How long can there be between puppies being born if the mother isnt pushing?I have just spent the evening watching a litter of pups arrive( not mine though) The thing is she has had 3 and her owner says there are clearly more to arrive,she was enormous and she can feel at least 2 more but she has settle down to feed the 3 she has had and there is mo sign at all now of pushing.i cant help because im not a breeder but i said id find out and call her.Her vet said this can sometimes happen and to take her there in the morning  but she wants to hear from other breeders and what they would advise.Thanks

Well personally I would call the vet if nothing has happened after 2 hours. I HAVE had a bitch have a last, live, pup six hours after the others -but I had no idea there was still one to come so it was a surprise and very lucky he was alive and that the contractions did start up again. If the contractions have stopped, usually after a couple of hours I'd want the vet to give an Oxytocin injection to get them going again as they may not start up again.

They naturally have a break between delivering pups from one horn and the next, I give nutridrops and calciboost every hour and "feather" the vagina if nothing gets going after 2 hours and that normally gets things started again.

I use Collo Cal D and if labour slows down find after just 5ml a pup normally arrives within 20 minutes.  The last pup/s have further to travel down the horns so do sometimes take longer, so mum takes a break/nap

I've also had a bitch go 6 hours between No. 4 and No. 5 pup, thankfully was born alive and well.

I do think this can be breed dependent.  With my breed I would be wanting oxytocin.  I have to say that with a breed as small as mine, 2 hours would signal a section.

I thought one of my bitches had finished at 8 (first one took ages as it was stillborn), bitch settled overnight and all well, I went to get a cup of tea and came back to find a dead pup in the whelping box!  Panic! then counted and I still had 7 live pups... and to be fair this one had been dead for ages on reflection... then shortly after 2 healthy pups were born... I couldn't feel any and it was 10pm so didn't go to the vet....

another bitch took a while to get started, but a biggish pup came out backwards, quickly followed by 2 others, then nothing...so oxytocin and two more pups in very quick succession, then nothing... (I was in the car at the vet surgery at this point)... then another oxytocin and very quickly another pup... then nothing... I couldn't tell if there were more, the vet couldn't either, so she had a scan, one pup on its way and heart rate dropped, plus another pup (possibly 2) still high up under her ribs... so another shot of oxytocin (last) and she had the pup in the surgery... all well thankfully.. we then went home to wait a couple of hours (advice of vet) and I turned around and she'd had a pup!  Final count of 8 and no reason for the hold ups, it's her second litter and the first went without problem...  however, the first oxytocin delivered pup had tinges of yellow which is a worrying sign and proved that I made the right decision to wake the vet at 6am :-)  as waiting longer would have put that pup (and the ones following) in danger - by the time I waited and then drove to the vets it was a delay of about 2 hours... interestingly the vet asked if she'd been scanned (no) and then how I knew that there were more? well, look at her I said... oh and I can feel them moving... lol... but not in the right direction!

I find that once there is more room any remaining pups are doing the "highland fling" as they move down, seems to speed up their journey to the exit.