Congratulations on your new litter. It is perfectly normal for your mom to want to spend more time away from her puppies. She will be torn between you and her puppies so you just need to give mom some special time with you. My mommas keep me very busy when they have pups because they want to come in the living room with me so I spend a lot of time just letting them go back and forth. The older the pups get the more time mom will spend away from them. When your pups are about 3 to 4 weeks old they will need to be in a larger area so they can walk around. I keep mine setup in a x-pen with a board across one end so mom can go in and out.
As for the digging, how warm are you keeping the room where the puppies are? It could be that mom was just trying to find a cool spot to lay down. You don't want to room to hot where the mom and puppies are. If you are using a heat pad you need to make sure it is not to warm. In just a few more days the pups will be able to regulate their own body temperature and they won't need any heat. In the summer time I usually take the heat pad away after the first 12 days.
Are you giving the momma a calcium supplement? How many pups is she nursing? This is about the time that eclampsia could show up and one of the early signs of eclampsia is restlessness. Make sure the momma is getting plenty of food and a calcium supplement like Pet-cal. |