I believe that you need to be able to confine the mother with the puppies. a swimming pool is ok but mom can get out of it and might decide to move the puppies.
I used a 4x4 xpen, with the bottom half of a travel crate for a whelping box. Once the whelping was finished, I moved mom and babies to a bed with deep sides. I used clothespins to attach a hand towel over half of the bed, to help hold the heat in, and put a heating pad, set on low, under that half, for the babies to go to when Mom wasn't there. The other half was for Mom to lay so she would not have to be on the heating pad. the moms get very warm. I also put another bed in the x pen for mom so she could get away from the puppies if she wanted to.
During whelping I got into the pen with her and sat on a pillow, I had all of my supplies in a laundry basket in the pen also.
When the puppies became mobile, I divided the x pen into three parts, using 1x12 boards. one area was for sleeping, another was for pottying, and the third I kept closed off until the puppies were big enough to play, and when they had already become proficient with the potty area. Mom could jump over the boards, but the puppies need to use the door ways.
I can take a picture of my set up if you'd like. |