Hello! I really need your advice! It is the first litter of my dog and her behaviour  to her seven puppies is strange, almost since day one. She keeps changing places, but only taking one puppy with her and leaving the others. We did restrict her at a quiet and isolated place within our yard, but she kept digging around the nest. For almost two weeks everything seemed o.k.  The last two days she keeps carrying away one particular puppy and  shows her teeth to the others, she has actually provoked small injuries to one of the puppies. The family members that she knows and trusts had access at her puppies only for a while during the day, and we also have two male dogs that cannot enter the place where the nest is, although they can see each other. Apparently, she doesnt like where her nest is,but then again she wont decide where to go.
She accepts to feed all of the puppies if someone is there watching her, but the minute we leave she attacks them. All of them are stressed, especially the one that she keeps carrying. They are 19 days old. My question is whether I should take them away from the dam. For the time being, we supervise her while she is feeding them. What would be the best solution?

Your set up sounds very different to what many breeders have and the problem may be that she doesn't feel that she and her pups are safe.  It is not up the the dam to decide where to whelp and rear her litter, it is up to you.  In my opinion this should be indoors, away from all other dogs.  Ideally a whelping box should be set up and the temperature should be regulated.  Our bitches and pups are not left alone day or night for around the first three weeks.  So in answer to your question, I would not remove the pups from their mum but I would move them to a more suitable place and supervise fully, hopefully things will then settle down.

I see that you are in Greece. Is that correct? From what you've written your girl isn't rearing her puppies in your home. At 19 days old you could start to wean them onto solids which would take the pressure off her. I know that some breeds aren't natural mothers and although you aren't allowed to mention the actual breed you can say what group she belongs to, toy, working, terrier etc.
She does sound as if she's not felt safe since day one, I always have someone with my girl 24 hrs a day for the first 4 weeks, just to concentrate solely on her and her litter. If you say she will feed them when someone is watching I'd carry on with that, whilst starting to wean them.

>you aren't allowed to mention the actual breed

As the breed may be relevant to the replies, then it is ok to mention it on this occasion.

I'd have to ask why she's outside with her puppies?   Most breeders would have their bitches indoors, even if they are normally living out.   Best practice is to have a whelping box in a quiet room detached from the normal household activities (at least for the first 3 weeks) and other pets and have her sleeping in there for a week or so before she whelps so she's more familiar with these surroundings.   In other words, you choose where she whelps and nurses these babies, not her.

If she's not settled, she may just not be a good mother, or she could actually have some medical problem going on, like retained birthing material or even a dead puppy.   Was she examined after you thought she'd finished whelping?

If she's rough with the puppies, obviously you may have to take them off her and only put them with her, under supervision, to feed - at least every 2 hours.    And never breed her again!

We had one, with her second litter, who hated her puppies crawling around her head.   I have no idea why - she was fine with her first litter.   As a result, one of us had to be there more or less 24/7.   This was her final litter because of that.

If you do have to take her away from the puppies, you must make sure they are kept warm - newborn puppies can't regulate their own heat so some form of extra heating must be provided - so the area is at least 80F.   Once chilled, puppies won't nurse, and will die.

ps    You could advance the time you begin weaning, but I'd not do this before at least towards the end of week three.

She never lived indoors, so I have put her at a small room within the yard. I tried to feed them with the bottle,but they wont eat. So I let the dam feed them while I supervise her. At first, she will take the puppy she is obsessed with and try to leave from the room. Then she relaxes and even sleeps during the feeding. What I noticed is that she growls at any puppy that she sees coming from a small distance. It is like she has trouble recognising her pups.

Yes I am from Greece, hopefully the weather is great now.  There is no problem with her health, it is just her character. She is a working dog. It goes with no doubt that she will spayed asap.

Obviously I don't know where in Greece you are but I've had a look at temperatures and can see that it could dip to 11 degrees overnight which is far to cold for newborn pups.  A very valid point has been made about the possibility of retained birthing material or a retained pup, I know you say she is healthy but has she been checked by a vet  Can you tell us what breed she is (admin have said this is ok)?

The temperature is around 15. So i should take them indoors? The dam is german shepherd

The vet checked her. Nevertheless, if she did have health problems, wouldnt she have other symptoms as well?

Yes, take them inside, it is far too cold for them outside.  Perhaps once they are indoors and away from other dogs she and the pups will become more settled.  Not my breed but my mum once helped whelp a litter of German Shepherds and was shocked at how rough they were with the pups.  Other symptoms of retained birthing material can include digging (which you have said she is doing).

I would say the problem is that the puppies are of weaning age, and the bitch knows this, yet she cannot get away from them. Has she got something like a platform to sleep on so that she can get away from the pups? I find with some of my bitches (have had 2 like that) they they will not feed the pups much if at all past 3 weeks of age, but as they can come and go as they please they feel no pressure and can feed their pups if and when they want to, and then they do not get so fed up with them. 2 years ago I had a litter where the mother absolutely would not feed her puppies after 3 ½ weeks, she made it very clear if the pups came near her and chased them off. Once the pups had realised they would not be getting any more milk off her, they stopped trying and then all was fine. I do think certain breeds are more primitive than others, yours is similar to mine, and particularly if living outside will act more like they would in the wild, and by this age the bitch would be leaving them alone now and then to go hunting and bring meat home for them.

I dont think that is the case. She is literally obsessed with the smallest puppy which bears the greatest resemblance to her. She also accepts the puppies that are near her colors. She wont take the darkest ones. She doesnt attack them in front of us,so we are going to keep feeding them like this in order to keep them safe. Cant really figure out why she acts like this, never happened to me before. She is quite possessive as a dog, and now she is extremely attached to us, clearly her psychology is not  good.

At this age you don't need to try to bottle feed, but start giving runny food, start one at a time and within two or three days they will eat puppy mush from a flat plate 4 times a day, take Mum away at this time a and let her come back to lick the plate clean, and while she does this the pups will feed and she will let them to get the extra food.

She must be able to get away from them so they need to be opened in so she can jump in and out but they cannot get out.  Or if a kennel then a platform for her to rest on that pups cannot get onto.

Puppies less that three weeks old cannot regulate their body temperature, (you need to use a brood lamp like for baby ducks if rearing outdoors.  She may well feel the need to keep them warm, but not like them feeding from her if their nails are sharp, so you need to trim them.  They will also start to get teeth, another reason for her to be less keen to feed.