For me one of the most peacfull places in the world is my kennel in the middle of the night when I am here whelping puppies (Which I am tonight 7-28-01). During the day there is always something going on, at night its the quiet as a church.

As I find myself whelping yet another litter (its over 260 now - someday I am going to go back and get an exact count)I find myself thinking how important the frst three or four days is to new puppies.

I try and be here when my pups are born, if I am not here my son is. The most important thing a breeder can do right after a pup comes out of the mother is to take it away from the mother and do the work of cleaning the pup. This gives you a chance of examining the pup for any deformaties and sexing the pup. I make a point of rubbing the pup until it screams like a raped ape. If a pup screams it clears it lungs, I have found that those pups that don't scream often run the risk of fluid in the lungs and when that hapens that pup is going to be at risk of dieing in the first week of life. If you listen to the lungs you can hear if there is fluid in there when they breath.

Anther issue is small pups. When I have small pups (in the area of 300 grams) I make sure that we put those pups on a nipple at least 10 times a day. The larger pups ca fend for themselves, the small ones need our help. find that this extra work often makes the difference between a pup making it and dieing.
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