Do Female Dogs Remember Their Puppies?
Yes, female dog mothers or dam remembers their puppies but the question is for how long?
The answer then depends. Some dams remember their puppies even years after separation and some may not recognize their puppies at all.
Dogs will remember their puppies depending on the amount of time the puppies have spent with their day. The longer the time they spent, the easier for the dam to recognize their offspring.
Dogs have inherited instincts from their wolf ancestry. One of them is protection and familial bonds, often both utilized for survival too.
For female dogs or dams, instincts are heightened during gestation and whelping then peak after giving birth.
Do Dogs Remember Their Mothers?
For humans, there is no love like a mother-child bond. Some studies suggest that the bond between a mother and a daughter is the strongest of all bonds.
However, is it the same when it comes to dogs? Dogs have a pack structure and are sociable animals.
These animals do not socialize, perceive, or memorize life events in the same ways that humans do, so they have quite different concepts of memory.
In some cases, some dogs remember their parents, particularly their mothers. However, some dogs dont.
History of Dogs Remembering Their Babies
It is believed that the memories of mother dogs are grounded in their wolf ancestry. If we look at the behavior of the wolf, we learn that the pack is critical for survival. In the wild, the pups would remain with the mother and pack of the birth for up to three years.
Both the mother and father would be responsible for finding food for the young, protecting them, teaching them how to hunt and shaping their behavior to have a place in the wolf pack. Keeping the pack together was critical for the survival of the family.
While the DNA of the dog has evolved over centuries of domestication with humans, there remains the instinct to be protective of the young. The mother dog will imprint or form a sensory memory of her litter. If the dog is allowed to have time with her pups, the imprinting of their smell and sight will grow stronger and be more likely to last a lifetime.