Welcome back to our blog series all about the journey of a canine partner mum. You may remember from our last update that we announced that Faith was pregnant! 

In this update, we are going to share with you information about the birth, as well as how the pups got on in their first week.

We are delighted to announce that Faith has now given birth (known as whelping) to eight gorgeous new arrivals. Faith safely delivered four boys and four girls. Mum and pups are all doing really well 🙂

The labour

Faith seemed to know what she was doing instinctively. Our Brood Stock Coordinator Sian was on hand along with Faith’s Brood Bitch Holder to give a helping hand when required, checking the newborn puppies over and ensuring that they are happy and healthy and mum is as comfortable as possible.

Once each puppy is born, mum will chew through their umbilical cord and clean each puppy. Even though these newborn puppies cannot see or hear (as their eyes and ears haven’t opened yet), these minutes old puppies will pull themselves across the whelping bed and start to suckle from their mum.

Our Brood Stock Coordinator Sian, will check each puppy over and will note the time of birth and sex of each puppy. Each puppy is weighed and given a nail varnish mark to help identify them in the litter.

Once mum is finished whelping, she is given the opportunity to go to the toilet, her hind quarters are bathed, the whelping bed is cleaned and she is left to settle with her puppies. For the first week roll bars are placed around the edges of the bed to act as a safety zone, until the new arrivals get a little bigger.

The new arrivals

Here are a few facts about newborn puppies:

• You may remember from our previous post that newborn puppies cannot regulate their own body temperature and so we use a heat lamp to maintain the temperature of the whelping bed so that the new arrivals do not become too cold.
• Newborn puppies cannot see or hear as their eyes and ears haven’t opened yet.
• Newborn puppies need their mum to lick them to stimulate them to go to the toilet.
• Each puppy is health checked and handled daily.

The first week of puppyhood

Faith is doing a brilliant job of being a mum, and her puppies are steadily putting on weight. At this stage, the puppies are completely reliant on her and she will only leave them to eat, drink and go to the toilet.

Newborn puppies will spend much of their time sleeping, only waking up to suckle off of their mum, or move towards or away from a heat source to stay warm.

During this time, the puppies have limited movement and are only capable of a slow crawl. They are not yet able to stand and support their own body weight.

Faith’s Brood Bitch Holder will weigh each puppy daily and record each weight, to ensure that the puppies are gaining weight and will start the all-important early socialisation.

Watch the video below to see mum and puppies:

Interested in fostering a canine partner mum?

We are on the lookout for more volunteers to care for a canine partner mum in their home. You will be responsible for looking after the new-born puppies until they are approximately 7 weeks old.

If this sounds like something you would like to do, or you wish to find out more, click here.