I had a litter of 2 just about 2 weeks ago and lost one of the puppies this week due to pneumonia/aspiration (verified by Autopsy). I have had a good friend offer to take in my 2 weeks old puppy and raise it with her litter as her litter is only 3 days younger and it would do my puppy a world of good with socilization etc.

Since I have never done this I do not want to stress mom or the babies out in her litter so any suggestions on how to ease the stress on everyone involved and have my baby raised by the serogate mom would be highly appreciated.

Instead, why don't you take one of the other puppies as a temporary sibling?
Or arrange "play dates" for your singleton?
I would hate to take the last baby away from the dam, if she is a good mother.
There is probably less danger that way than the other way around.

Oh no, I am so sorry on the loss of your puppy.

Is the surrogate mother a Labrador also? I ask because my Labrador bitch successfully raised a puppy of a different breed with her litter of 7. The litter was a singleton and the dam was over mothering the puppy and would not settle to nurse. The litters were two days apart, (the singleton was older) and my girl readily accepted the other baby when presented to her, and raised her like she was her own, with absolutely no stress. However, the puppy was newborn at only 2 days old, I don't know if that would make a difference at this point now that your puppy is 2 weeks old? Labrador mothers are generally so maternal, but now that the new mother hormones (oxytocin-the love hormone) have settled a bit, I guess you won't know until you try?

How generous of your friend to offer to raise the puppy with her litter, this will be awesome for your puppy. My friend wrote a "Hold Harmless" agreement, that we both signed, should something happen to her puppy while under my, and my bitch's care. I took the puppy for the well baby health check, vaccinated, wormed etc... and CERF exam with the rest of my litter. My friend, of course helped when she could and brought dog food or some money here and there to help out. I would do it again in a heart beat, and would hope that someone would do it for me.

Best of luck and please let us know how it goes.

I would just let your momma dog raise her singleton while she is nursing the first 5 weeks but as time goes on, you can introduce the singleton to your friend's litter of pups. There is plenty of time to socialize your puppy around other puppies. When we had our singleton a couple yrs ago, we made sure our puppy was held and interacted with from day one. She ( singleton ) was introduced to our other dogs in our family from 3 weeks of age as well as growing up around my other chocolate litter that were whelped the week before.
Fast forward to when our singleton girl was 12 months old, we had 2 chocolate pups who at 8 weeks of age were adopted by our 12 month old singleton. I didn't encourage this bond but Farrah, the Singleton was so intent on being with and making it her mission to protect her newly adopted babies. She raised these 2 pups their first year of life. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with being a singleton herself but Farrah seemed very precocious from the time she opened her eyes up.

When I had a singleton a friend "loaned" me 3 of her pups from her 3 day older, 7 puppy, litter two days later. My girl accepted the 3 new puppies immediately and I could see, even at that young age that my singleton was much more content having the other puppies with him. As was my girl.

Bonnie

You're going to get many suggestions on this list, all well meaning. As you don't know who is replying to your question and how long they're breeding, how many litters they personally have had or if they ever had a singleton, please be careful adhering to others advice.

I recommend you speak to a long time breeder who has been through similar losses such as yours and found the best way to address them.

The now singleton, going to the other litter is great for the puppy itself. If it were my bitch, my concern would be for Mum and how she might feel or react to having no puppies with her to raise after 2 weeks of doing so. An animal behaviorist & repro specialist in combination, might be able to answer the question about a surrogate best.

I'm sincereley sorry you lost half of your 2 puppy litter when the other puppy passed on. You'll find the right answer for both Mum & pup by speaking to the right people with experience in similar situations.

I have had and raise singleton a couple of time over the years. They were fine. Don't take the pup from the mom. Borrow a pup, that would be so much better for all concerned. Enjoy them.