Have you ever wondered how you know when puppies are going to be born?
Do dogs’ water break like people’s? Do dogs have the same labour pains as people? Or do you just sit back and leave it to the mama dog?
I talk about all these things in this blog post. Find out as well what happened when Belle threw us a curveball and didn’t give us any typical signs!
No Signs
Most pregnant dogs will give you lots of signs their puppies are ready to be born.
One of the earliest signs is turning down food. But, this isn’t the most specific sign as they usually eat a lot less in the week leading up to birth.
A better sign puppies are near is a constant need to pee. Just like babies, puppies put a lot of pressure on mom’s bladder.
Another clear sign things are getting ready is when the mama dog starts rooting in your closet to make a nest. Usually, they find the furthest spot behind all your hanging clothes. They like to dig all your shoes out, pull some clothes off hangers and make a nice nest.
This stage is often accompanied by shivering and continuous panting.
A dog’s water doesn’t break, but a mucus plug comes out. You don’t always see evidence this has happened though.
You usually have about 4 to 12 hours to prepare when you see these things happening.
But what if there aren’t any signs? What if you aren’t prepared?
Mama Belle put us into just that situation.
Lead Up
March 16th was a quiet evening at Van Isle Doodles. All the dogs were relaxed, including Belle, who was three days from her due date.
We went to bed confident puppies were not about to arrive. We opened the windows to keep the room comfortable, had six dogs sleeping with us and no whelping supplies prepared.
At 4:00 am, Spirit bumped her nose into mine. I mumbled something to her about going back to sleep. Two minutes later, she bumped me again. The light bulb went on in my sleepy brain: Spirit was telling me Belle was having puppies!
We jumped out of bed, shut the windows, cranked up the heater, and shooed the other dogs out.
Belle calmly watched this display of humans in a panic as she pushed her first puppy into the world
Black Collar
At 4:15 am, a black and white puppy was born. Belle had the puppy in her doughnut bed since we had nothing ready. She delivered him without a second glance at us and had no concerns about the lack of preparation or supplies. She looked after everything on her own.
Once we were set up and had our supply trolley at hand, I did a thorough check of the puppy. He was completely fine! I let out a breath of relief and weighed him. 198 grams! A great size for a newborn mini labradoodle puppy. I gave him the black ID collar to match his colour.
Dark Blue Collar
At 4:54 puppy number 2 arrived. At least we were prepared this time! Belle was calm and looked after the entire process herself.
A slight hitch occurred when Belle cut the umbilical cord too close, making it bleed. While some blood is expected when a Mama labradoodle cuts the cord herself, this was more than I was comfortable with.
I applied an antiseptic pad to the cord stump and struggled to find enough cord length to use a clamp to stop the blood. Once I could lock the clamp onto the cord, the bleeding stopped. The clamp is light and can remain on the puppy without interfering with them nursing or moving about. After 10 minutes, the bleeding stopped completely. He was fine.
This puppy was another boy and a handsome chocolate sable parti puppy. We gave him Dark Blue as his ID collar colour. He weighed 241 grams. A chunky boy. No wonder Belle had let out a bit of a squeak as she delivered him.
A Pause...
Belle wasn’t huge so we didn’t expect a large litter. Litters with only 2 or 3 puppies usually don’t take long to be born and we expected to be finished in under an hour. If you check out the Bees Knees Birth Announcement you’ll see Misha had 8 puppies in 2 hours!
After Dark Blue Collar was born, I quickly checked Belle to feel for more puppies. I found one relatively high up which meant we would have a bit of a wait.
It’s normal during a Mama dog’s labour to have a pause. Sometimes the break can last for several hours; Mama dogs even fall asleep! No matter how many litters I have whelped, I always worry though. Puppies can be stuck, be too big to be born naturally or even dead. You want to remain calm for your Mama, so she doesn’t sense your anxiety. I tend to pace around, sweat a bit and check the poor Mama constantly to see if things are starting to happen. Meanwhile, Mamas take it in stride and enjoy the break in the action.
Pink Collar
Finally, at 6:07 am the last puppy arrived. It was a girl! Unlike her brothers, she only had a few abstract white markings on her red coat. She weighed 215 grams and we gave her a Pink ID Collar.
Belle was tired and decided it was a good time for me to deal with the umbilical cord and dry Pink Collar off.
Puppies are pretty wet when they are born. Mama dogs lick their puppies when they are born to dry them off and stimulate them to breathe.
Sometimes mamas are too tired and ask us to open up the sac and towel dry the puppy off to stimulate them to breathe. Once we hear a healthy wail we know the puppy is breathing just fine.
Pink was still quiet after I had been towelling her dry. I grabbed the mucus trap to suck the excess fluid from her lungs. Pink cried with gusto and we knew she was okay.
After Pink Collar’s arrival, I did another thorough check of Belle, hoping against hope that there would be a 4th puppy but she was finished.
Belle went for a quick potty break and I moved the puppies into the maternity ward. When Belle came in, she checked to be sure all the puppies were there, curled around them in a tight ball to keep them warm and enjoyed a snack and water. Birthing puppies is hard work!
The puppies had all latched quickly and had no trouble tanking up at the milk bar.
The humans decided to delay clean-up, turned off the lights and collapsed into bed for a morning nap.
Be sure to enjoy seeing each of the puppies up close and personal in their Birth Announcement YouTube video