Puppy

Hello,
First let me start out with saying this. My dog gave birth on Thursday, yes we knew she was pregnant, yes we did lots of reading to get ready for the birth, yes we have a whelping box and yes there is someone home with her all the time and no this was not planed. I just have some questions that I can not seem to find the answer to.
Everyone keeps making a big deal out of the fact that my dog Videl only gave birth to one puppy. One single pup, he is very healthy and the father is smaller than Videl so her puppy is small as well. Is this normal that she only gave birth to one pup? I know she is not pregnant anymore there are no other pups in her she has been checked.
My second question is, how long does the pup have to stay in the whelping box? I have read 3 weeks and I have read 6 weeks. But many sites and books have said by 3 to 3 1/2 weeks house breaking should be started.

No one has chimed in yet, and I'm not what I'd call experienced, because while I have had a litter I had a ton of mentoring and all the "hard work" was done for me by those more experienced.

But, I'll give you what information I can because you seem a little lost...

First off, singleton litters are fairly common. But, when you only have one puppy, you have to find other puppies for y our little one to play with, or else he won't learn bite inhibition. That may not sound like such a big deal, but it is when your dog thinks that people are chew toys.

If you don't have other puppies for him to play with, you'll have to be the one to teach him bite inhibition and that's something you should probably read up on. If you google, "How to Raise the Singleton Litter," you'll find a ton of resources.

Potty training is something that we started early on. We provided an area in the whelping box for the puppies to potty, but that wasn't until they were about four or five weeks, and then we didn't really start the house training process until six weeks.

We just carried them outside, waited for them to potty, and then gave a small puppy safe treat when they did. They actually caught on pretty quickly.

You may also want to start desensitizing your puppy to having his paws and mouth and ears touched, and also work on grooming. You can also start introducing him at about 5 weeks to things that make noise, like baby toys.

It's good to have a puppy party, and have everyone you know come and handle him. Don't let them bring their dogs. This is only for your puppy. You don't want him getting sick.

Don't start taking him to the park until at least the second round of vaccines unless you plan on carrying him the whole time. Same for taking him to places like Petco.

Ian Dunbar was really helpful for me. I haven't had a puppy for over three years so I needed a refresher myself. You can also google Dr Ian Dunbar and I think he has a site called "Star Dogs" or something like that and you can download for free his puppy training book.

Hopefully I was more helpful then not.

Thank you so much for your help. Yeah I am a little lost but this is the first time I have ever owned a dog that had pups. I am trying my best to do everything right and like I said even though this was not planed I am taking full responsibility and doing everything under my power to do this right. I love my pets like they are my children which is another reason as to why I have done a lot of reading about this and still researching the things I do not know or am not 100% sure about. Thank you again for your advice.

Dont find other puppies for your puppy will play with. They can and will bring in god knows what and make your puppy sick. The mother will do wonders in teaching bite inhibition.

Do not take the puppy from the mother from the pup until 8 weeks old. Once the puppy is walking around on its own then you can start letting him explore your house. CONSTANTLY supervised of course. Get him used to everything.

I'm going to take a piece of advice Grammy used to always give. By the book "How To Raise A Puppy You Can Live With" its a great book with tons of info.

Thank you for the info. I will look for the book. The puppy will be released homed when he is old enough. They have asked for house training to be started before they take him. He is going to the vet Saturday for a check up. I hope I am not being to protective by planing to have check up two to three weeks apart.