Does my dog need human help during labor?

Only if there's a problem. She knows what she’s doing. Even if the dog has never given birth before, it's called genetics; they're going to figure it out. So I try not to intervene unless I have to. And again, I kind of briefly touched upon it earlier, pushing for 30 minutes with no puppy, and those kinds of things might require intervention. If things like that are happening, then absolutely get on the phone, call me and let me know, or, better yet, bring the dog in, and we'll do what we have to do. But other than that, stay out of the way and let her do her thing. She's going to eat the placenta. She's going to lick the puppy clean.

She's going to lick the puppies to make them go to the bathroom for the first time. They need to nurse on her immediately to cause not only for milk letdown but it also causes a release of oxytocin. This release helps the uterine to involute and start to either contract more, or when pregnancy is done, it makes the uterus collapse and empty blood clots and extra placental tissue. And just the simple act of a puppy nursing does that. So again, stay out of the way as much as possible. Call me if you need to, but otherwise, let the pups do their thing.

It depends. So dogs do very well on their own, and that's fine. And that's plan A. But, some dogs, some breeds, especially our little smooshed-face or brachycephalic breeds, tend to need a C-section. And so we can plan for that. And then, as complications arrive, they might need some intervention there, whether it's medical management or if we need to go to surgery. Those are things that we can discuss based on the case.