First time whelper - Page 2

NORMAL LABOUR CAN LAST 24 HOURS

Yup, it can indeed....BUT NOT WITHOUT PRODUCING PUPPIES!! If you are SURE she's in labour, you'd damn well better take her to the vet, or you could lose the whole litter! More than 3 hours in labour without a puppy is usually a sign a pup is stuck, and intervention is needed.

I have been whelping puppies for a long time as well.  Doing pregnant dog rescue for many years I have whelped 20 plus litters a year so I have seen a LOT of wierd things.  A maiden bitch being clingy is no real big deal, I have had to sleep in the whelping box with a bitch in labor to keep her in the whelping box, I was able to get out of the box after puppy 8 but had to sit beside it for the last 5.   The worst/most difficult time I have ever had was whelping a litter in a shelter, the bitch was a Pit Bull who had been shot in the face probably 5 - 7 days earlier.  She was full of infection, NOT social at all.  So we whelped puppies with Mom at the end of a catch pole to keep her from ripping my face off.  After all 7 puppies had been born Mom was humanely euthanized and I hand raised the litter.

As for vets, I could not do what I do without mine, he is wonderful - very kind and depends on me to tell him what the problem is and what I think we need, as he says no one knows the dog better than I do and if something is off to me then it is time to do something.  If this bitch were with me we would have been to the vet by now even if she is not social and does not care for the vet.  To many things can go wrong very quickly.

I also HATE vets and hate the illness you risk bringing home with you from the vets office,especially when there are puppies to consider. My female Sophie was like that on her first litter, although the difference is Sophie is attatched to the hip. I thought several times she was readyready to deliver, she ripped and tore blankets at various times in her whelping spot for two days. I got no sleep. I was on the phone non stop to my sister asking what to do. Jeanne kept telling me as long as she was not in full labor, actually trying to push without producing pups, just keep watch. I think she was just totally unaware of what was going on and she herself was nervous. When the pups did come, they came right along, none dead, and Sophie whelped all with no help from me, and now is a fantastic mother (she will steal other dogs pups). I keep the oxytocin always on hand and use it IF needed. I am NOT saying not to seek help , it may be needed, but it may also be perfectly normal. Your dog, your call, But yes, I have been driven crazy by the strange behavior myself. I wish all the best for you and your pups. Please let us know how it goes.

Oleos, I've worked for other breeders, rescues and I'm on call for a few friends when they have bitches in whelp (plus I've bred a few litters of my own) so I have experience in whelping well over 100 litters of many different breeds (German Shepherds, Labs, cavaliers, collies, beagles,  coonhounds, dachshunds, manchester terriers, jack russell terriers, pitbulls, chihuahuas, mastiffs, poodles, schnauzers, mutts etc.) plus some cats and other species.
I've seen a huge variety of behaviors of dams about to whelp or in whelp, the behavior that you are describing isn't straight up the middle normal, but I don't think it is exceptionally abnormal either.  Her personality change is probably the way that she is dealing with her hormones and confusion about the way her body feels.  I imagine that her excessively happy nature may be her way of trying to ignore the discomfort of her body and seek extra attention from you. 

Some of what you describe reminds me of one of my personal GSD females when she whelped her very first litter.  She is normally a hyper, but aloof, dog who prefers to be outside and running up and down the fenceline.  But, when she neared her due date she also started to become clingy and seeking more affection than normal.  I set up her whelping box in my kitchen but she really preferred my bed too.  She ended up being nearly a week late from her due date (which drove me crazy!) and when she finally decided to whelp I had to keep getting her off my cot (which I placed by her whelping box for myself) and back in her box.  She was very confused about what her body was doing and she wanted me to cuddle her and reassure her. 
Only during the end stages of her whelping, when she already had most of her pups, did she finally settle down and started to understand what was going on.  She had 2 more litters after that and she was much calmer (her second litter she even managed to sneak-deliver them on her own!  I'm pretty sure she purposefully hid her signs of labor and waited until I went to the grocery store so she could have privacy.)

One of these days I'm going to write down the most memorable whelping experiences I've had, I'd love to see other peoples' too. 

Sunsilver.....do you realize at least the first, up to 24 hrs, is JUST the cervix dilating....holy cow again a bunch of YA all just do not know when to answer real questions....instead you want to show how cleaver you are....24 hrs is a norm for dilation....then it can be UP TO a couple hrs of pushing once she starts to CONTRACT and is fully dilated, up to 24 hrs later....dogs don't contract while DILATING!!!

WOW.

Anyway her perky behavior stopped once the real fun began, 22 hrs later...lol...she was a good girl though I have to say just an odd ball first timer.


First pup born no issues, very clean and she is a great mom so far.

Once the real pain started she decided being perky and happy go lucky and following me to the bathroom ain't that fun anymore. Now she is down to brass taxes and acting like a real pro.

Those that knew what I was asking, thanks for the stories!!!

Oleos, sorry for making this post a bit of a hijack.
Judy P, your story about the pitbull reminds me about a dachshund litter I whelped.  Had this 5 yr old dachshund that I got from another breeder.  She was drop-dead gorgeous, out of showlines.  Super friendly, happy, healthy, wonderful little dog.  I was so excited about having her and keeping a pup or two from her.  She was a proven dog and I saw pics of some of her beautiful pups from previous litters.  Her previous owner (whom she had the litters with) said she was a very good mother.  I bred her to stunning young male that was working on his championship.  She was wonderful with other dogs, puppies, cats, people, children, etc.  So I was very pleased, because temperament is so important to me. 
Then her evil twin emerged from hell.
When she was very close to her due date, she developed an attachment to a particular toy.  I didn't think it was very odd, I've known other bitches who took to carrying and keeping toys or towels when they were pregnant.  I set up a very nice whelping place for her and I put her bed and toy in it so she would get used to her whelping box.  Her friendliness to other animals started to reduce, which is very natural for bitches about to whelp. 
She went in labor
Thank God I had someone else there with me, or we may have all been murdered by a miniature dachshund.
When she went in labor she suddenly became a freak about her toy, snarling and snapping at me or anyone else who came within a 3 foot radius of her toy, which of course she refused to part with.  I was disturbed by this, so I threw a towel over her, held her firmly and pried the toy from her jaws.  She promptly tried to bite me and ran after me, alternately jumping at me and snapping at my legs/feet.  I had to put the towel over her again, firmly completely covering her head, we managed to force a soft muzzle on her and put her in her whelping box and shut the barrier.  She went ballistic, promptly shredding the muzzle off her face and screaming for her toy, spinning in circles, trying desperately to climb over the barrier and snapping at her belly/backside when she had contractions.   I was so afraid she'd seriously injure herself and her pups by how obessed she was with getting her toy back so I relented and gave it back, thinking maybe if she had it with her she could settle down and have her pups and since she's already experienced and a "very good mother" maybe she would take care of everything just fine by herself. 
How wrong I was.
She did settle down once she had her toy back, though she continued to give me the nastiest evil eye and growl.  But as her labor progressed, I saw that she was also giving the nasty evil eye and growling at her own belly.  I have never, ever seen any creature look so hatefully at their own body.  When a sac bubble finally appeared, she attacked it, ripping it open and trying to grab the puppy inside.  I knew we had to interfere.  With a towel over her head and front half of her body my guest held her down and I got the puppy as it was fully born.  She had 3 puppies total and we had to do this for each one. 
My hope was that after her labor was over she would calm down and be willing to accept her puppies.  But that was a no go, she snarled when she heard her puppies cry, growled and glared at them when we showed them to her (out of her reach.)   I really wanted the pups to get the colostrum so I wrapped a towel around their mother, got another muzzle on her and sat in a recliner chair where I could get her body laid out on top of me and my guest could put the pups on her.  Thankfully the pups were in absolute perfect health and very vigorous.  The ENTIRE time they nursed their mother was glaring at them out of the corner of her eye and growling.  I had her firmly pinned against me so she couldn't get at them.   The pups were nursed on their mom 2 more times like this over the next 48 hours.  But otherwise, I handraised the litter. 
I was so appalled and so disgusted at the nasty personality change in the dog that I couldn't keep her.  I waited about 6 weeks (to let her hormones settle) and had her spayed and rehomed her as a pet (yes, the people who got her were fully informed of why she was being rehomed.)  As I suspected, her happy, friendly personality returned as the pregnancy/nursing hormones left her body, it was some kind of freak mid-partum/postpartum depression jekyll/hyde mood swing.  
Her previous owner denied that she ever had any problems with her previous litters, which I seriously don't believe. 
Those beautiful puppies all went to informed pet homes without any registration papers.  No way was I going to let that kind of freak behavior get passed on. 

Hi, I would try to ease her stress, set yourself up in her whelping area with all essentials --

computer, books, magazines, bed, coffee, chocolate, chips and all of those comfort supplies -- not to mention what ever you need for your bitch :):)

Stay with her, that is what I do and yes I have also spent five sleepless nights when a bitch went 5 days past her due date (only had 1 mating ) she eventually delivered her babies just fine, but that was under veterinary, she was checked every day.

Good luck for an eazy whelping (when it starts)

Sunsilver was talking about active labor (as a few others were also), since you weren't very clear as to what you're considering "labor." 

If you're trying to put people down by acting smarter, spelling "clever" correctly would be a good start, as I'm quite sure you don't really think anyone is trying to help you by acting like Ward or June or Beaver or Wally "Cleaver". 

Jenni, it appears, FOR ONCE, you and I agree on something. LOL