not mean that they will be when they go home. It will take time for them to adjust to their new surroundings, stress and the final weaning process.
During this week we will also increase the time they spend locked in the crate. By the end of this week they will able to stay in the crate for 5 hours at a time. They will be able to complete all aspects of our Zen Training and the obstacle course. They are now introduced to the leash and following us on our left side to heal, sit and lay down. They are understaning that they will receive a treat for doing a command.
At the end of this week the puppies will be dewormed again.
As the week draws to a close, the majority of the puppies will have a final bath, examinaiton and will leave for their new homes.
8 Week Old Puppies
For most puppies, this is the first week in their new home or they will be in route via transportation. Potty training and crate training should now be underway and puppy socialization plans, training plans and veterinarian appointments are being made. Most veterinarians have puppy packages that you should look into.
It’s an exciting time for puppy development stages! But there will be some settling in challenges for new puppy owners and some adjusting for the new puppy to life without mother and siblings. Hang in there and the journey will be worth the final product. As always, we recommend Spirit Dog Training for ALL of your puppy or dog training needs.