Congratulations on your new babies. Don't worry about mum not wanting to leave her babies, this is perfectly natrual. You may need to put a lead on her if she is unwilling to go into the garden to toilet. I personally wouldn't take the bitch off your premises due to infection. It is quite easy to cut pups nails, I use baby nail clippers and cut the hooks off with those, over the years I have found it much easier to do when they are asleep unless you have help as they become very wriggly and mums can be quite upset if they cry. I cut my pups nails usually once every 5 days or so.

I do put food and water just outside the whelping box and would never feed a bitch in the whelping box when the pups are mobile (doesn't matter so much when they are tiny) as a friend used to do this with her bitches, one of her most placid bitches turned on her 3 week old pups that came near her food bowl and killed 3 of them and injured another. I have been overly cautious since then and my friend gave up breeding after that.

Enjoy your babies, take loads of photos as they grow so quickly and get some rest whilst you can x

I trim off the sharp hooky ends whenever they need it - weekly should be fine. :) As for mum, be guided by her. Certainly make her go out into the garden several times a day for toilet breaks and a little exercise. Have you any other dogs? I found that my nursing bitch would one day appear at the front door when I was preparing to take the others out for a walk when she decided she was ready for a change of scene, usually after five days to a week, so she was taken for a short walk then. Never had a problem - she wasn't bringing back any more germs than the other dogs were, or indeed that i was every time I left the house! She was also giving the litter the same immunity that she herself had - that's the benefit of the maternal antibodies in the milk. :)

I do the same.  With mine it happened to be about 10 days so I guess they will be individual in this but whatever she appeared to want I would be guided by.

What are your opinions on weaning for a litter of nine for a large breed (adult - bitch approx 38kgs dogs 40kgs) The puppies are gaining weight beautifully and they'll be 3 weeks soon, and mum is happy feeding them and has plenty of milk.
I will be weaning them to a complete puppy kibble, so is it better to go straight onto that in a sloppy form and skip the porridge and scrambled egg etc?

I go onto sloppy puppy kibble using puppy milk for the slop part.  I increase the puppy food and not the milk and phase milk out by 6 weeks as once Mum is weaning I find milk is less tolerated by some, and because worming can also cause looseness I prefer to have it out of their systems by the last worming before they leave home.

I like to start mine getting a taste of food before 3 weeks (when I worm) so that I can be sure that pups have full bellies before I worm them, as I find this way they are less likely to react to the wormer.

Some litters seem ready to eat quite a lot within days, others who are satisfied with Mum may just play at eating until over four weeks.  I go with the flow offering them as much food four times a day as they will take.

At four weeks I will make one meal a meat meal, or other food meal, so that pups are used to a variety of foods before they leave home so they can fit into their new owners preferences for feeding method.

The puppies are doing really well and I love them all to bits.
They are eating blended puppy food with some puppy meat too and they are also having a little puppy Nature Diet and their tummies are fine (even after worming).

Just one more question, shall I leave a shallow bowl of water now? They are weeing lots so I know they are still taking enough fluids from mum, she has free access to them.

thanks

Yes, I'd put a shallow bowl of water down for them.