While it might seem sad, nearly all dogs are separated from their mothers, even as puppies. After all, when we adopt a dog, we typically don’t take the whole family!
Eventually, we come to think of ourselves as the dog’s family and don’t give another thought to whether or not they remember their own parents or siblings.
Even so, dogs maintain a “scent memory” of their own kin and can “recognize” each other even years later as a result! (They have the same ability to sniff out their humans as well.)
That’s part of the reason it can be so sweet to watch two related dogs (whether offspring or littermates) see one another again.
There’s no evidence they “miss” one another, just that they recognize the familiar scent (and many get excited by it).
In 2015, a video of a puppy named Harper was uploaded to YouTube – and since then, it’s been viewed over 3.9 million times, mostly because it’s so darned heartwarming!
The first few scenes show Harper as an 11-week-old puppy, right before her new human family adopted her.
Then, it cuts to four months later when Harper returns to the place she was born and sees her mom again.
She’s gotten to be such a big girl!
If dogs had to recognize each other on looks alone, it would be hard to know that was the same pup.
When Harper gets out of the car she appears to sniff the air in a way that makes it look like she’s getting a whiff of something familiar.
But while she followers her owners up to the house and sniffs everything along the way, that’s probably no different than any other animal would do.
Then we see her mom, who runs up to Harper (again, we don’t know if there’s recognition or if she’s simply running up to a dog that’s on her property), but it sure looks sweet!
And as dogs do, they begin to sniff.
It just so happens that the scent glands they need in order to get a good whiff of something familiar aren’t in the places we’d most like to see their noses.
But it does appear that dogs can tell a lot from the scent produced by another dog’s anal glands, including whether or not they’ve met before.
Once Harper and her mom realize the scents are familiar, it really does look like they’re happy to see one another.
Whereas another dog might back off to gather more information, Harper jumps up and licks her mom’s face and appears to be full of excited energy.
Mom too seems not only happy to receive the affection but gives back a few licks of her own.
The duo goes on a walk together and we can’t help but feel sentimental at the purposeful tug at our heartstrings.
Those filming the video even cut back and forth between baby Harper and her mom and grown-up Harper and mom.
Of course, the relationship just isn’t the same as it would be between a human mother and child. But since that’s what we expect to see, that’s how it’s framed (and how we tend to interpret it).
Commenters on the video mentioned having some of the same experiences when their puppies were reunited with their mothers, even if it happened regularly.
“My puppy and his mom live about a half a mile away from each other. This is his reaction every time they get together and play,” said one viewer.
Despite living away from her family, our final shot is one of a very happy Harper walking on the beach.
And it looks like her human family is taking very good care of her!
Be sure to scroll down below to see the sweet reunion for yourself.
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