That's interesting Phil and probabaly true i'm sure. I didn't mean to imply that the guy I knew was mean to her. He was stern w/ her but didn't abuse her to my knowledge. The guy had three little boys and they sure were happy when she had the pups. I believe they tried to make her as comfortable as possible in the garage or something. The owner did probably beat her after the tragedy occured but that was probably becasue the whole family was so distressed over what happened. The incident occurred a cuple of days after they were born. Perhaps she (the dog)was just ignorant of what was going on. I dunno.