we had a litter on friday and am supprised that mum is spending so much time away from pups, is this normal? she is feeding them and cleaning them and she is making sure they are warm. she does however seem to want lots of attention from me and the other human members of the family, but does go straight back if she hears them make a sound.
my other concern is because she has a flat face, when picking up pups she does it by  their back leg is this normal?

You need to be with her in the whelping room so that she's not tempted to leave her litter.

All bitches are different. I had a bitch that only had a singleton pup, so maybe a bit different, but she would feed it clean it and then dump it on the lap of the first person she saw. She wanted nothing more to do with it. I never bred from her again so dont know if it was her (which I really think it was) or whether it was because her hormones hadn't kicked in properly.

If your bitch is normally a person oriented bitch then I wouldn't be too worried, so long as the pups are fed, cleaned and warm. It's been 5 years since I had a litter but I think the bitches would just grab any part of the pup that was handy. Though they preferred to just nudge them out of the way with their noses.

i am with them all the time and have been sleeping downstairs with her from about a weeks before pups were due. they are in the family living room as this is where she is most comfortable and relaxed apart from my bedroom, which our vet advised us to not let princess have puppies upstairs.

Does she feel secure enough? The one point I'd pick up on is that she picks her pups up -I've NEVER had a bitch wanting to carry her pups when she and they are secure in their whelping box, the only times I've seen them do it is if I am cleaning the box and have moved the pups and she wants them moved back.  If she feels happy and secure she shouldn't want them moved. Have you tried covering the box, making it into a den?

the box is covered and i think she does feel secure. some times when she is getting out  of the box one of the pups has been feeding it is sort of carried away, so she is picking it up to put it back with the others or if she feels that 1 of the pups needs a little 1 on 1 nursing time she will pick it up to move away from the others slightly.  i have been weighing them and the all seem to be putting on weight. we have the box where the puppies are inside a much larger box, so that princesses always has access to her food and water and can still be close to them.

hi dawn my puppies are just over 3 weeks old now and mum only goes in when im not around to do her buisness
if me or others are in the house she will follow us around, but if anyone was to go by the box she will jump up and nibble your hand
some dogs are in with puppies 24/7 others not as long as they are fed and clean i wouldnt worry too much
my older girl was the same the granny to this puppies she would leave them and go back when they cry

Same as Goldmali, I have NEVER had this happen in many, many years with dogs.  My bitches have to be dragged away to have a wee.

If I had bitches doing this at less than a week after whelping, it would signal distress to me.

You say that she wants lots of attention from you.  I would translate this as her trying to tell you something.

Picking pups up should be telling you something too.

You say they are in the family living room, how many people use/visit this room? Have you had people in to see them? Please don't think I'm being critical but it's not clear from your post how busy this area is. I agree with the others, she doesn't sound happy if she is moving them around a lot. I would restrict access to the room by others, make sure the whelping box is "den like"- maybe she thinks they are too hot?

If this continues I would consider consulting the vet.

Hope things improve.

My eldest now was essentially a good Mum but if we left the room she had to follow ( this is what she does ordinarily - if she realises you have moved to another room, she follows). Having said that she never tried to move the pups, in fact none of my bitches have ever tried to pick a pup up. We just had to stay with her for the most part and then she would happily lie with them and do everything she needed to do.
I remember if we wanted to leave her briefly, creeping out of the room!

Depends on the breed, this would be completely normal behaviour for my pug Mums, the pups are tucked up safe in whelping box in bedroom, Mu either lies on my bed, or follows me around and joins rest of doggy family.  This behaviour would have worried me silly with my Spaniels but the pugs seem to take it as read that having a litter does not limit their family time with the rest of the household.  Cna't help with the picking up by hte leg thing, my lot have flat faces too but have never attempted to move or lift a pup.

thank you for all the advice and i am happy to say things seemed to have settled down a little now. the only people that go into the room with them is me and my husband and our 2 girls that are 11 and 15, we have told all family and friends that they will not be able to visit for a few weeks and explained why. have been keeping a really close eye on things and princess seems to be less prone to moving the pupies if i am right next to her so that she can still be stroked and patted at the same time as being in the box with them. if she starts picking them up again i will call the vet straight away.

My breed tend to say out of the whepling box apart from feeding particulaly in the warm months ( its a hard balance keeping pup warm and mom cool) but they will lie next to the box. My friend who breeds pugs have said they are not the most nurturing of dogs with their pups and tend to do as little as possible.

I have only had one litter so am by no means experienced, but my girl after a couple of days would spend ALOT of time away from the pups...always in the same room though (living room) but would choose to spread out on the floor or come and lay on the sofa. She fed them regularly and cleaned them and was also very attentive and straight back in there to check everything was ok if one squeeked etc. She was also insistent on resuming normal exercise with the others around 7 days post whelping.

I could see she was happy and content doing what she was doing so I let her be.

Your girl sounds exactly like my girl, Drover!