Too long to leave the pups?

Straight to the point...

My neigbours bitch will be giving birth within a week or so. I think she is about 53 days in. She and her partner both work full time, so I asked what she will be doing with the pups!?

She leaves about 9 for work. And both her and her partner plan to come back on lunch. And then her partner finishes at 4ish.

This means, all in all, the bitch and her pups will be left for 5 hours a day. I was asking a lot of questions and being very nosey, because I would like to look into breeding in the coming years

She will be with the bitch from 7am - 9am. Then 12-1 and 1-2 (both lunches) then hubby home about 4 - 4.30, then from 4.30 until bedtime (10.30,11ish)

Is it safe to leave the bitch and her puppies for this long? Around 3 hours in the morning, and then 2 hours in the afternoon. I assumed you needed to be home all day??

I'm sure a breeder will be along to answer you better than I can but when my mum had a pregnant dog handed to her, she rejected all the puppies.
This meant bottle feeding every two hours which moved to four hours - for what felt like forever.

Most responsible breeders will stay with their mums to be for 24/7 at least a week before and at the very minimum two weeks after the pup's have been born. Before the pups eyes are open there is a risk that they may be squashed, the mum may not take to motherhood and may kick a pup away from warmth or, worse, some bad mothers have been known to eat their pups.

Yes, way too long.

With my litter I had a week of sleepless nights before the pups were born as my bitch was restless, I hardly left the house during the day in case they came a little early.

When it came to whelping I was up the whole night with her and then continued to stay awake for 72 hours after the birth to ensure she did not accidentally step on one or lay on one.

After that time I continued to sleep on the sofa next to the whelping box and did not leave them unattended until they were 3 weeks old, and by then although not at risk of being crushed they needed almost constant attention, it was a cycle of feeding/cleaning and then washing bedding etc and then it started all over again.

If they can't be there all the time for 9 weeks (1 week before birth and then 8weeks until pups go to new homes) then they should not be breeding.

OMG I never leave my bitch for a fortnight before she is due & for at least 4 weeks after bitch at which time the puppies are almost weaned & my bitches have all become somewhat bored(except for the poop cleaning up)with the puppies

Leaving a bitch alone with new born puppies could result in the bitch killing & eating the litter if she gets stressed or frightened-a natural instinct.

It has happened to breeders I know of who have left their bitches unsupervised in the first couple of weeks & it actually happened on Animal Rescue when a young Great Dane bitch whelped a litter during the day & then was left overnight alone-when the staff came back there were 3 missing puppies-which they thought had been stolen & when they left her the next night they found more puppies missing the next day, they called in a GDBA breeder on the first morning & she said someone had obviously stolen the puppies-doh on the second morning they found a half eaten puppy & the penny dropped ! The puppies that were left were hand reared

I presume they are not experienced breeders ?

I've never bred dogs. But reading that two hours is too long to leave a mother and pups did surprise me. I know people whose dogs have had pups (not breeders) and whose cats have had kittens. They might be home all day but they did go to bed at night (for more than 2 hours).

Do people just stay up 24/7 after a dog has pups?

*can't help but think of all the pups and kittens born out in the open in the streets here in Cyprus where the street dog and cat problem is huge. They seem to survive with no one caring for them. Returned on Monday to find another new litter living under the wheelie bin.

I've only had one litter so in no way experienced but we didn't go anywhere for the first couple of weeks. I didn't watch them for 24 hours as we had other jobs to do but we didn't leave them for long periods.

We did leave them overnight but did check on them in the night to make sure things were ok.

I certainly wouldn't have been happy going to work and leaving them.

Helen

I work full time (self employed) so had to go to work. Rio helpfully gave birth the day before a bank holiday weekend so the pups were five days old when I went back. It was school holidays so I paid my son to watch over them for a few days when I went back to work. She was left alone with the pups when they were about 2 weeks old. I would have spent a few days at home with her regardless. As a maiden bitch she was a little overwhelmed at first so I stayed with her the first few days until I was happy she was in a routine and could cope. I slept on the floor beside the whelping box for the first two nights, on the sofa for a few night after that and then when I was satisfied she didn't need my help I slept in my own bed. I work about 5 minutes from home so popped home at lunchtime to take Rio for a wee, tidy the whelping box and make sure Rio was fed and watered. I also was able to reduce my hours by about an hour a day.

People do have to work. It's important to have a backup plan if things don't go to plan, so you can be home more, but realistically people just can't take a couple of months off work. That doesn't make them irresponsible breeders though. It sounds to me that your neighbour is making every effort to go home and check mum and pups as often as possible.

way to long imo. anything could happen. If you do have to work full time ,unless you have a back up plan why breed?? JMHO.

I slept on the sofa next to pups. I did sleep but intermittently and would wake to the slightest noise from the pups.

I put a lot of time and effort and expense into the mating and rearing of the litter, yes irresponsible breeders seem to get away with cutting corners but I wasn't about to risk that, I decided on the litter and gave them no less than 100%... If you can't give that then you shouldn't be breeding IMO.