Dog Whelping

If a nest is not provided as the whelping time approaches, an dogwill make her own. If she is a house pet, she may fix it in a closet, on abed, or out in the garden. As time of birth draws near, she will settle inher nest and appear to strain. The frequency and intensity of her uter-ine contractions increase.

It is wise to prepare a nesting area about a week before the antici-pated whelping and to encourage the expecting mother to use it. Thenest should be located in a convenient place if in a house but not in anarea strange to her. A kennel dog should whelp in the kennel and not in a strange new environment, such as a residence. Kennel dogs had been brought into the house for their delivery, felt so inse-cure they spent half their time carrying puppies to a sofa from thenesting area. Once back in the kennel they were excellent mothers.Also, it is best not to invite the neighbors in to see this fascinating featof nature since strangers and undue noise create a threat to some newmothers. Many females will destroy their puppies if the environment isnot to their liking.

In considering the proper nest it is helpful to examine those typicalof females left to their own design. We have seen farm dogs as well ascity dogs choose their own locations and have their litters, and there isone feature in common. The nest the female creates may be under theedge of a haymow or under the back porch, but invariably it is notunlike a giant bird's nest in its concavity. Bitches dig and scratch,circling constantly in the depression until it is deep enough to theirliking. We can benefit by this observation and provide a concave nestfor a planned litter. Corrugated boxes with sides tall enough to preventpuppies from crawling out during their first three weeks of life but nottoo tall for the mother to jump over are useful and disposable whensoiled. The corners should be packed with cloth to make the nestconcave and a blanket should be placed over it.

Whelping Facilities in the Kennel. As is true in the house, be surethat everything is ready for the puppies. The ideal whelping box issquare with the sides a foot high. It should be prepared with the properbedding made of an absorbent material. Rye or oat straw and dehy-drated sugarcane are all excellent. Whatever is used, be sure there is anample amount of it. Fill the box with the material and then trample itdown until it is saucer-shaped rather than flat. Those who have hadlittle experience with bitches whelping often copy the whelping boxesbuilt for sows. These have bars up a few inches from the side underwhich the piglets can roll if the mother tends to lie on them. However,bitches do not lie down in this fashion. A good mother hollows out anest by walking around and around, pushing her puppies into a pile inthe lowest part of the hollow. Then she lies down with all her teats available.

There are bitches so clever and petite that they can make a nest in ahaymow barely large enough to turn around in and in it whelp and raiseto weaning a large litter of puppies. The majority of house dogs, however, are incapable of such an expert and natural performance. If left toherself, every bitch will hollow out a nest in which the puppies tend toroll into a pile in the bottom, where they keep each other warm. If lefton a flat floor, the puppies are more apt to be killed by their motherlying on them.

The preparation of a nest has a great effect upon the success of alitter. Avoid using loose material that is likely to get into the mouths ofthe young and interfere with their nursing. When you use dehydratedsugarcane for bedding material in kennels, you should put cloth underit, so that it will not irritate the puppies' navels should it be pushedaside.

Whelping Facilities at Home. For house dogs, we prefer clothstuffed into the corners of the box with a blanket spread over all.During the labor the expectant mother may tear the blanket to shredsbut sometime during the labor she stops shredding and another blanketmay be added. Much of the cloth will be soiled by fluids from the birthprocess and it may be removed and laundered for future use. Some ofthe synthetic fibers such as nylon may wrap around a pup's extremitywith tourniquet action resulting in the loss of a limb if not discoveredin time. If the nest box becomes too soiled have a second one on handwith clean bedding to substitute.

If the litter is whelped and to be raised at home, a six-foot-high stackof newspapers will be about right for ten Setter pups. During the wean-ing period the mother stops eating the puppies' excrement and thekeeper of the puppies has a constant job of cleaning up after them. Aplaypen-type enclosure or a small room covered with newspapers is theconventional and good way to handle this problem. In warm clearweather they may be taken out to an outside enclosure for part of theday, but keep stray dogs away since young puppies are particularlysusceptible to many diseases.