In order to provide further information about canine perinatology, and because of the scarceknowledge about fetal fluids composition in dogs, the present study was aimed to assess the cortisolconcentrations in fetal fluids collected from small-sized purebred newborn puppies born by electivecesarean section, at term of pregnancy (Meloni et al, 2014). Furthermore weassessed possible correlations of amniotic and allantoic cortisol concentrations and newborn outcomeat 24 hours of age and with the newborn gender. Fetal fluids cortisol concentrations were alsoevaluated for correlation with maternal parity, litter-size, neonatal gender, birth weight and Apgar score(Veronesi et al, 2009). The study, performed on 50 born alive, normal weighed puppies, without grossphysical malformation, showed that cortisol concentration was higher in allantoic than in amniotic fluid(p<0.01), even if a strong positive correlation between the two fluids cortisol concentration was found(p<0.0001; R=0.83). Interestingly, higher amniotic (p<0.05) cortisol concentrations were associated topuppies not surviving at 24 hours after birth. Therefore it could be suggested that this parameter maybe useful for the recognition, at birth, of puppies needing special surveillance in the first day of age. Inrelation to the other evaluated parameters, no correlations with amniotic or allantoic cortisolconcentrations were found. In conclusion, the present results showed that in small-sized purebredpuppies, born at term by elective caesarean section, the evaluation of amniotic cortisol concentrationseems useful for the detection of puppies that need special surveillance during the first 24 hours of age,and should be coupled to the newborn evaluation by Apgar score.