# Mama Golden aggressive to pups that want to nurse



## jennretz (Jul 24, 2013)

I saw this earlier and wondered why they would put her in with pups who should have been weaned by then.

Is this normal? I saw this video originally on youtube and it made reference to the fact the puppies were 8 weeks old. Those would be some sharp puppy teeth I imagine...


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

I didn't know the age of the puppies, but I knew they were too old to be nursing. This makes me cringe. I've seen mama's with puppies too old to nurse, and they weren't aggressive like this.


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## Maggie'sVoice (Apr 4, 2018)

Well, it is a white golden. I wonder the quality of the breeding since they obviously let her in with the pups knowing they were to old to be needing, and apparently expecting the mom to be correcting them. It's one thing for the mom to correct them, but she had the pups submitting which I can only guess the potential damage that might cause with the pups interactions with other dogs down the road.

Now wondering about the quality of the breeder and dog, I'm curious if that is a temperament issue resulting from a poorly bred momma? I've seen plenty of young litters with moms and never seen that reaction from the mom, even with 8 wieek old pups


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

I've seen this video posted by people saying this is natural behavior by moms. It was jarring to me to watch, but quite honestly so is seeing pups mauling older dogs who are unwilling to correct them. And some puppies can be relentless with adult dogs in their new homes.

Other side of this is it made me chuckle a little because for a long time, I've heard people obsessing about wanting puppies to stay longer with the moms so she can teach them bite inhibition and stuff like that. This is basically what that looks like. 

And all of the people out there who think that golden retrievers are fragile little dumplings who can't handle correction... I think they should watch this, because this is how things work in the dog world.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Yes, 1000 times yes!


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## eeerrrmmm1 (Apr 15, 2018)

It is jarring to see but those puppies go right back to licking themselves and rolling around and testing her. To me they look submissive but not overly afraid of her. She's certainly not winning any mother of the year awards. As many people could attest I'm sure, my pup is a light colored golden and her mom was a total sweetheart. I'm sure you could find examples of this tough parenting across the breed's color spectrum.


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## ArkansasGold (Dec 7, 2017)

Megora said:


> I've seen this video posted by people saying this is natural behavior by moms. It was jarring to me to watch, but quite honestly so is seeing pups mauling older dogs who are unwilling to correct them. And some puppies can be relentless with adult dogs in their new homes.
> 
> Other side of this is it made me chuckle a little because for a long time, I've heard people obsessing about wanting puppies to stay longer with the moms so she can teach them bite inhibition and stuff like that. This is basically what that looks like.
> 
> And all of the people out there who think that golden retrievers are fragile little dumplings who can't handle correction... I think they should watch this, because this is how things work in the dog world.


I agree with you Kate. I bet she's a lot sweeter when she hasn't been subjected to nursing 8 week old puppies with shark teeth... 

And the part about puppies mauling older dogs: I can't stand that either. Thankfully Rocket is willing to correct our new puppy when she bites too hard or plays too rough. Does his correction look scary? A bit, but is it actually scary? No. He communicates in proper dog language for her not to bite so hard. And she reacts properly to the correction too. Thanks to him, she doesn't bite me nearly as hard either.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

It does make me wonder why they would have let her in with those puppies often enough for them to learn to cower to her like that. That's learned behavior.


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## GoldenDude (Nov 5, 2016)

Once I wean our puppies, I only bring in them with mama two at a time. She enjoys playing with them in smaller numbers at that stage of the process. If the entire litter gets in with her, she's not aggressive with them but it's clearly not a fun experience for her. Makes no sense to stress her out when it's easily avoidable.


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## ktgrok (Apr 11, 2019)

I do think it's probably helpful to remember that canids in general have weaned their pups themselves, and only recently in evolutionary time have they had a human to physically separate the pups. I'm sure in many areas of the world dogs still handle it themselves, and are not separated from their puppies. May not look pretty, but it's what they do.


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## murphy1 (Jun 21, 2012)

When I went to pick up my first Golden, back in 1990, I said to the breeder.....the mom must get upset when her puppies go home. Her reply " oh I think she's had enough of them already". I get it now after seeing that video!


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## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

Hmm, I know some humans I know would do this to their unruly, screaming, whining kids in the stores! LOL. Make them understand when Mama and Addy sayd NO they mean NO and you shut up. Had a worker in Walmart tell me she leaves every day after listening to kids screaming kicking, dropping to the floor kicking, etc because they want something, the parents said no, but in the end get it so they will shut up. It has been better than 555 years since my English Setter Pixie had her litter of 6 pups. In those dayd country folok did not keep theri bird dogs and hounds in the house. She had a nice pen with shade tree and a nice dog house with hay in it. Well, when she got ready to wean those pups and they still run up and sat down trying to nurse, she woudl walk off, often dragging 1 or 2. Finally when they would come towards her, she would jump up on her dog house which was under the tree, and nap. By the way she had been given to me when she was 4 weeks old and her mother was killed. She was a very, very petite little girl but a top quail dogs.. We kept one of her pups, a male, and some10 years later I got one of his pups, Angel.


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