That sounded very similar to what I had gone through in the past, until a woman came to visit us with a bitch to breed. She stayed at our house for a few days and every day she watched me run from room to room in the house cleaning up after the puppies in the whelping box. She continued to tell me about a facility she designed for whelping her puppies. Of course, with my stubbornness I continued to run from room to room in our house cleaning up after each litter. I knew there had to be an easier way.. .maybe her system would work.

Sometime later I called her up and asked her about the whelping box she had described to me. It was designed with hinges so it could fold up and be stored when not in use. The whelping box was basically divided into two parts with an opening between the two. The first part is designed for her to whelp her puppies comfortably; as they would get older they would crawl through the hole and go potty on the other side.

Well, my puppies did just the opposite! Instead of using the box as it had been intended, they would potty in the section — where the dam would feed the pups, and play and sleep in the bathroom section, which was smaller. The mother then did not want to go into the box and feed the pups because that section that was large enough was not clean. She would make attempts to go into the other side but she and the puppies could not fit.

I had to modify this idea slightly to cater to my puppies and mother’s habits. One possible explanation for the problem is that in our breeding program we keep the mother with her puppies longer than most breeders, and maybe this is why the technique did not exactly work with my litters.

We feel that the mother should be with the pups as long as possible - up to the time they are ready to go to their new homes. This we feel builds up a more secure and stable temperament, and does not cause the puppy stress at such a young age. Since our breeding program not only strives for conformation, but also temperament for working, this is very important.

When the puppies are ready to go outside into a pen we still keep them with their mothers. But now we build a small adjoining pen with a hole to allow the puppies to go into this small area and the mother cannot get to it.

You can now feed the puppies without the mother stealing the food. It also gives an area for the puppies to be left alone, without the mother insisting to play all day and night.

You can now feed the puppies without the mother stealing the food. It also gives an area for the puppies to be left alone, without the mother insisting to play all day and night.

Whatever method you use, the main factor is to keep the puppy area clean to prevent any disease, and to keep the pups happy.

Until next month, rrrrrrrring!