What is the best way to tell pups apart when they are born. Obviously records have to be kept wondering what suggestions you have.

I find the easiest & simplest is nail varnish, same colour but in different places.
ie ~ left hind, right hind, left ear, right ear & so on.

We use marker dies designed to leave a mark on a ewe sheep when a ram has mated her. There are 4 different colours available.
These are available from agricultural suppliers.

snomaes

I crochet (or plait) wool collars in various colours.  They don't generally start losing them until they are a few days old but which time I am beginning to know them individually.  Dobermann puppies look very, very similar to each other :)

i worried about this when my bitch was pregnant, but in the end she had 3 pups, 1 was white, 1 black and the other grey, so all that worry was for nothing!

It WAS dificult to record when Purdey had her 1 & only litte - puppy 1 - lblack male 12 oz,  puppy 2 black male 12 oz, puppy 3 black female 11 oz, puppy 4 black female11 oz, puppy 5 black male 12 oz, puppy 6 black female 11 oz, puppy 8 lack male 12 oz, puppy 9 black female 11 oz, puppy 10 - yellow male.

That puppy 11 was ALWAYS getting confused with the others :D !

Lokis's litter was a bit easie - puppy 1 - red merle female, 12 oz, puppy 2 black tri female, full collar 11 oz, puppy 3 blue merle male 12 oz, puppy 4 blue merle female 12 oz, puppy 5 black tri male, blaze, centre collar, 12 oz, puppy 6 red tri female, 12 oz, puppy 7 black merle female, 12 oz, collar, no blaze.

That was soo much easier to identify - with purde's litter I resorted to sheep markings - and they all left (apart from no 11, with a selection of dots & dashes on their backs!!!

...and just DONT talk to me about the problems of identifying white persian kittens.......

Margot

... you could call them descriptive names, e.g. three spot, two spot, patch, smudge, etc!!!   (only if they have markings tho)

I use coloured collars - either rick rack from a sewing shop or ribbon for wrapping parcels, you can get it in all colours and just replace every few days as the puppy grows.

Sharon