two dogs, enough love

thanks wikipedia commons (PD-old-100)

So what's the story here?  Is that little guy a puppy and his mom is checking up on him?  Or is he simply small enough to pick up and snuggle, and big dog there is all jealous? (You know how dogs get jealous.)  By the way, here's an interesting thing: as carefully rendered as this portrait is, you would think that big dog's paws would make a couple of crushes into that soft apron.  But they don't. They hover right on the surface.  But that's the only off thing about this Young Lady with Two Dogs by the Milanese painter Giacomo Ceruti, date unknown (the artist's dates are 1698-1767).