How to Build a Fiberglass Whelping Box

Mother nursing her pups in her whelping box.

It's very easy and fairly inexpensive to make a nice whelping box for your dog to have her puppies. The materials are readily available at discount home improvement stores and are easy to put together. If you have trouble finding any of the materials at your local store, there will be other materials there which would suffice. A fiberglass bottom on the whelping box makes for much easier cleaning and disinfecting, which is very important for newborn puppies.

Things You'll Need

• 4 melamine boards, 12 inches by 4 feet
• Melamine trim
• Fiberglass sheet or shower pan, slightly larger than 4 square feet
• Wood screws
• Braces
• Nontoxic all surface glue

Instructions

1. Buy your materials and assemble your whelping box at least a few weeks before you expect the puppies to be born. You can usually have the boards cut to your specifications when you purchase them at a home improvement store. The melamine boards offer a little water resistance over plain plywood, although they are not completely waterproof.

2. Set the four melamine boards on their sides with ends together at right angles, making a 4 foot square with 12-inch-high sides. Use a brace and the wood screws to hold each pair of board ends together. Alternately you can use hinges instead of braces to make the whelping box fold for storage. You may want to reinforce the ends with wood glue.

3. Place the square frame on top of the fiberglass sheet. Secure the fiberglass to the frame with glue and screws. Place a line of glue along the bottom edge of the frame, then apply to the fiberglass. Make sure the frame rests on the fiberglass all the way around: There should be no cracks or openings for puppies to squeeze through. You can use screws to reinforce the bond. Screw the screws in from the bottom of the fiberglass up into the edge of the frame at 6- to 12-inch intervals, as needed.

4. Apply the trim to the melamine board to cover rough edges and reinforce the water resistance. The melamine trim is often self-adhesive, but it can be glued on as well.

Tips & Warnings

• This size will work for all dogs up to about 80 lbs. You could make a slightly smaller (2 to 3 sq ft) whelping box for small dogs. For larger dogs, make it 5 to 6 feet square

• Depending on where you place the whelping box, you could choose to leave off the fiberglass bottom and just use newspapers and towels for the floor of the whelping box. Keep in mind that leaks are possible so do not forgo the fiberglass if the box will be sitting on carpet or another surface that cannot be sanitized.

• It's important to set up your whelping box a minimum of 3 weeks before the puppies are due. Place it in a cozy, low traffic area, where the mother dog will feel safe and quiet but not too isolated and fill it with towels, newspaper, and old blankets, so the mom to be can nest and prepare it for her puppies. If you set it up too late she may refuse to use it.

• Make sure there are no rough or sharp edges, wide gaps, or hardware sticking out that might injure mom, the puppies or the caretakers.

References

• Whelping Box Construction Plans

Resources

• Whelping Box Construction Plans