"Salty"...in the early 1960's we would generally help the fist born pups as sometime the mother takes too long either by shock or just not sure what is happening however just removing a tad of what was needed, a bit of moving them around and and clearing the nose generally set them on the right path then the mother was ready to take over. The mother did just fine with the next 3 pups it generally is the first born where the new mothers seem to not be in tune.