Key facts at a glance
- Puppies’ eyes and ears open about 10 to 14 days after birth.
- It takes a few days for vision and hearing to function properly after opening.
- Puppies only slowly become aware of their environment from the third week onwards.
- From the fourth to fifth week, the imprinting and socialization phase of the young dogs begins.
- A separation from the mother should take place at the earliest after the puppies have been completely weaned.
The first two weeks of a puppy’s life
Immediately after birth, the puppy’s eyes and ears are still closed. His sense of smell is also only weakly developed at first. The eyes and ears of puppies only open after about 10 to 14 days. However, it takes a few more days before the little four-legged friends can see and hear properly.
A puppy spends the first time exclusively in the vicinity of its mother and siblings. He gets groomed, drinks milk and sleeps. Other than that, not much happens in the puppy’s first week of life.
After about a week, the puppies then try to crawl around in their whelping box for the first time before they slowly practice getting up and walking a little in their second week of life. After the first two weeks, which is known as the neonatal phase, the little four-legged friends have almost doubled their birth weight.
Weeks three and four in the puppy’s life
From the third week, puppies slowly but surely begin to perceive their environment clearly and to observe their surroundings. They react to sounds and tirelessly try to learn to sit and walk. However, this is obviously difficult for them at the beginning, since puppies are not yet able to keep their balance very well.
But it’s only a matter of time before the little four-legged friends are safe enough and start exploring their surroundings. In addition, during this period of development, known as the transition period, they also begin to dabble in barking and self-grooming.
Puppy imprinting and socialization
From the fourth to fifth week of life, the imprinting and socialization of the puppies finally begins. The little four-legged friends get to know their environment and collect new experiences every day that they will remember for the rest of their lives.
By the fourth week, the bitch’s mother’s milk production begins to decrease, leaving insufficient milk to feed all the puppies. From this point on, the supplementary feeding can be slowly started.
From the eighth to tenth week, the puppies are finally weaned and from now on only eat solid food. A separation from the mother should take place at this point at the earliest. With larger dog breeds, it even makes sense to wait until the 12th week of life before moving.