Leaving newborn litter of puppies alone

[RoganJosh]

Family member has a pregnant dog and is suggesting they can keep on going to work straight after the puppies are born. I'm a bit worried about this being neglectful. Is it normal/ok to leave puppies alone?

Don't know if it's normal but my dog's breeder never left the puppies and their mum alone. If she had to go out she got her DB to come and watch them.

Thanks, that was kind of what I was imagining would happen, but I'm aware I'm no expert.

I don't know any breeder who leaves their puppies unsupervised before they're at least 4 weeks old. Showers are carefully coordinated so there's someone there and they work in shifts for the first week or so, so someone is awake overnight with Mum and the pups. Once the pups start getting mobile and can regulate their temperatures better the constant supervision isn't necessary but by that time they're causing chaos so need someone with them most of the time to keep them from getting into too much mischief.

It only takes seconds for a new puppy to get squashed by a clumsy Mum.

If they can't afford to take 8 weeks unpaid leave they shouldn't be breeding.

Everything MaitlandGirl said.

It's also not just a case of safety (although that is a huge concern, as has been said it only takes seconds for a puppy to be squashed or suffocated), raising a litter properly involves huge amounts of input from the breeder and not just leaving mum to get on with it entirely on her own until the puppies get interesting. A lot of effort needs to be put in right from the start to ensure the pups are as prepared as possible to face the world it's time for them to go to their new homes. What the breeder does in these early days can have a lasting effect on the puppies throughout their lives and that works both positively and negatively.

As an example, this is the sort of lengths a decent breeder will go to in order to give their puppies the best possible start in life.

Just to add, they shouldn't really be leaving the bitch alone in the run up to the birth as well in case she goes into labour early.

What breed is she? Some are vastly more prone to complications during whelping or in the early days of raising a litter than others.

Absolutely what Cornflake said.

When my girl came to me her breeder had already got the puppies on meeting other people, her friends, and her friends' children, so socialization was already started, puppy was crate trained and house training was already started.

Breeder was brilliant and made the whole process a wonderful experience. Puppies were happy and calm and full of life and absolutely ready to go to their new homes when the time came.

This was my first dog so I had lots of questions and watching the breeder with the puppies and their mum really helped - breeder was near so I was able to visit frequently.

Yes, I'm absolutely convinced that my dog's breeder was the reason she was the way she was when I got her - I know someone else who has a dog from the same mother and her dog was exactly the same, happy, healthy and calm.

I know absolutely nothing about breeding and puppies, but using common sense and a touch of caring, even I know it's a ludicrous idea to think she can leave her bitch and puppies alone before and for several weeks after the birth.

Why on earth is she breeding?

Thanks everyone, it's good to know I'm not over reacting.
The dog is a lurcher.

No way! So many things can go wrong, pups can easily get squashed by bitch, not feeding properly (they can go downhill VERY quickly), bitch needs close monitoring after whelping too, you need to stimulate them to wee/poo in the early days. Ideally bitch will take care of that but if it's a large litter you need to step in and help. The constant cleaning of the whelping pen, you cannot leave bitch and pups wallowing around in wee all day....

When I did it, it was a full time job for 9 weeks. All of the above happened and despite my total dedication we still lost two pups (it was a large litter) and my bitch nearly died from a severe infection.

I slept in the kitchen with them for the first few weeks, hand fed the ones who weren't latching properly every 2 hours, spent all of my time carefully monitoring them and my precious bitch and spent weeks choosing the very best new homes for them.

I'm my opinion it is just not fair to abandon a newborn litter of pups and just expect the bitch to cope.

@cornflake the link to the newfie breeder was really interesting. I read through the whole site. They put so much into raising those puppies and they are doing well to improve the health of the breed.