Id be very careful taking her outside of your property. You dont know what she can pick up and transfer to her puppies. Could be potentially life threatening.

Most breeders keep their dogs in until the pups are weaned and homed.

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Thanks everyone.

I thought the botb suggest a 15 minute walk is ideal for them at this stage. I did keep her on a lead. Not that it helped much under the circumstances as the attack still happened.

Maisie was happy to come out on a lead. I didn't coerce her at all. I know she won't want to leave her pups for long and we could easily turn around and be indoors again within minutes. The recreation ground is immediately adjacent to my house.

Maybe I read it somewhere else and not in the botb.

I'm glad I asked the question.

I will just confine her to the garden in future until things settle down a bit.

Phew!

Agree with Nonnie here.

Its a too big a risk taking her out at this early stage with such young pups at home. She could transfer anything from her pads to the pups when going back to them.

Regarding the pup, Yes maybe the pup did sniff around her back end, smell milkand try and sniff her teats or knock her scar. But don't forget Maisies hormones are going to be all over the place at the moment as such a short length of time since having her pups and especially going through the ordeal of a caeser so she is likely to be a bit tempermental to strange dogs.

Hope the pup is ok. Just access when she wants to your own secure garden should be ample while she has such young babies in the nest.

The pups are gorgeous by the way

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It was the botb that I read it.

But I forgot to keep in my head the rest of the sentence

". . . .without encountering other dogs, 15 minutes is ideal".

So stupid. To think that puppy could have been severely injured and it would have been down to my ignorance.

Well so much the wiser now.

Thanks guys.

Double phew!

Mitti Id forget the walk at this point, just keep her to the garden, Molly didnt go anywhere other than the garden before her pups went to their new homes, so you wont be limiting her in any way, she was also probably a bit stressed at being away from pups. Molly used to really warn our other dogs off, even if they approached the baby gate, looked like a different dog, beared her teeth the lot horrid, but her way of preserveing and protecting her new family, by week 4 she was more tollorent but shed let the dogs in but would cirlcle them away if the got to close, it was week 6 before shed let the pups play with the other adult dogs, they go very protective of their pups and also themselves, as she knows she has to stay healthy and safe as she has her pups to care for. She will be fine dont worry, once her hormones have settled she will be all loving again

You could however as she is a rescue just to be safe, ask the rescue centre for a bit more history on her if they have them and watch her interactions with her pups as they get more mobile and boistrous

hey, miti! :--)

glad the pup was all right - yes, i agree that would be frightening!

any bitch with newborns is twitchy...
but a 15-WO pup, even a F pup, should still be under the usual puppy-license, and should need to do something pretty bad to rank a real set-down + potential injury from a varmint-type assault (bite + shake is an intent to maul or kill, not merely a warning; it is normally reserved only for prey, or for an adult dog or older pup past 5-MO who is a genuine threat of some sort - biting, fighting, threatening, entering the puppy room AFTER being told to go off, etc).

so i would say this was a very serious wake-up or heads-up warning -
Airedales are unfortunately terrierists, and the BIGGEST terrierists of them all, too.
they do have the same unfortunate tendency to dog-aggro + reactivity found in most terrier-types, from Westies to Yorkies to JRTs to Bedlingtons.

when her pups are at least 6-WO, i would ask the rescue-folks to do a dog to dog behavioral eval... just take her into the presence of a few NON-threatening, dog-social dogs of both (desexed) sexes, and at a distance, read her reactions in her emotional signals:
is she up on toes?
is her tail up, stiff, or flagging slowly + high, like a metronome? (Look out!!)
is she leaning toward them, or attempting to loom-over them?
does she freeze or stare?
is her MOUTH closed, with tight cheeks or puckered whisker-pads?
(indicates tension + suspicion)

all of those are bad signs -
if she displays any 3 of them, i would be concerned.
if she shows ALL of them, even at a distance of over-20-feet, i would consider her to be in need of a good pos-R B-Mod re other dogs, to alter her emotional response!

good luck, hope it was just raging hormones + a one-off,
or maybe the pup did jump on her in an attempt to play, and hurt her stitches...
fingers crossed,
--- terry

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terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007

Thank you Leashed for this information. Maisie was at the vets today for her check up with pups. I asked if they had heard any further from this puppy's owner but they hadn't so I assume all is well which is a great relief.

Amazing though. This attack looked so serious so how is it possible that the pup was unhurt? Didn't even appear to have any bruising either. I can't imagine what Maisie was thinking of.

Maisie was raised with lots of other dogs. Her previous owner has about 30 altogether and they all run around and socialised. I know I have only had Maisie for a month or so now but whenever we encountered other dogs she was always friendly and seemed happy to say hello. As I have said before she is a very sweet natured and gentle Airedale so it was a shock when she attacked this pup.

But I have taken great heed to everything that's been said and I will keep Maisie on a very short lead if we have to meet other dogs. This was especially put to the test this morning as there were a variety of dogs in the vets.

Good news is that Maisie's sire has a very good hipscore of 9 and has current eye tests that are clear.

I have a photo of him now and he is very handsome.

All this should, hopefully, help a lot when it comes to finding forever homes for her babies.

Hi there, I just read your messages...........I wouldnt take her out of your garden, keep her to her own property, other dogs can pass on things to her and she can pass them onto her puppies, she will be fine in your garden, I think the other puppy may of sniffed her back end and underneath and she knew that this was not her puppy and was protecting her nipples for her puppies only, if you know what I mean. She was just reacting to her hormones. If she wanted to really hurt that puppy she would of really ripped its neck, This was as hard warning to this puppy, Dont Come Too Close. I am glad she is ok, it must of frightened you and the owner too. Everything turned out ok xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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hey, miti! :--)

i am not trying to paint Maisie as a monster, but living with a large number of dogs (which i presume were the same breed? just an assumption, i could be wrong!) at her breeders home, does not necessarily mean she is highly-social with dogs she has not met before...
or with dogs of other breeds, either.

a human analogy -
i may live with an extended family of several generations, but if those are the only people that i have met to know well in my lifetime, i would have an awful time in public, with people who look, sound, act and speak in ways that i have never experienced - i would want to RUN for home!


breed-specific socialization -
Greyhounds off the track have often never even *seen* a non-Greyhound, and a prick-eared dog can send them into complete panic - they have no idea what a GSD or Siberian might be; in their world, all dogs look alike... and they are frightened by this motley crew of short, hairy, tall, prick-eared, gay-tailed, feathered + plumed THINGS that gallop around and bark!

also, just as in other breed-traits, dogs differ in play-styles and social styles, too; BCs do a tremendous amount of snapping, and this can get them into trouble with breeds who take bites seriously -- bully-breeds, for instance, like to wrestle + grapple with lots of body-contact + shoving. but there is not a lot of SNAPPING - the mouth contact is sustained, but controlled pressure.
a bully-breed dog + a BC brought together to play might really hate one another after just 5-mins, LOL, because the bully would be so frustrated by the BC refusing to engage, and threatening with teeth all the time, and the BC would think the bully was a dull stick because the bully would not chase + snap!

so if Maisies social-life with dogs has been with other Airedales, or maybe Schnauzers or other similar breeds to her own, she may be pretty narrow minded about non-Airedale or just unfamiliar breeds / types...
and heaven knows, a Beardie does not have much in common with an Airedale, LOL.

just a thought... i can be entirely mistaken, and every one of her breeders dogs was a different breed, (but that does not seem very likely.)

that her sire had a good hip-score is excellent! good traction underfoot and not allowing pups to gain too much weight, too early, will help ensure those young joints are not over-loaded.

i hope all her pups grow-up to be delightful, well-loved pets.
good girl, Maisie... she is being an excellent mum, many Airedales in the USA are lousy mothers, LOL - they slip out of the box as soon as a back is turned,

cheers,
--- terry

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terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007

I've just read this entire thread, phew! You've done so well with everything, Maisie is beautiful, and her pups too! I'm interested to see what they will look like as adults! Hope they all continue to do well.

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