I have spent the evening sitting in the whelping box, we often refer to the whelping box as the puppy pot (so don’t panic… it is referring to the box with affection, for years now, it has been known as the puppy pot!).
puppies cannot see and have no hearing until the eye and ear canals open…. they have to rely on their very keen sense of smell. When Maggie is in the pot, they usually wake up almost immediately and gravitate towards her looking for the milk. They instinctively know the best route to the milk bar. Quite often using Maggie’s front legs as a means of navigating their way to the best teats.
When I was in the “pot”, the puppies all came towards me and snuggled in – pure heaven. I cannot describe how lovely it is to have the puppies snuggle in to you. They will crawl wherever they want to go, climbing over or crawling under anything that may be in their way. Blindly going forth! At this stage they have utterly no sense of preservation.
They are gaining strength in their legs every single day. The paddling they are doing is enabling them to build up their muscles ready for the time when they take their first steps (I love watching them learn to walk!)
