Just wondering how much time/how close you are to your litter until they leave home.

I am sleeping next to the whelping box for at least the first 3 weeks, and maybe longer, or might move onto the sofa in the next room, but won't go any further away than that until they have all gone to their new homes. I haven't been out yet, excepting the school run last week, and the pups Mum came with us for a trip out.

It is far harder work than having a baby, but a lot of people (mainly not really doggy!) seem to think that what I thought were standard requirements are completely bonkers!

So, what does everyone else do?!

I know how you are feeling as I was the same with my first litter. I sleep on the sofa in the room next to my pups now until they are mobile and then venture back upto bed with a baby alarm. I do go out as I have other dogs to walk but I can usually guage when the pups are going to have their nap and fit it in between then. You do need to go out otherwise you will become stir crazy, even if it is just to the shops round the corner. As they get older you will find that they will sleep around the same times each day eg, after food, after a long bout of play etc, follow the pattern and you will be able to work out when you can leave them safely asleep.

Enjoy the pups, the time flies quickly by and most of all good luck with them

Maybe I took things a bit too far, although I would presume my litter would have died if they were in the wild :rolleyes:
My bitch didn't have any maternal feelings until the pups were about 5 weeks old.  I had to encourage her (force her is maybe a bit too strong), to go and feed the pups, when ever they cried she ignored them.  Once she was in the whelping box, she would clean them up, but as she was doing this she would totally squash the odd pup.  So myself or my OH were awake with them for the first 3 weeks, getting the Mum to go in every 2ish hours.  I did try and sleep in between feeds, but just couldn't.  Then we started to wean them early as their eyes opened, as we were worried the Mum would refuse to go in altogether. 

From what I can gather, Sam-jo, that is not that uncommon. My bitch has never laid on her pups, but she will not pick them up (again, apparently not uncommon) so if they are laying all over the whelping box when she goes in, I have to move them before she can lay down. She is a good Mu, but is far less 'motherly' than I expected, although again, according to breeders I know, her behaviour is normal.

I guess dogs have been domesticated for so long that a lot of natural instinct has gone, and they rely on us to help to a certain extent.

I have never managed to keep them in the house full time past 4 1/2 weeks, mine need much more space by then to play and to move further from their beds to toilet. 

My pups will start becoming very fractious in their pen in the kitchen (where they have been from the time their eye open) until I allow them out side in the kennel and secure dog run.  I put a board across the run entrance so the Mum and other adults are free to go in and out to them. 

From then on they come in and out the house for their meals and for individual attention, sitting watching TV, playing with me etc.  I do not let the pups in the living room unless individually supervised.

By 8 weeks I remove the board and pups have the same area as the adult dogs and come in and out of the kitchen door which is open most of the time.

Friends of mine with the same breed managed to breed their first litter of four entirely in the house, but this year with the second the pups would not stay in the puppy pen and wanted to spend all their time outdoors,a nd they didn't have a kennel or shelter for them and they would lie down sleeping on the concrete or in the planters rather than come inside for more than a few minutes, even though it was February.  In the end he built them a small Cabin from decking timber.

It isn't like with one puppy who will sleep then go out then coem in etc.  With a litter some are playing soem are slepping and it is next to impossible to let one in one out etc as they need.

I have found that by 8 weeks as long as my backdor is open the pups are house clean with pooing and almost so with wees.  They are not of course housetrained as such but choose to go outside, as the kitchen has been theri denning area..

I only sleep downstairs for the first 2 weeks, by then mum and pups are in a very good routine and mum is not too tired and likely to sit on a pup.

I don't even go on the school run for the first two weeks,:rolleyes: it takes less than a minute for a pup to be dug under bedding and sat on and suffocated, so my mum comes over to either sit with the pups or take and drop off my boys. Hubby does all the shopping and I do all my work from the conservatory where the pups are. :-)

After 2 weeks I go back upstairs to my bed, I do however always plug in a baby monitor and have it next to my side of the bed, so that if there are any squeaks from the pups I can run downstairs to rescue. I'm an extremely light sleeper so have never had a problem doing this.

Between 3-4 weeks I have often been awoken by a pup that has decided to leave the whelping cage and got lost, mum and pups have the whole run of the conservatory so I have come down to find a worried looking pup some 15ft from the whelping cage going in the complete wrong direction, if this happens the pup screams so loud to be honest I don't even need the monitor to hear it. :-D My girl just waits for me to come an bring her pup back.

So between 1-4 weeks I am on call after that things are much more relaxed, the pups come and go as they please from whelping crate, conservatory to garden, I always try to have a litter in the Spring/Summer so that the french doors are continually open from morning to evening for the pups to run and play with supervision of course. ;-)

I always try to have pups in the winter to avoid neighbours complaining whn pups get to the noisy 6 to 8 week stage.

I had my first litter over a year ago , I spent the whole time sleeping in the dining room ( comfy bed ,tv,laptop sorted) with them where they whelped , I had a brilliant whelp box which my Oh had built for me 7ft long and 4 ft wide with a partition they also had a pen around the front so had the whole room to play in .
I lost count the amount of times I had to 'save' a pup from being laid on  although Mum was a fabulous Mother  she didnt care where she lay down and didnt move.
I also prefered to keep the area clean rather than wake upto poo'eed puppies in the morning (tried it for 1 night) I had the odd night in bed when my son or hubby took over, all in all this is the way I will do it again as the time passes so quickly and they are ready to leave for thier new families.

sleep next to mine for 3-4 weeks  plus have them on cctv in the sitting room 24 hours, which then move up to bedroom when i vacate puppy room. This stays on until they are about 8 weeks.

I assume though your pups either have very large puppy quarters or lots of time outdoors by that age?  My puppy run and kennel face and abut my kitchen window, so are never more than 15 feet from where I can watch them.