i would like to ask you all to tell me about your 1st ever experience with the actual  labour and whelping please thanks

Are you looking to be 'put off' or 'reassured' LOL ;)

The one thing I would say is do not do it without someone with you that the bitch knows who has experience with lots of births, preferably your own breed, but any breed is better than not having someone who can read what's going on.

Also remember vets are very rarely experts at breeding, they know how to perform a C section administer drugs, but every whelping is unique and there is no substitute for experience beyond the nuts and bolts of the process.

My very first litter (too many years ago to remember ;-) ) was an English Springer Spaniel. We didn't realise she was in labour, just thought she needed to go out for a pee. The first pup was born in the hallway on the way to the door. It bounced and landed in the water bowl She always was little but caught up with the others and went to Liverpool to live eventually. She was born in Lerwick :-) The rest of the litter (12 more pups) were born without any other problems.

Our very first litter, pregnancy and whelping was text book, when pups were 3 weeks old mum had eclampsia and spent 3 days in the vet as we nearly lost her, when she came home from the vet she wasn't allowed to feed the pups, luckily as they were 3 weeks they took to weaning pretty quickly and we never looked back.  Mum fully recovered, but I have to say I have never been so scared in my life.

My first whelping was down right scary!! I'm actually amazed I went on to have any more.

After 2 days of 1st stage labour (I will never take a vets advice over my gut instincts again) my girl was so shattered and couldn't push productively that I rang the vets to say I was on my way for a c-section. As I was getting my coat and bag she produced green/black discharge and a head appeared and was moving and I wasn't prepared to leave them like that for the 20 min journey and risk the whole litter so I had to manipulate it out (never a good idea for a 1st time but he is now a strapping boy).

115MPH down the icy motorway at 1am in  January with a 5 minute old pup resulted in an emergency c-section and 7 live, 1 sleeping pup.  3 days later my girl was in intensive care with eclampsia and infection. We very nearly lost her and litter was hand-reared. I'm shaking now just from re-living it!!

I was very lucky with the first litter - a big breed and very easy!  10.30 am a very pleasant time and first one on my bed, rest in the whelping box.  Bitch very good with pups but had then to be attentive as rescuing pups from 'behind' mum was my job and to stop them being squashed, mum being so much bigger than the pups.  Fortunately next litter (medium breed) was also easy, if at 3am!  By 7.30am most of hers were here but the small breed had started, first pup was a tussle to get out, breech position so needed turning and easing out - not for the faint-hearted and it took two of us to hold and manipulate.  Then we had a dash to vets for a c-section for the second (final) pup.  Leaving the other mum and babies wasn't done easily and I'd forgotten to switch off the alarm which went off and must have irritated her as by the time we got home she'd 'killed' it!  However, she took the first pup from the other bitch for his first milk and you could hardly tell him from them just a slight difference in coat colour and he was a bit skinnier.  All survived the experience though!

My 1st litter is 3 days old today !!!!
My dog Star had her pups on day 60 from 2am till 8am this was also my sisters wedding day ... great timing lol.
On Day 59 her temperature droped to 36.5 and she was off her food which is unlike her as she ate all through her pregnancy, and she had a mucus discharge she was also panting a little more than usual.I asked my breeding mentor to check her out and she said i reckon she has a few days to go.
That night she was sick and kept doing little wees and small loose stools so i took her and my other dog to bed with me " hes not the father". i also took some night nurse because i had a cold and was trying to shift it as i had my sisters wedding the nxt day... bad mistake.
At 2am i woke up to her panting beside me and realise she was in labour quickly went down stairs we live in a town house as i went to the toilet i heard a puppy crying and there was one already in the box bless her she must have come back up stairs to wake me up. I was trying to ring my teenage son who was suppose to be popping out for a while and now had his mobile of  and get my other dog in another room .I had everything organised and had read about it so much but at the time it was quite scary !!!! anyway we have 3 boys and 3 girls all healthy and doing well.There would have been a little of 8 but one little girl had to be put to sleep star had accidently bitten her back leg while getting the sack of and another girl was still born we tried to revive her but with no luck for 25 mins.Very sad but nature can be cruel at times.
I wish i had gone with my gut feeling in the 1st place.

First litter took me by surprise as despite reading the Book of the bitch, breed books etc, I never realised bitches could go into labour much earlier than 9 weeks -was used to cats and they are never early and usually late. My bitch went into labour on day 58. Thankfully I did have the whelping box ready. It was a long night but what I also hadn't realised was just how quickly things can happen with pups being born fast (much faster than kittens), the bitch moving around a lot, the other pups needing to be kept safely out of her way to not get trodden on, newspaper needing to be changed constantly during the birth as they get so incredibly soaked. You need to be an octopus. I also made the mistake of thinking she was finished when she'd had the number of pups the vet said he'd seen on the scan, so let her out into the garden for a wee -thankfully I followed her and was able to catch the next pup slipping out as she squatted down. Several more followed once back in the box.

Then after a few weeks with nine pups to care for I swore never, ever again -again I hadn't realised just HOW much work it is, especially all the constant cleaning up. But I also said no more kids after my first and somehow after a while you forget all the bad bits and do it all over again.

My first was very easy, so much so that it nearly caught me by surprise. I knew my breed tended to go early, but when Ellie spent the day popping in and out of the dog door for a wee I didn't realise it was because of the contractions exactly, I just thought it was because the puppies were lying on her bladder as they shifted into position. She ate her breakfast just as usual. At 4.30pm I was chatting to my experienced breeder friend and I saw a visible contraction and got excited because I thought things were finally starting, and my friend said to get the heat pad on in case, which I did, though thinking it would be hours yet. At 5.30pm we had another contraction with a little dribble, so I asked her to come and sit in the whelping box and I sat next to her so we wouldn't have a mess on the carpet. Just as hubby was asking if he should put the oven on for supper, the next minute a puppy popped out!! I gave him a rub and he was breathing fine, Ellie was the perfect mum looking after him and licking him, I was a little worried she was trying to get the cord off too short. I remember being startled by the 'cord' which was much more like a flat membrane than the cylindrical cord I had expected from the word 'cord'. The second and last puppy was born 2 hours later, that one was slightly exciting because she passed the puppy but took another minute to pass the afterbirth, during which I was trying to hold the puppy up against her bottom so as not to pull on the cord too much, and she was whirling round in circles trying to lick it! Soon all settled down again and she was the perfect mum from start to finish. And even with such an easy experience, I found it very tiring and stressful, though very rewarding! I was very lucky to have such an easy whelping for a first one.

My first litter was text book after all of the reading and preparing for the big event it went ahead quite easily.  The only one thing that had me worried was that my mentor wasn't around she was available on the telephone 24hours but geographically lived so far away it wasn't possible for her to nip over in the car should anything not go to plan. 

We had our first litter on Monday on day 63. She started stage one labour about 8:30am and had her first visible contraction at 9:30pm. She had 4 puppies, the first was born at 10:30pm and the last was born at 11:45pm.  Everything went well - exactly as hoped. She ate normally up until the Sunday night (except for a minor blip about 4 weeks in) and started eating again on the Tuesday about lunchtime. There was very little difference in weight of puppies and they are all feeding well and putting on weight.

My first litter was a nightmare. It was 2 days before New Year, I had chicken Pox, my husband had left me and the pups turned up a week early, catching me totally off guard and making me miss my sisters wedding.

Apart from that, she gave birth fairly easily, had 8 wonderful puppies and was an excellent mother.

Our first litter was a breeze but have known of experienced people loose half or even whole litters though one reason or another, and its really not a one off I also know of another first timer who lost the litter and the bitch though inexperience :(.

I 'blogged' my experience and even turned it into a small book which I had printed and sent to the puppies' owners on their first birthday.  You can access it by going to my profile where there is a link to my website.

I have attended about 20 births and all have been textbook nice easy ones (one required a vet visit) so I thought I was well prepared and knew what I was doing!

My very first own litter was a nightmare, C section, nearly loosing the bitch to puppies getting the runs and loosing some of them :(...
If this was my only experience I don't think I would be doing it again but now I kind of think been there, had the nightmare one so maybe the next one will be ok :)

Very much like you Noora, did my homework and been there on hand to see many bitches whelping, understood how to revive, and what to look out for if my girl was in trouble, had everything I needed ready and was very confident.

Shame my girl hadn't done the same homework. :-)

The first pup would have been dead if it had been left to her, she had been showing all the classic signs of imminent whelping and it was to the day, so I was confident it was anytime now. I'd gone into the kitchen to get a snack and drink and my girl had followed me in, I felt her leaning against my leg, next minute she shot out of the kitchen and ran off into the garden, well first thoughts were better follow quick! As I turned lying next to my leg was the first whelp, still in his sac, she'd just whelped and ran off leaving him, no instinct to open the sac clean, ask for help, she just did a runner. :-D

Well, I sorted out the pup and called my girl over to the whelping area, showed her the pup, let her sniff him and she started to lick him, put the pup in and she whelped the rest in there and was terrific afterwards, luckily I've never lost a pup and never had a problem everything has always been text book, but you'd have to be a fool to think it will always be that way, so much can and does go wrong.

good story thankyou

well I have a large breed and looking at the size of my bitch was expecting a large litter. She had already been sleeping in her whelping area since she came into season (as I have an intact male) so was well accustomed to where she needed to be. Anyway she had given me a false temp drop a couple of days before, then the day before she had another one this time it had gone down even lower but stayed for longer than the first. So I was kind of expecting her to go into labour but she had no other visual signs, still eating breakfast infact scoffed it down, the only thing was she had been a bit mucousy on the back end. I was looking after a neighbours rabbits as they were away, it was easter Monday 2009 at 10:30 am. Just got back from feeding and watering the animals and thought I will just check how Xena is and whether she had eaten all her food. Kids were sat eating breakfast and my partner was out taking his brother to work. As I got out to the area she was very quiet not her usual greeting, as she turned when I called her she had lot's of gloopy mucous strings all down her back legs and then I noticed there was a tail and small foot hanging out!! I called my daughter to get me all the equipment i need to had that was on the shelf in the room and Got Xena actually in the box. She basically started to pop out the puppies at a good steady rate. No panting or shaking was visible before hand and could barely see the contractions to be honest. But in 4 hours she managed to produce a lovely litter of 10 all fantastic weights and an even mix of colour and sex so a good result all round. She cared for the pups the whole time even giving them a sneaky feed right up until the day they left. Her last litter was all so very different ended up with a c section and only 1 puppy ( and we were lucky to have him  aswell) as she had a massive uterine infection  (lot's of remnants of puppies that she had been re absorbing) at that time it was decided to have her speyed as I didn't want her to have any problems with the infection and have to go back in for a spey the following week if the infection didn't clear up. She recovered very well although I had to hand rear the baby (very big baby to be honest!!) This was a very expensive vets bill but the most important thing was Xena was ok and recovered very well. But it just goes to show how very different things can be even from the same bitch.... sorry it was a bit long! 

great first story, shame about the second one as you say just goes to show how things can go wrong,
I asked this question as i was expecting a litter, they were all delivered within 30 mins , 4 of them. There was no panting shaking, we just noticed a foot hanging out, i was worried as i heard its hard wen they are born breech, but the puppy just flew out. it was great exelent mother to, bit to protective but its her job bless her

so I'm not the only one with a foot hanging story!! Yeah she was a great mum and let me and kids in straight away infact my daughter was my helper through the whole thing and didn't mind any of us touching the pups. Even when we had a stranger in to remove dew claws (took pups one at a time) she didn't mind

Hahaha we had a foot hanging out to! Our first and only litter was just about text book. 4 beautiful healthy babies and a fab mum.

Not sure if we will be breeding again as the heart ache of letting them go to new homes was one of the hardest things I have ever done! I also recently nearly lost another bitch to pyo. There's so much more to breeding that just puppies.

X

im dreading having to let them go. i think ill keep them haha (no really) its only 4 i could manage

it is heart breaking seeing them all go... but then it is also very rewarding hearing from the owners and receiving pictures etc on how they are doing and what you have produced from the mating etc and whether it was what you had hoped to achieve.

>There was no panting shaking, we just noticed a foot hanging out, i was worried as i heard its hard wen they are born breech,

Just to clarify this for anyone reading this. Pups that are born feet first are NOT breech. A breech birth is when the pup is born RUMP first with the feet tucked up under the body. About half of pups born are born feet first, so don't worry if you see the feet and tail coming out first.

Glad your pups have arrived, I've got a long wait for my next litter (mum to be is only 14 months old ;-) ) so I am a little bit jealous of you :-p