Watch This Sweet Dachshund Mama Raise Her Puppy As Her Mini-Me
The bond between mother and child is something that transcends species. We often see humans as the be-all and end-all, but mothers in the animal kingdom can be just as loyal and attached. Just look at this mother-daughter dachshund duo from TikTok, who look sweetly inseparable.
@tokyoandbabyaiko Mama and her baby 🥹💕✨ #dogs #puppy #dachshund
Mama Tokyo and baby Aiko are seen in the video from Aiko's birth until the pup is about 5 months old — sweetly sleeping next to each other, running around and playing, and mimicking each other while wearing matching collars. While it's cute, it gave some people in the comments time to think about how much a mama dog might miss her puppies that are sold or given away, and why getting pets fixed becomes oh so important.
"Sometimes I get really sad thinking about whether dogs miss their babies/mothers...this is so sweet 😭," said one person in the comments, while plenty of others debated having dogs spayed and neutered: "Not everyone can afford to keep the babies, unfortunately." One thing most people could agree on, though, was that the doggies were darling!
Do dogs know that they are related?
Dogs may recognize members of their own canine family, but they probably don't understand being "related" the way people do. Instead, they rely heavily on scent and familiarity to identify individuals they know. A dog's nose can pick up information, making smell an important clue for recognizing related animals.
This starts during puppyhood. Young puppies learn their mother's and littermates' scents while growing up, creating that familiarity. Mother dogs and their offspring may recognize each other even after significant time apart, like this German shepherd having a reunion with his mama. Sibling recognition, however, appears less reliable after years of separation, especially when the dogs did not live together very long.
So, a dog probably won't meet an unfamiliar dog and think, "Hey, that's my cousin!" as there's no clear evidence that dogs can identify shared DNA in a stranger. Therefore, if two related dogs meet after being apart since early puppyhood, their behavior may be ordinary, depending on their personalities and social experiences.