Bitch snarling at her puppies,4 weeks old.

dahat

tricky problem as stated above.

as the puppies are now looking for food elsewhere they are investigating the mothers food.

She is fed a raw based diet and hides some meat chunks in the box where they all are just now,on approach to the food she dips her head low and snarls at the puppies,warning them away if you like.

I have observing this for 2 days now and am getting a little worried as the pup's do not seem keen to eat from the bowl i put in for them,puupy food mush...they do try some but seem wary.
I am wondering is the mothers antics putting s.ome fear into them about food..

I am considering restricting her acces to the pups to feeds only and some play time of course,just afraid something mad will happen as it is her first litter and i am unsure of her behaviour towards her pups at this point

TooManyDogs

It'll take a little while for the pups to get used to the idea of eating the puppy mush anyway so for the moment I wouldnt be too worried if they aren't eating it. They'll walk in it and not realise it's food, they're used to looking up for food so takes a while to get used to looking down! At the moment they're still getting pretty much all their nutrition from their mother.

I'd feed the mother dog seperately from the pups so she can have a little peace too, give her plenty of oppertunities to go into a seperate room for food and it should stop her snarling at the pups regarding food. Is this the only time she snarls at them? She will correct them and that's fine as long as it's measured and not excessive, it's how they'll learn canine manners and correct behaviour.

dahat

I understand the teaching of canine method by the mother.
I have just not seen this before,it seems pretty forcefull to me.
pups not devouring the food is not a huge concern for a few days,this comes with time.
Feeding the dam seperate is what i will do,currenlty i am free feeding her.