Whelping/Puppy Raising Area
Below is a little description about where are puppies are raised! We pride ourselves on raising our puppies in a clean and positive environment! It is no secret that puppies get messy and stinky really fast, so having a good, easy to clean setup is really important!
All puppies are whelped in our house in a bedroom that is located right next to our own Master Bedroom. We utilize Dura-Whelp boxes that are really easy to clean and break down for easy storage when not in use.
They spend the first 3-4 weeks there so that I can check in on them often, hear them at night, and for easy access to do ENS work with them.
Once Puppies are 3-4 weeks old, they will begin nursing less and eating mush and at this point mama stops eating their pee/poo so things start to get messier, stinkier, and litter box training begins. At this point they move into their whelping room, which is one of two rooms my husband build specifically for the puppies that have a doggy door built into them to go out into the puppy yard.
When they are just beginning to start eating and learning the litter box, we keep the area simple. There is room for potty area and room for sleeping/playing area. Because they don't naturally want to potty where they sleep, this helps them to start thinking about where they need to potty and they begin to figure out that the litter box is that place!
As the puppies grow and begin to get more active, their whelping box layout changes and gets bigger. At this point they have typically started to know where to go and potty so we make the area bigger to allow them more space to play and explore.
Weather permitting, as soon as they are 5-6 weeks old, they will be introduced to the doggy door so they can start going outside to potty, play, and explore. The layout again changes to accommodate this! The whelping boxes are replaced by a puppy play pen and connected so that they can come inside to eat, drink, sleep, play but also go outside at their own leisure to play, explore, nap in the sun!
