Asleep at the Twitch
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You’ve brought your new Ridgeback puppy home. She is swaddled in her fuzzy blanket, and is peacefully slumbering. You grab your iPad and zoom in to get some Facebook-worthy outtakes.
And then – she does it. Twitching non-stio, with little jerky, hitching movements that look for all the world like aliens have taken over her body.
Not to worry – that’s just her nervous system developing, and it’s entirely normal. Newborn puppies exhibit this sleep-twitching in the whelping box, and it can continue to a lesser degree when the puppy goes home.
Of course, there’s a big difference between twitching and seizing – these benign, involuntary movements only happen when the puppy is dozing, and her body is otherwise relaxed, never rigid.