Puppy Life: The First Eight Weeks of Bonding, Playing, and Growing

By Traer Scott

The perfect gift for dog lovers and new puppy parents alike, Puppy Life follows the stages of development of six litters of puppies across breeds from birth through eight weeks. Featuring 120 full-color photographs from best-selling animal photographer Traer Scott, this exploration of puppyhood is ideal for fans of The Dogist and Finding Home.
 
Tracing six litters of puppies from birth through eight weeks, Traer Scott takes you on a photographic journey through puppyhood. Her full-color photography provides a visual diary of how dogs mature and grow, as well as information about each stage of puppy development leading up to the day each puppy goes to its forever home.
 
Follow the stories of these litters across different ages, with informative text about each breed and developmental stage:
 
• English Setters
• Great Pyrenees
• Cavalier King Charles Spaniels
• Labradors
• Mixed Breed
 
Adorable and educational, this beautifully photographed guide to puppies is sure to melt your heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Release date: Oct 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781648961977

Traer Scott

Traer Scott is an award-winning photographer and bestselling author of 14 books, specializing in animal photography, the human/animal bond and conservation-themed fine art photography. Scott’s work has been exhibited around the world and has appeared in National Geographic, Time, La Monde, Life, Der Stern, The New York Times LensBlog, and dozens of other national and international publications. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Book preview

Introduction

Photographing almost nothing but puppies for six months is like chasing the sun and never seeing it set. An endless parade of new life, one litter after another brought into the world through the labor of the mothers and their infallible instincts, surrounded by fretting, excited humans who make sure the newborn pups get enough milk, enough warmth, and, eventually, enough love.

Watching these tiny souls grow and develop into dogs over eight weeks is nothing short of miraculous. Born with their eyes and ears sealed, puppies move through developmental stages at lightning speed: every week there is a new milestone. Puppy Life celebrates each week’s changes and achievements while comparing growth among breeds that vary vastly in size and shape as well as purpose.

The largest puppy in the Cavalier King Charles spaniel litter was six ounces at birth, while the biggest of the Great Dane puppies was one pound, fourteen ounces—making it five times bigger. Despite mammoth disparities in birth weight, most puppies open their eyes somewhere around week two, by six weeks are no longer nursing, and by eight weeks are old enough to go to their new homes. However, size does play a role in exactly when a puppy goes home. Smaller breeds tend to go home anytime between eight and twelve weeks, while large breeds almost always go home at eight weeks. This is not due to developmental differences—just size. Smaller dogs have smaller litters and smaller puppies; larger dogs who are biologically able to safely carry more pups have bigger litters and bigger puppies. A litter of nine rambunctious Labradors who weigh fifteen pounds each at eight weeks are much harder to house and clean up after than a litter of four snuggly Cavaliers who weigh five pounds each.

While I shoot puppies I generally lie on my stomach, with the puppies running everywhere—climbing on my back, biting my leggings, yanking on my ponytail, eating the backdrop, pooping on the backdrop. (One time a puppy actually pulled a chunk of hair out of my head.) It’s total chaos, and I guess because I don’t scream and run out of the room or start sobbing, at some point during almost every shoot I inevitably hear You are so patient! How do you have the patience to do this?

But I am not patient—not at all. The only two things I have patience for are my daughter and animals, which, probably not coincidentally, are two things that I love immensely and unconditionally. I also have to be patient because if I give up, I don’t get the shot. And I want, or more accurately need, to get the shot. If you wait long enough, eventually even puppies get tired.

Though I have photographed puppies for more than ten years, there were some new surprises in making Puppy Life. One was watching my own baby, with whom I was pregnant when I made my first puppy book, turn into an expert photo assistant at