> What has your exeperience been with the Runt of the litter. Do they
always
> remain smallest. Do they tend to exhibit any other qualities, attributes
or
> faults?
It all depends on the circumstances surrounding the puppy. A normal sized
puppy that is the smallest in a litter of large puppies is okay. A small
puppy from a very large litter I wouldn't worry about so much either.
But, if the litter was normal sized, on time, healthy and mom had plenty of
milk but the puppy was very small at birth, very small at 8 weeks and still
very small at 12 weeks with no signs of catching up to littermates--I
wouldn't keep that puppy no matter how nice. I look for vigor in the
puppies I keep for show and breeding and one that was much smaller without a
reason would always concern me and be a worry--no matter how vigorous that
puppy acted. So I just don't do it. I realize the puppy may just have
inherited the genes to be small, but I still prefer not to have to worry
about it.
In 20 years, nearly all tiny puppies ended up small if they were born tiny
and were still tiny and much behind littermates, with no signs of catching
up, at 12 weeks. Only a couple of exceptions have been seen.
As for problems, it is very hard to say whether one particular *runt* will
have more problems than average, but I would have to say that I wouldn't be
surprised if a large sampling of runt puppies would more than likely show a
slightly higher than average number of problems as compared to a same-sized
sampling of their normal sized littermates.
Laura Trunk
Roycroft Cavaliers
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