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I am doing major surgery on a friend's kennel and have reached the point of building a whelping area. Looking for some ideas and do's and don'ts. Thanks for your input.

Make sure it is easy to keep clean, easy to keep warm, and enough room for the momma dog to move around without steping or laying on the pups.

I have used those $10 kiddie pools from Walmart. They work great and are real easy to clean.

I would not recommend a kiddy pool. Puppies have been laid on and suffocated. If you are building a whelping box you should add a removable rail around the inside of the whole box so that when the puppies are small and can not get around to easily on their own will get pushed under the rail instead of squashed when the mother lays down. Also, it is nice to have a doorway that when the puppies are young is low so the mom can easily walk over it to get in but when the puppies get older you can raise it up so she can hop in but the puppies still can not get out. The size will depend on the size of the dog. Keeping it clean is pretty easy. I got blankets from the thrift store and laid them in there. I had enough to I would each day take out the dirty and put in clean. Check the web for whelping box plans there must be some out there. We have not lost a puppy using a whelping box.

Make it spacious enough and comfortable for maintenance. Built it like yours, if you are helping.

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