Puppy Whelping: Normal Process

Coinciding with the different behaviors that I mentioned in the previous parts, the body there are a series of changes that occur; for example, when the body temperature significantly goes down, the uterine neck which has until that moment remained completely shut in order to prevent abortion, dilates in order to let the puppies come out. The dilatation of the uterine neck also coincides with the frenetic need to "make the bed" and has even been considered to be a way for the dog to show the first feelings of discomfort. In fact, if you palpate the abdominal zone which corresponds to the location of the uterus, you will see how this seems to contract and hard in and later distend and relax. Those, my friend, are the first uterine contractions.

Only then is her discomfort more noticeable; she falls on her side, reincorporates, sits down, falls back on his side, licks her vulva, changes position again, falls back down again and sleeps a bit, gets excited, gets up, walks around, fixes the bed again, keeps on panting and sleeps for a little while and so on for some time. Finally come the real contractions; this is the second stage of birth. Then you will observe how an important abdominal pressure takes place, sometimes accompanied by a groan or sigh coinciding with each contraction. This is the way in which many bitches interpret the sensation that the entrance of the puppy in the upper part of the vagina produces.

In fact, now we know that the proper sequence of birth consists in that each puppy breaks loose from the uterine horns in an alternate way. Therefore, if the first one breaks loose from the left uterine horn, the next one whale break of from the right one, then the other one from the left one, another one from the right one, and so forth. This explains why, for example, is the one immediately before, that has broken loose from one of the uterine horns hasn't been born in its due time, the next one that's already on its way can have problems and that also explains why, as we'll see later, if one blocks the sequence because it is dead, for example, it may result in the following one going through even greater difficulties, as well as the other ones that are still attached to the uterine horns.