Do Puppies Ever Get Rejected by Their Moms Like Punch the Monkey?

It’s the kind of thing that breaks your heart before you even see it. If you’ve been online lately, even for a few seconds, you’ve probably heard about Punch, a baby macaque who’s been abandoned by his mother. He lives in the Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan, clings to a stuffed orangutan for comfort, and has apparently been bullied by his fellow macaques in heartbreaking videos that I refuse to watch because even just the thought of it devastates me beyond belief. The whole story has enraptured the internet, because who doesn’t want to closely follow the comings and goings of a sweet infant primate?

But it also got me wondering — and not just about what my building’s pet-monkey policies might be. As I stared at my two pups, both of whom came from rescues with relatively hazy backstories, I began trying to picture what their mothers were like. Do dog moms always stick around, or are there instances, like with Punch, where an inexperienced or otherwise disinclined mother might abandon her pups?

This, much like the idea of Punch getting dragged around his enclosure by one of his peers, was almost too sad to contemplate. But as often happens, curiosity got the better of me anyway. It turns out, the experts I spoke to say this is possible, though uncommon. Unbeknownst to me, it actually happened to a dog I know.

Do dog moms ever abandon their young?

Most doggie mommies are very protective of their young. According to the American Kennel Club (AKC), they tend to give their pups all of their attention for the first three weeks of motherhood and are reluctant to spend more than a few seconds apart. That makes sense, considering puppies are born unable to walk, hear, or even see. Still, there are exceptions to this rule of nature.

According to Zachary Silver, PhD, director of Occidental College Canine Intelligence Lab, some dog moms reject their puppies. “It’s certainly not a common occurrence,” he says, “but we do occasionally see this.”  

It turns out, this happened to a dog in my very own social circle. When Kinship Senior Editor Hilary Weaver adopted her dog, Charlie, in January 2023, the shelter owner told her that they’d rescued his mother when she was pregnant. She had been young and had presumably become impregnated by accident, and when she delivered her pups, she showed no interest in raising them.

“She didn’t really want anything to do with her puppies,” Weaver says, “so it seems like there wasn’t a whole lot of nursing that happened.” 

According to Silver, it’s possible that a dog mom might either abandon her whole litter or just one pup. That said, he believes a single pup getting left behind is more likely.

Because these cases are so rare, scientists don’t have much information about how littermates might react when one of their kin gets ousted. But Silver believes that dogs would probably not bully abandoned littermates, like what’s happened with Punch. “It’s more likely that they would ignore their abandoned littermate rather than actively picking on them,” he says.

What makes some dog moms reject their young?

In Punch’s case, we’ve heard that monkeys tend to abandon their young due to age, health, or inexperience. But because maternal abandonment is so uncommon among dogs, Silver says experts don’t know a lot about its causes. As he points out, researchers obviously don’t want to replicate these situations in research settings, “so we have to rely on natural occurrences of maternal abandonment.”

In cases of single abandoned puppies, Silver notes that sometimes, it can come down to perceived health deficiencies. “The mother is essentially making a utility calculus that can maximize the likelihood of her other pups surviving by abandoning one that’s unlikely to survive and reallocating her maternal resources to the healthy pups,” he says.

How does maternal abandonment affect puppies?

This kind of trauma can leave a mark on anyone, including dogs. Research has shown that dogs’ maternal styles can affect puppies’ social cognition, and just like most other creatures, puppies tend to suffer both physically and psychologically when they lose their mothers.

“In that early developmental window, not getting the nutrition and attention that they need can lead to physical and psychological deficits that are quite difficult to recover from,” Silver says. As a result, abandoned puppies tend to have a lower chance of survival. 

Although Weaver can’t be sure of the reasons, she has noticed some atypical behavior from Charlie over the years. “He definitely has separation anxiety in a way that my other dogs never had,” she says. “Especially with me.” Charlie cries when she goes upstairs and often follows her into the bathroom, and if she goes for even just a quick trip to the store, she says, “It’s like I’ve been gone for 5,000 years.” 

Charlie also has a habit of suckling on objects like blankets and pillow cases, even latching on like a puppy would to their mother. Basically, Weaver says, “He just kind of acts like a perpetual baby — like an infant.”

What can pet parents do for puppies abandoned by their moms?

Although there isn’t much we can do about the physical health issues dogs might suffer after being abandoned by their mothers, we can at least support them emotionally — especially once they’ve been weaned. 

“The critical window for psychological development is likely a bit longer than that of their physical development,” Silver says, and socialization can help counteract some of the psychological deficits dogs endure after abandonment. Creating positive experiences with both humans and other dogs is key. 

Still, as eager as we might be to give our pups a zest for life, it’s also important not to “flood” them with new, overwhelming information as they develop. Our job is to create slow, steady, and deliberate situations where dogs can gather information about the world around them, test boundaries, and learn how to interact. And if you want to give them a little boost, you can always offer them an emotional support item just like Punch’s stuffed orangutan.