Dog Life Cycle. Dog Life Span.
Dog Life Expectancy.
Many changes are take place from the very first day puppies are born. They grow and progress at an incredible speed and it is fascinating to realize how in just 12 month the puppies go from defenseless creatures in outdoor dog kennels, in the first days, to these intrepid young animals that enchant us with their pranks. They learn a thousand new things everyday while playing, understanding their surroundings, etc.
The newborn puppies can't urinate or defecate by themselves or regulate their corporal temperature, so they absolutely depend on their mothers that provokes the urination and defecation by licking them and providing the necessary heat with its own body.
Dogs are born blind and deaf. Even when they are born with hair, they need to be in contact with their mother so they can be warmed and protected. During the first days of their lives, their main sensorial organ is their sense of smell that can be easily noticed just by looking at a newborn puppy: its truffle and its snout are excessively bigger than the rest of their body. They are capable of moving since the very beginning, coming back to the litter if they are separated from the rest and also howling to let its mother know about its location when the puppy is hungry.
As soon as they are born, the dogs are capable to do many things, the cranial nerves are totally developed already, allowing them to breast feed, have sensibility on their snout, keep their balance and even get instinctively straight. This is a natural reflex produced every time they fall down or turn around and consists on getting back on their paws. If a newborn puppy is taken by the loose skin of its nape, it will shrink the paws in a characteristic way and will remain totally immobile, but only the first four or five days. After that, it will stretch the four paws, spreading them one from another. The puppies that are less than one week old are still blind and deaf, but they react to loud noises. They can also howl or whine if they feel abandoned in order to call their mother's attention. Dog's growth from puppies can be divided is six steps: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Old is a pretty relative term on dogs since the old age seriously depends on their breed, their health condition, their physical shape and their owner's attitude. For a very active, healthy and fit dog growing can simply be slowing down little by little its lifestyle.
Many old dogs still enjoy going for walks, playing with their master and interacting with the rest of the family members. They may sleep more hours and more profoundly than before and it is also possible they may need to go out more often since the kidneys, along with the liver, are the first ones to resent the causes of aging. Besides that, the weight lost can be the first symptom of a renal or hepatic problem, reason why it is necessary to be alert and with toys.
Among the problems associated with the old age we can mention the arthritis and the loose of flexibility in the articulations and the spinal cord. The overweight undoubtfully makes any geriatric problem worst, so we must prevent it.
Some dogs develop a pathological dependence with their owner when reaching the third age: they howl or whine when they are left alone and they feel really bad when they are not in contact with their family. This can be a generalized degeneration or progressive deafness symptom and should be investigated by the veterinary. Dogs sometimes suffer from problems we can define as senile dementia, characterized by the progressive disorientation and the lost of memory. There are currently medications capable to relieve these symptoms, so it is not a bad idea to take the dog to the vet. Maybe he can prescribe our loyal partner some medicine that will contribute to make the last years of its life as sweet as our dog deserves.