How to Build a Whelping Pen for Dogs

Decide between building inside or out. An indoor birth is always preferred--not just because of the possibility of cold or wet weather, but because your dog is likely to feel safer having the babies inside. Other dogs, strange people and predators (like owls) that might prey on the babies can all make a pregnant mom nervous, and a nervous mother is not as able to care for her new pups.

Chose an easily cleanable location. Pick the laundry room, a downstairs bathroom, an eat-in-kitchen or a warm, dry basement--anywhere in your home that has a floor that's easy to mop clean. Giving birth to puppies is notoriously messy, and the first few weeks of the pups' lives are even worse.

Define the space. If your dog is small enough, an X-pen or a very large crate should be all you need to keep her and the puppies confined, not only during the birth but for several weeks afterward.

Larger dogs may need a sturdy baby gate to keep them in the laundry room, or a custom-made X-pen. To make your own X-pen, you will need some 1-by-3 lumber and fence material, like chicken wire. Build four sturdy frames out of the 1-by-3--say, 5 feet long and 3 to 4 feet high, depending on your dog's height. You may also want to consider cross-bracing lengths of -by-3 within the frame.

For easy storage and moving purposes, you may want to attach the four sections together with hinges, but attach one section "intersection" with a simple latch, rather than the hinges. This will come in handy when you want to get into the X-pen and clean it, and don't want to step over the top bar of the pen.

Once the frames are assembled and hinged together, stretch the chicken wire over the frames and staple down with the staple gun.

If your chosen whelping spot is in a rarely used bathroom, or if your laundry room has a door, consider using a baby gate to confine the new family rather than just shutting the door. Your dog still needs and deserves contact with the family during this time. Also, the more the puppies smell and hear (and eventually see) normal human in-house life, the better-behaved they will be as adults. It's never too soon to start the socialization process.

Lay down a lot of newspapers. Mom is going to be responsible for cleaning up her babies' waste and urine, but she's going to need somewhere to go herself, especially if she can't (or won't) go outside. Many new canine moms are reluctant to leave their babies for the first few days, so make sure your momma dog has somewhere to "go," or at least stretch her legs once in a while.

Remember the whelping box. One half of a plastic dog crate is an ideal whelping box. The puppies can't get out easily--but Mom can. The ideal size of the crate is, of course, dependent on the size of your dog. However, since you don't want the puppies to be able to get too far away from Mom for a while, use the size of crate you'd normally use for your dog.

Line it with newspapers, then cover the newspaper with old towels or blankets. The box will get dirty pretty quickly, but you can easily replace it with the other half of the plastic dog crate, fill as before, and thoroughly wash the used half. Plan to do this every day to every other day, depending on the size of the litter.