Whelping chart: a printable for the birth of a litter

What’s on the chart

• The litter: dam and sire, breed, the due date your vet estimated, the date of birth and the scale you use.
• Your vet and the nearest emergency clinic with phone numbers and the address, plus a helper or your breeder.
• “What your vet told you”: lines for what to watch for during labor, when to call and when to go to the emergency clinic, in your vet’s words.
• A row per puppy, numbered in birth order: time born, sex, color and markings, birth weight, ID collar color, placenta seen and notes. Page 2 has six more rows.
• At the end of the day: males, females, the total, placentas counted, the time of the last puppy and the vet check you booked, then a timeline for labor notes.
• Ounces on US Letter and grams on A4, with fields you can fill in on screen.

How to use it

1. Print it before the due date and fill in the litter, the phone numbers and the address of the emergency clinic.
2. Ask your vet what to watch for and when to call, and write the answers on page 1.
3. As each puppy arrives, write the time, then the sex, the color and any markings.
4. Weigh each puppy on the same scale (AKC suggests weighing again after 12 and 24 hours) and put on a different ID collar, so look-alike puppies stay apart.
5. Mark the placenta for each puppy, and use the labor notes for anything you want to tell your vet.
6. Carry the weights on in the litter record, from day 1 to the day each puppy goes home.

Why the chart prints no normal values

AKC’s guide to breeding asks breeders to talk to their vet before the birth about what to expect during labor and how to recognize an emergency, and to keep the vet’s and the emergency clinic’s numbers at hand. AKC’s articles for breeders also list warning signs with times. We don’t repeat them: what is normal for your dog is your vet’s call, so page 1 has lines for your vet’s answers instead of printed numbers.

The columns follow AKC’s list of things to prepare, which includes “a chart or large notebook to record details about the puppies at birth (the weight, sex, and color of each)”, and the guide’s advice to count the placentas against the puppies. For telling puppies apart, VCA’s veterinarians describe colored ribbon or yarn tied loosely around the neck, or soft ID collars sold for the purpose.

• Printable litter record (birth to new home)
• Printable dog heat cycle chart
• AKC’s whelping guide for breeders (opens in a new tab)