Hi,

Congrats on soon to be puppies. Whelping can be an exciting and scary process if this is your dog's first litter.

When the dog starts going into labor, you may see abdominal straining. They don't usually break "water" first. The first sign that she is having puppies will be a lack of interest in food 24 hours before she is to give birth.

The next stage is the appearance of the "water bag" at the vulva. (The bag is part of the placenta).

Within about 15 minutes and continued pushing, you should see the water bag forced out. It can rupture at this point. The puppy will be contained within this membranous sac. The mother should chew the membranes from around the newborn puppy and free it from the sac. She should then bite the umbilical cord in half and lick the puppy dry. This will stimulate the puppy to breathe and cry. She may then eat the membranous sac. (placenta) These membranes will not harm her, but don't allow her to eat more than one or two of the placenta since they may cause some indigestion.

If the mom doesn't break the sac, please use clean hands and break the sac for her.

There are many good websites on puppy whelping -

Here are some links:

http://www.seefido.com/dog-breeding/html/puppy_whelping__normal_process.htm

http://www.thepetcenter.com/gen/whelping.html

Good luck!