I always worry about this even though I have only had it happen twice in 25 years. Both times it happened on day 2. What I wonder is, if you have experienced this how old were the puppies when it happened? I am hoping it will be early on like the ones I had so I can stop worrying for weeks on end.

I havent ever had to happen. However, there is round the clock supervision with the puppies for the first 2 weeks.

If you aren't able to provide this, maybe sitting up a baby monitor near the whelping box will help you.

Best of luck with your babies!

I always have a bed set up next to the whelping box and spend weeks there. I also have a baby monitor that I keep with me when I am cooking or whatever. When I need to go out of the house, one of the family members is assigned to puppy watch.

I frankly wonder if I am being too obsessive. For people who have had this happen, how old were the puppies at the time?

I have had this happen once in ten years. It was my bitches first litter, and she was a wonderful mother, but sat on two puppies with me right around the box. I had monitors, but you can't even hear a newborn, they don't have time to cry before they are smothered. The first I thought I may have lost as it was the night they were born, a few hours afterwards. Then the same thing happened the next night, we lost another, no warning, crying, etc. I think she was just laying on them. From then on there, I set up a crate next to the whelping box, and every 90 minutes to 2 hours, would let her in with me sitting with her and let her clean and feed, etc. I did this for about 3 weeks until they were big enough. It worked out great. The only problem was getting up around the clock, but I wasn't losing any more puppies, so just got through the 3 weeks.

I have had it happen a three times over the years. It has always been with first time moms in my case.

The last time was with my current litter. They were about 4 days old and I was sleeping on a cot right next to the box (which I always do the first week or two). I checked on them at 1:30 am and all was fine..the second time I checked (3:00 am)...we had lost one. I agree with the previous poster...I don't think you always hear them in some situations. I am a very light sleeper and get very little sleep that first week because anytime a puppy squeaks...I am up and checking on them.

I never thought it would happen here at our house but after 12 yrs in this hobby, last January we lost our first puppy at around day 2 or 3. It was our girl's first litter, she had 9 gorgeous chocolate pups, also our first chocolate litter in 12 yrs.

Even though I always sleep close to the whelping box for the first couple weeks post whelp, it scares me to fall asleep for fear of a puppy getting laid on. No matter how experienced the dam is, I find myself pulling pups out from beneath the mom. You really don't hear the puppy crying for help when they are eve 2 weeks old. I remember one of our girls going in to feed her 3 puppy litter when they were just 3 weeks old. She laid right on one of them and had I not been there to see it happen, that poor puppy would have smothered. My girls from these particular lines weigh upwards of 85 to 90 pounds so for a puppy to crawl behind their mom and have the mom lay back down on it and not realize what she has done..well, gives new meaning to " Sleepless in Seattle " during the first few weeks.
This same mom who laid down on one of her big pups out of her 3 pup litter( also her first litter ) went on to have 8 pups on her 2nd breeding. She not only raised her 8 pups without squishing them but raised her half sister's 6 puppies during this time.
I was so exhauseted and stressed out having whelped 2 litters so close together, my reasoning went out the door and I decided sleep was more important after a few days of hovering over Our girl and her 13 new born puppies...I would go to bed early and get up at 5:30 am every morning, praying that all 13 pups were alive.
Our Lola was amazing with her 8 pups and adoptive 6 puppies, so careful not to step on any of them. I never had to pull any pups from behind her that first 3 weeks.
That was certainly a false sense of security when our next girl went on to whelp her first litter and laid on her chocoalte boy puppy on day 2 or 3.
It happened so fast to. I had checked on mom and her pups who were all nursing. I slipped 4 feet over to my computer desk, checked back on our mom and her pups 10 minutes later and counted 8 puppies. I lifted mom's hips up and there lay her precious puppy, lifeless. I showed momma her dead puppy, not scolding her or anything but I wanted to see what her reaction was since it just happened. Maybe she realized what happened to her boy puppy but from that moment on, momma dog was definatley more cautious when she was in with her puppies.

It has happened to me once in 26 years and and about 21 litters. The pup was 10 days old and I was right in the room. I often have to leave litters unattended for hours and have never lost another one, even with litters of 11 or 12. I think the chances of your seeing it and being able to rescue the puppy in time are so slim that it is useless to worry about it. I have pulled many puppies out from under a mother, but I suspect they were really OK and did not need to be rescued because if they weren't, I would have lost many more than one puppy over the years. I always have a pig rail, and i do watch the mother closely for the first 24 hours or so. If she appears to be sensitive to the location of the puppies and is careful about lying down, I don't worry. The one puppy I lost was from a first litter, and the mother was just flopping down in her litter of 10 puppies. We worked on the dead puppy for a long time trying to revive it, and after that she lay down carefully. So yes, I think they do understand what went wrong.

I have 3 girls that lay on their pups and have lost pups from these moms squishing the pups. One friend that has a BOB Crufts winner that lost 2 pups at 4 weeks old from the mom laying on them.

My girl laid on a two week old pup. I would have thought by that age they were safe. She just isn't the careful type.

Thank you, everyone. This may restore my sanity and now I can look forward to the litter.