Weaning and Parent‐Offspring Conflict in the Domestic Dog

Abstract

Weaning and signs of a parent‐offspring conflict were studied in four females of the Swedish Dachsbracken breed of domestic dog and their pups. The animals were observed from the second to the seventh week of age of the pups. In addition to regular weighing, measurements of milk and solid food intake per pup and meal were also made, and samples of milk from the mothers were collected and analysed. The most important mechanism for weaning seemed to be on the behavioural level. The time that the mother spent with her pups decreased continuously from week 2 to week 7, as did the number of sucklings per hour. Furthermore, both duration of suckling and the number of sucklings initiated by the mother decreased during the period, while the proportion of sucklings where the mother was standing increased steadily. The weights of mothers stayed rather constant during the period and there was no difference in the amount of milk given per suckling or in the composition of milk between the early and late weeks of lactation. Consequently, costs for the mother, in terms of loss of weight, were negligible as she was able to compensate for the increased energy demand of lactation with an increased food intake. There was a tendency for care‐giving behaviour to decrease and aggression from the mother to increase at the same time as there was a tendency for care‐seeking and contact‐seeking behaviour from the pups to increase. These changes, together with the less frequent initiation of suckling by the mother, could perhaps be seen as signs of conflict. Conflict was defined according to TRIVERS' theory (1974) and referred to the disagreement between the female and her pups about the amount of care given. However, although the animals were kept in a way that allowed them to perform as much as possible of their natural behaviour, the good nutritional conditions, one of the characteristics of captive life, may have reduced overt parent‐offspring conflict.

Levels of maternal care in dogs affect adult offspring temperament

“…Maternal behaviour was highly consistent, and although it steadily declined over time, individual differences remained stable. These results are consistent with previous studies of rats 10 26 and dogs 27 , which indicates that different females in our study may have adopted different mothering styles, which is similar to what is known in rodents 5 8 9 28 29 . The Total MPI score should therefore reliably reflect the mothering style of a particular female.…”

Influence of ADAPTIL® during the Weaning Period: A Double-Blinded Randomised Clinical Trial

“…In association, all lactating-related behaviours were found to show significant differences at each time point. Nursing was significantly longer at weeks three/four and decreased through weeks five/six to the lowest levels in seven/eight-week-old puppies, similar to the findings of several authors [4,14,38,41,42]. Nursing and suckling became, to some extent, antagonist actions, since, on one hand, the puppies wished to suckle, but, alternatively, the dam was not always eager to comply.…”

Autism as the Low-Fitness Extreme of a Parentally Selected Fitness Indicator

“…However, we don't know which maternal behaviors signal imminent weaning, so simply ensuring breast-feeding might not suffice, whereas changing some other aspect of maternal behavior might be more effective. In some species, for example, mothers begin to wean by spending more time away from offspring (Devinney et al 1998;Malm and Jensen 1997). If human maternal absences signal impending weaning, then avoiding such absences during the first 2 years might reduce the probability of autism.…”