EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

I have read many articals by people on this sight in that area of breeding and rasing pups. I have a litter of my squirrel dogs that are 2 wks. old. I have been noticing a few things in this two week peroid. First I noticed one pups eyes open at about the first week, this also happened to be the first one born in the litter. Today i noticed all the females eyes were opened and the males are not yet. Just so happens the three females were born before the two males. Have any of you breeders taken notice of how your pups growth progresses in reference to the order in which they were born? And if this quicker develoment shows up as a factor in other areas of development(ie mabey they are an alpha dog, or female, or they seem to be faster to start or slower, and if in your mind they are a better dog in the long run). I know on the average males are slower to develop than females, but I am really talking about the order in which they are born more so than male verses female. Just wondering.

I honestly haven't ever paid much attention to the order of which they were born.  On my litters, most of them all looked alike and I couldn't ever tell who was what until they were a couple weeks old and I put the colored puppy collars on them to start telling them apart.

I will say that out of every litter I have raised, I have found right the opposite to be true regarding the male/female maturity issue.  Unfortunately my males are always WAY ahead of the females when young.  I wish this weren't so, because due to breeding reasons my females are more valuable to me.

I am with Bryant and never could tell them apart. I mostly let the mom have the pups and just check in every now and then to make sure everything is ok and remove any pup that is dead. I just look to see who comes out first and how far they go looking around. But unless one really stands out I don't even worry about it.

Thanks, for your replys. The only reason i asked is because I was lucky enough to be there for the whole whelping process this time. An I have never really taken notice of any of these things before.

It is also interesting that your males are the ones to start quicker, I guess different breeds may develope in different manners. This may also be another question do your males oe females develope quicker, and what breed do you have? I have raised hounds in the past and mine was females were almost always the faster to start. I know have fiest, cur cross dogs and the same seems to be true with the strain that I have.