Ella and I have entered an obedience trial in the same town as Ella's breeder and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for us to visit. This will be the first time that Ella will have seen her mum, grandma, great grandma, half sister and two adopted sisters since she left at 8 weeks old. I'm just not sure what to expect. Will Ella know who they are? Will she remember them? Will she recognise their smell? Will she have no idea? Will her family members recognise and accept her or do we treat it as if it's a brand new introduction? Of course I'll ask the advice of her breeder as she's had plenty of visitors before but I was just curious to know of your experiences.
I am so excited for you! What a nice oppurtunity to get to see all the dogs and a trip down memory lane from when Ella was such a little thing I can't offer you personal experience related to your question, only that when DH and I were preparing for Harls and after we watched a number of doccies about puppies and what to expect etc and in some of them littermates would meet up at a later stage, when the pups were older. And it definitely appeared that they recognised each other and were very familiar very quickly, even repeating play patterns that were established when they were young pups together. So she may not have too much of a bond with the dogs she didn't spend much time with but let hope she recognises her littermates and mom? Wouldn't that be awesome? Although saying that I think there was a time limited that they mentioned in the doccies, but I can't remember how many years. So if there isn't a bond that may be entirely natural too. Please take photos if it is permitted
We visit our pups after they have been away from us for six months or more - they ALWAYS remember us Twiglet met her brother, Rossi - they just played as any two pups would. I wouldn't say they knew each other. Have fun!! ,,,
Not only are photos permitted, they're mandatory Ooh, I do hope they all recognise each other but I'll try really hard not to be disappointed if she has no idea
I was really excited then - I thought you were going to say you're going to view some new pups! It will be lovely to see Ella's family though! You'll be able to properly compare!
My two absolutely ADORE their breeders and welcome them in a completely different way to anyone else, even other people they've known for a long time. So I would guess Ella will respond well to the humans. They also definitely remember their parents - Willow (who isn't normally interested in other dogs) will play and play with Ruby, and Shadow is great with his dad - although Jake does try to hump him a lot! They are not good with their brothers who are still there. They are big bullies, though, and haven't been great with their dad, either - apparently they're a lot more settled now they're a bit older. You'll have a great time and I'm sure there will be much delight all round
I've read that in studies puppies have recognised litter mates and mum upto around a year old, it is believed through smell. Longer than that hasn't been studied as far so I know. I would plan that it's a new meeting for Ella with unknown dogs and hope to be pleasantly surprised
Poppy and her sister (also called Poppy!!!) definitely recognized each other after a year and went bonkers together, but when we met up again another two years later they did not recognize each other at all.
Oh that is interesting. We are hoping to meet up with some of Brambles' family when we travel up to Scotland. Will feel a bit sad though, if she doesn't recognise her mum.
It was interesting with our Pops and her mother too - Poppy recognized her mother, I think, and was excited and wanted to play, but her mother wanted nothing to do with her!!
I could imagine Ella's mum (also Poppy!) being the same. The younger girls might be interested in playing buy I know her grandma and great grandma will probably tell her to go away
Coco met his sister, Cassie, at 21 months old, they didn't seem to recognise each other, Cassie was quite hostile towards Coco.
My old dog Nicolae met his mother again when he was around 4 or 5 and she was about 8 or 9 years old. They acted like they were entirely familiar with and relaxed around each other. There was no 'oh, a new doggie, who are you? Nice to meet you!' behaviour. It was a totally different kind of greeting. I would say that there was definitely recognition there. The last time they had seen each other was when Nicolae was about 1 year old.
We meet one of Vanilla's brothers every now and then. We did think how would it work first time, but they just seemed to recognise each other straight away. Greeting and the play was so different. This was when they where about 5months old. One thing I did notice the day after was a bit of sadnes, but only lasted for half a day as we occupied her mind on other things. Now when we meet up they ignore every other dogs and just play like 2 long lost friends . We are going to see the breeder next week as we are passing, so that will be interesting.
Doug and moo are about 2 years different in age. When we went to pick Moo we sat in the house with and her mum Bella and Doug. Moo was 6 weeks old and had a drink from her mum. Doug had already recognised his mum Bella and started to drool when she nursed Moo. He was massive and it was so poignant watching huge adult male dog wanting to be a pup again. Moo and Doug knew their lab family all their lives. Robbie Doug's dad recognised him and treated him very differently than any other male dog that visited the house. He was the same with all his pups that visited. Bella was very much the matriarch of the group she would be so firm with Moo it was funny. Moo will give any dog lip but not her mum she was meek and respectful.Bella had moos number.
Sams Mum , sister, aunt and grannie all live fairly close to us , and so we visit every so often as the owner is a friend and loves to see Sam . The first visit was when Sam was about 14 months old , he and his Mum played and played , he seemed to naturally gravitate to her, rather than the others . Each visit is the same , quite touching x
So many different experiences! Sounds like anything could happen, Emily I didn't realise that Moo and Doug had the same mum! Xena's breeder moved to the South Island late last year, so I doubt she'll see her mum again, but one of her littermates belongs to the friend of a friend so a sisterly catch up could definitely happen.
Alfie didn't have Moos ? Quirks. he was a real sweatie Stewart's marriage broke up so a lot of us took dogs if we could. Alfie was going to come with me but someone else had more room and time so they took him. It was a horrible time for the humans and dogs too
