Lulu my Shih Tzu is due to whelp on Thursday. She was paper shredding last night and restless and the pupps were moving alot.This morning very lazy and lots of tummy grumbles, what we get, never heard them as load in a dog, at one point today her tummy went really stiff for about a minute then she fell asleep. Shes been quite lazy and felt cooler than usual. This is her first litter, does this all sound familar to anyone

Did Lulu whelp last night?

All bitches act differently - some shred for days beforehand if given the opportunity and others won't go in the box until a pup is actually being born. Some eat a good meal immediately before whelping but more often they tend to skip a meal. Some want to go outside to relieve themselves every five minutes (or even more often :-( ) others don't. There are no hard and fast rules to what a bitch will do before, or during, whelping so it is difficult to say whether what your girl is doing sounds familar or not :-)

Christine

Shes still hanging on to them. She had a very loose stool last night yellow in colour. She is following me alot this morning, she also went to hide under the decking and shes trying to find nooks to sleep in, Im keeping a very close eye on her. Will keep you updated .

Vicki

Any news?

Sweep x

My GSD bitch, Holly, whelped very easily her first litter in March, six gorgeous boys and two girls. It was my second experience of a whelping, the first when I was about 14yrs old! (Some years ago) She acted very differently during the day, by the evening she was panting fairly strongly so we decided to sleep in the same room as her whelping box. She was resting on the bottom bunk with me until she suddenly got down and looked like she wanted to wee. I went to let her out but she made a grunting noise in the hall and I thought she I was too late and she had soiled on the carpet. I called to my husband to get up as 'things are starting' and decided to go to the bathroom myself first - on the carpet was what I thought was her 'accident' but it was wriggling and squeaking, she had given birth to a puppy in those few seconds! Fortunately it was fine and then she went on to successfully whelp the rest in the proper place! Just goes to show what can happen though. I found the book 'The Whelping and Rearing of Puppies' an absolute must, it was so helpful, purchased it through Amazon.co.uk, read it from cover to cover, invaluable. All the pups are sold to, hopefully, lovely homes and we have kept one of the bitches to breed from in two years time. I cannot wait for the next litter. Good luck to you.