Dog Pregnancy Week by Week: Timeline and Checklist

If your dog has been bred, or you think she might be pregnant, you’ll want to know two things: when the puppies are due, and what to expect along the way. Here’s the whole pregnancy, week by week, with the checks and preparations that matter.

How long is a dog pregnant?

About 63 days. The tricky part is knowing which day to count from.

• From breeding: puppies usually arrive 58–72 days after the first mating. The range is wide because sperm can survive in the female for several days, and eggs need a couple of days to mature after ovulation. The breeding date and the conception date can be a week apart.
• From ovulation: if your vet tracked her hormones (progesterone or LH tests), the estimate gets much tighter: about 63 days from ovulation, give or take 1–2 days, or about 64–66 days from the LH surge.

If she was mated more than once, count the window from the first date to the last. The dog pregnancy calculator does this and gives you dates for every milestone below.

Dog pregnancy timeline at a glance

Days are counted from ovulation or the first breeding. From breeding, everything can shift by several days.

Week	Days	What’s happening	What you do
1	1–7	Eggs are fertilized and start dividing	Normal food and exercise
2	8–14	Embryos travel to the uterus	Nothing changes yet
3	15–21	Embryos attach to the uterine wall	Book a vet visit for about day 25–30
4	22–28	Relaxin blood test and ultrasound become possible	Confirm pregnancy with your vet
5	29–35	Puppies grow quickly; belly starts to show	Start increasing food gradually
6	36–42	Nipples darken and enlarge; appetite rises	Talk to your vet about food type
7	43–49	Puppies’ skeletons harden; X-ray possible from ~day 45	Count puppies by X-ray; set up whelping box
8	50–56	Puppies move visibly; she may start nesting	Gather supplies; learn the warning signs
9	57–63+	Temperature drop, then labor	Take her temperature twice a day

Weeks 1–3: early pregnancy

In the first three weeks you won’t see much. The fertilized eggs divide, travel down to the uterus and implant in its wall around the third week. Some dogs are a little quiet or eat less for a few days around weeks 3–4, a bit like morning sickness. Others show nothing at all.

What to do: keep her routine normal. There’s no need to increase food yet; extra calories now just add fat. Avoid rough play and hard training. If she takes any medicine or supplements, or is due for parasite treatment, ask your vet what’s safe during pregnancy.

Week 4: confirming the pregnancy

This is when your vet can tell you for sure:

• Relaxin blood test: possible from about day 21–25 after breeding. It detects a hormone made only in pregnancy.
• Ultrasound: usually reliable from about day 25–30. It can show heartbeats, though it’s not good at counting large litters.
• Palpation: an experienced vet may feel the developing pregnancies around days 28–35, but this isn’t something to try at home.

Home “pregnancy tests” made for humans don’t work on dogs.

Weeks 5–6: she starts to show

The puppies grow fast from here. Her belly starts to round out, her nipples get larger and darker, and her appetite rises. Some dogs develop a clear, odorless vaginal discharge around week 5, which is usually normal; tell your vet if it’s bloody, green or smelly.

Feeding: from about week 5, increase her food gradually over the rest of the pregnancy. Many vets suggest switching to a high-quality puppy or all-life-stages food in the last third, because it packs more calories and nutrients into smaller meals. As her belly fills, several smaller meals work better than two big ones. Your vet can give you a target, since needs depend on her size and litter size. Don’t add calcium supplements unless your vet says so; extra calcium in pregnancy can raise the risk of problems after birth.

Week 7: counting puppies

From about day 45, the puppies’ skeletons are visible on X-ray, and your vet can count them. This is worth doing. Knowing how many puppies to expect is the best way to tell whether labor is finished or whether a puppy is stuck.

Now is also the time to set up a whelping box in a quiet, warm, draft-free spot. Let her sleep in it for a week or two before the due date so it feels like her den.

Week 8: final preparations

You may see or feel the puppies move when she’s lying down. She’ll likely start nesting: digging, shredding bedding, seeking quiet corners.

Gather supplies:

• clean towels and bedding you can wash or throw away,
• a digital thermometer,
• a heating pad or lamp for a warm corner (with space for puppies to move away),
• a scale for weighing puppies,
• your vet’s number and the nearest 24-hour emergency clinic’s number, written down.

Week 9: labor and delivery

Start taking her rectal temperature twice a day from about day 56–58. Normal is roughly 101–102.5°F. A drop to below about 99–100°F usually means labor will start within about 24 hours.

Labor has three stages:

1. Stage 1 (6–12 hours, sometimes longer): restlessness, panting, shivering, nesting, refusing food, maybe vomiting. Contractions are happening but you can’t see them.
2. Stage 2 (delivery): visible straining. A puppy usually arrives within 20–30 minutes of strong straining. Gaps between puppies are often 30–60 minutes and can be up to about 2 hours.
3. Stage 3: the placenta passes after each puppy. Count placentas; there should be one per puppy.

She should break the sac and lick the puppy to start it breathing. If she doesn’t within a minute or so, gently clear the sac from its face and rub it with a towel.

When should I call the vet during labor?

Call your vet or an emergency clinic right away if:

• she has strong contractions for 20–30 minutes with no puppy,
• a puppy is visible in the birth canal and she’s strained for 8–10 minutes without progress,
• there’s green or black discharge and no puppy follows soon after,
• there’s bloody discharge before the first puppy,
• her temperature is over 103°F,
• it’s been 24 hours since her temperature dropped with no labor,
• it’s been 2–4 hours since the last puppy and you know more are inside,
• she seems very weak, collapses, or is in obvious pain.

Trust your instincts. Vets would rather get a call that turns out to be nothing than see a dog too late.

After the puppies arrive

Nursing is hard work. A mother’s energy needs rise sharply while she’s feeding a litter, often to two to four times normal at peak milk production, three to four weeks after birth. Let her eat as much as she wants of a puppy or all-life-stages food, and keep fresh water close by.

Call your vet if she has a fever, foul-smelling discharge, hot or hard mammary glands, stops eating, or shows trembling, stiffness or restlessness in the first weeks (these can be signs of low blood calcium, an emergency).

Weigh the puppies daily for the first two weeks. They should gain steadily after the first day or two. A puppy that isn’t gaining, cries constantly or seems weak needs a vet check.

A note on responsible breeding

Pregnancy and birth carry real risks for the mother. If you’re planning a litter, talk to your vet before breeding about health screening for her breed, timing, and a plan for emergencies. If the pregnancy was an accident, your vet can talk you through your options.