"We help the female gh(greyhound) whelp new puppies in a 5'x6' whelping box in our food mixing room. The gh mother is free to come and go. The room is heated and air conditioned. The puppies remain in the whelping box until they can climb over the 12" high sideboards, usually at about 4-5 weeks. The whelping box has inside bumper rails so the female cannot crush the puppies against the sides. We change the rugs twice daily and wipe down the box with a mild bleach solution. Puppies cannot see or hear until they are about 2 to 3 weeks old. What amazes us is the fact that freshly born puppies, just after they are cleaned, can turn, struggle, crawl straight for, and latch onto their mother's faucet without any assistance. How do they sense where to go? Anyway, we start the puppies' vaccination and worming program at 2 weeks. The puppies are old enough to start rousting each other just before they are moved.
At about 4-5 weeks the mother and puppies are moved to an enclosure over a similar type 6'x6' whelping box. This enclosure is in a 8'x8' stall with a dog door to a 8'x30' fenced run. The run is chain link fenced and has an added 1/2"x1/2" wire mesh fabric on the side next to a gh in the adjacent run. (Some adjacent gh females will kill puppies--the wire mesh prevents cross contact.) The puppies remain in this area until they are about 3 months old. Again, the enclosure is cleaned twice per day and wiped down with a mild bleach solution. The mother usually starts weaning her puppies at about 5 weeks. At this time the puppies are introduced to real food. We first serve a pan of milk with a little crumbled or blended dry meal in the milk. As time passes we introduce finely diced red meat and tripe to the mix. To walk and carry a pan of food to these puppies requires one to be an expert at the "puppy shuffle". By 6-7 weeks the puppies are fully weaned and eating on their own. It is really fun to watch puppies play with each other; they run and bounce, stumble, fall, wrestle, growl, bark, play, bite each other, turn their head to one side, perk up their ears, listen to new sounds, fall in the feed pan, bite each other's tails, shake rags, etc. It is from this area the puppies are exposed to the big, wide world. It is amusing to watch when they first venture to the outside. They will tippy-toe out the dog door, stretch their necks way out, sniff and listen, then real fast they will turn and run back inside. One of our most pleasurable moments is sitting down inside the enclosure when the puppies are 4-5 weeks old and just letting them climb all over us. One will be chewing on your shoelace, one will be shaking your pants-leg, one will be biting your hand, one will climb over your legs, one will climb on your stomach, and one will climb all the way to your face and bite your nose, ear, or pull your hair! This is when we first start speculating on what type dogs they will be--what traits they will have and how they will run. We personally believe that many of their personality traits originate from this period.
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