my pups are nearly 7 weeks old and mum keeps whining at them. at first she only did it in the night but shes been doing it all day. she whines untill i let them out of the pen then she buggers off and wont have anything to do with them. she hasnt fed them since yesterday which was one quick suck. i dont remember her doing this to her last litter. she seems to like waking them up everytime they sleep. any ideas?

Hi

I am not suprised she is whinning she has had enough of them and wants some peace. Do you have her in with them all the time and she cant get away from them?

Wendy

not at all, i have shut 2 doors to keep her away from them, she wants to disturb them

as i said before. they are fast asleep- not crying not hungry not whining and she deliberately wakes them then clears off. she has done it again just now. they were quiet and she cried until i let them out of the pen then she ran off into the garden and is now asleep with them running riot. can anyone say anything constructive?

Has she free access to them.  Just because she doesn't feed them she still wishes to keep an eye on them, and much as it might be a pain, should be allowed to.  At this stage she will be teaching them how to be dogs and she probably wants them out of where you have them.

All my girls have done this, unsettle them with a brief visit and then disappear.

Your bitch should always be able to reach her pups at will (except when you are feeding them) but be able to get away from them.

If they are penned then some kind of step either side she can use but pups can't will do the trick.

thanks for that. i close the door where the pen is just so they can get some sleep but i could leave it open, but i think she would sit by them and demand i let them out all the time!  when they are out she tells them off all the time and has even tried to pin them for no reason

I agree with brainless. She just wants to keep checking they're ok, the same as you would if you had a toddler playing in another room.Also, she may think it's time she started educating them. I've got a bitch at the moment with puppies the same age as yours and she does exactly the same thing. I've got a very secure walled garden at the back of the house where the puppy run is and I just let mum and puppies have the run of the garden when she wants to be with them and I have a puppy sized entrance to the run that mum can't get into, so if puppies want to sleep they just take themselves off to bed.

My thoughts are also with Brainless and Saxon it is exactly what I would have said. I guess we all breed our dogs differently and in the best way that suits our house designs, but my bitch can get to her pups day and night, come and go as she pleases, and I feel this makes a happy bitch and pups, if you can re-design a way for her to do that it would be better but without forcing her to stay, the pinning down may also be to clean her pups, when the pups are older the bitch can appear to be rougher, but like with our own children the little blighters want to run and play and not get cleaned, so mum will hold them down for a quick clean up.

Some bitches can get quite snappy, but it is all noise and teeth, they don't really hurt their pups, just a good telling off. Mum wants the pups socialising and exploring, she'll still want to watch but maybe not join in.

I've got something to add to my previous posting. I went to see a friend yesterday who's been breeding dogs for about a hundred years and I was telling her about this thread. She gave me the answer why our bitches behave in this way. It's blindingly obvious now she's pointed it out. Your bitch is checking to see if her puppies are hungry. After all, YOU know that you are feeding them, but your bitch doesn't.

then how come she refuses to give them any milk when they chase her around the garden??!

Possibly because they have sharp teeth and it hurts! Doesn't mean she doesn't have the instinct to do it though. It can be a very distressing conflict.

Make sure she can get to them and away from them whenever she wants. She has a lot of teaching to do before they're ready to go.

Because, after checking, she knows they're not hungry

Hi,
It sound to me as though Mum is trying to encourage the pups to be independent of her - our cat did something similar when she had kittens. I think it's a bit like birds pushing their young out of the nest - ie "go and forage for yourselves, and come back to me to sleep for the night"

Would that make any sense to you?

Has your bitch had pups before? If so, she may know their going to be re-homed soon, and wants them to stand on their own 4 paws?

If it were me, I'd phone either a vet or a breeder of the same breed and get advice over the phone.