Selecting a Puppy from a Litter

The person in charge of the litter detects quickly which are the stronger and vital puppies. Are those who approach decisively to the mother, those who reach quickly to nurse, those that when separated from the mother quickly go back to her (it's enough to separate them some centimeters, there's no need for futile experiments).All these conducts are not influenced by the environment or experience, depends solely on the puppies' heritage. Evaluation of vitality grade of the puppy is so important as controlling his weight. A puppy can be smaller than his brothers because he was in unfavorable location in the uterus. If he has a high biotono, he will recover quickly, and in one or two weeks will be bigger than others that looked huge at birth, but that have less vitality. The biotono was studied by the German etologo Eberhard Trumler. It's a test that take place at birth, cause the first minutes of life will indicate the way the dog will face his future.

Biotono has a very simple evaluation:

• 1 point: the puppy, once free from the amniotic membrane, starts searching for the teat, even moving when still covered by it.
• 2 points: the puppy remains lying some minutes before moving.
• 3 points: the puppy tries to reach his mother's body but cannot find the teat, and does not starts suckling till it is given to him, or suckles a bit and then desists.
• 4 points: even slower than the previous one, sometimes is condemned to die.

Can we communicate with the puppy in his first two weeks of life?
The answer is no. There are no possibilities that puppies, in a vegetative phase, can recognize us, cause they can't see or hear, though we can touch and weigh them. However, they can smell our odor, but as it is not the milk's odor, it simply won't interest them, as they are also indifferent to the odor of the towel we place on the bed, or that of a brother, who till two weeks of life, is not a living being, but part of the bed.