Going through some old pictures on my laptop today, I came across some pictures from that one time my dog had puppies. Six puppies to be exact. Six Shih Tzu & Pomeranian mixed puppies. That we not planned. I thought I would share my experience and what to expect when your dog has puppies.

What had happened was…Mr. Blakes was determined the day he brought NuNu, our Shih Tzu, home he was determined to breed her. He had tried to get NuNu pregnant for a few cycles with no success, because it was hard to find a male Shih Tzu her size (she is about 8-9lbs). One fateful night staying at a friend’s house while we went to a wedding, she got herself knocked up by Mr. Simba, her Pomeranian. He’s had his eye on NuNu for quite some time, and while we thought she was out of heat – clearly we were wrong. 9 weeks later…I’m calling out from work to help her birth what we thought was four puppies that turned out to be six. I had no idea what to expect when our dog had puppies, but over the next 8 weeks I learned a lot.

Expect your dog’s motherly instincts to kick in. When she started nesting and begin going into labor later on that day, I was so nervous. Since this was her first time being a mom, I was worried that she wouldn’t know what to do. And I didn’t know what to do either, so I was hoping that would not happen. As soon as the puppies started popping out, she went right to work and was attached. It was well over 24 hours before we could even get her to leave the puppies to go potty. I was so proud!

Expect the puppies to sleep together, and wake up together. The cutest thing about the puppies is how they loved to sleep with each other. On top of each other. Under each other. But if one puppy woke up, everyone was up. I’ve never tip toed around my own house so much.

Expect to get very little sleep. Due to the last statement, you have to get sleep whenever you can.  Puppies feed every few hours, and at a certain point, NuNu did not want to be in the same area as the puppies because she would get no rest. So we would have to take her into the pen when it was time for feeding, and then take her out when she was done. I have never been so sleep deprived before.

Expect your dog to be very protective of her puppies when people come to visit. NuNu was a pretty laid back dog as far as visitors goes until the puppies came. Once they arrived, she wanted to know who was at the door, and what they wanted. Even still, she is much more protective of us and very defensive when it comes to new people. This is something we are actively working on.

Expect your dog to eat the puppies’ poop. Weird and disgusting, I know. But it is totally normal for your dog to lick the puppies to stimulate urination and lick it up at the same time. It is also normal for your dog to eat the puppies’ poop. The rationale is that they are only drinking the mom’s milk so their pee and poop isn’t that disgusting really. Clearly this is a reminder that dogs are not humans.

Expect the puppies to tear up anything in their path. Teamwork makes the dream work they say. These puppies definitely worked as a team to tear up my house and anything in their path. We let them play with Mr. Bear, a large teddy bear that used to belong to my niece and served many days as an oversized pillow for NuNu. In just a matter of days, they had almost ripped him to shreds. They managed to break down and escape from their nesting box before their eyes were even fully opened. And they dismantled the baby gate we put up to keep them confined to the kitchen.

Expect to change their bedding A LOT.  And by a lot, I mean A LOT. As soon as you put down fresh bedding, shoot – sometimes before you even finished putting it down, one of those puppies is probably going to pee or poop.

Expect your dog to ween the puppies on her own. We had to learn this the hard way. Please do not force your dog to nurse if she doesn’t want to. She naturally knows when it’s time for the puppies to ween, and will avoid the puppies like the plague. One weekend we had to make a trip out of town, and so NuNu and her puppies stayed with my parents. My mom, thinking she was helping, was holding NuNu down to nurse the puppies when she would try to leave them. When we got back home, NuNu all of a sudden could not move and her body became stiff and hard as stone. Rushing her to the Pet Emergency Room, we discovered she suffered from eclampsia due to over-nursing. Her body wasn’t normally producing the amount of milk necessary to continue feeding the puppies at that point, so her body began taking calcium from her muscles to produce the milk. The next step would’ve been her organs shutting down. So for the last couple of weeks, we had to keep her separated from the puppies because any stimulation of her nipples could result in another episode. My mom wants you all to know that she was very sorry and even paid for NuNu’s vet bill 🙂Expect your dog to be completely unbothered when the new owners take the puppies away. When the last puppy was picked up by their new owner, I wondered what would NuNu do. She climbed in her bed that had been taken over by the puppies and slept for several hours. People asked if she missed them or acted sad. I laughed. She was just as happy as we were to be puppy free.

Expect the puppies to be the cutest things EVER. All and all, those puppies were the absolute cutest things ever. We often joke that God made newborns of all species cute because otherwise no one would want to take care of them. This is so true of puppies. They are a whole lot of work, but their cute faces will make your heart melt.

Has your dog had puppies before? If so, tell us your experience or share something that we missed on our list of what to expect when your dog has puppies.