Day Five...

All is well. Pups continue to gain. They get a bit fussy at night. Not sure what that is all about except maybe they really do fit the Three Dog Night theme... aren't most 'gigs' at night? LOL All three are vocalists, but with the big guy being the lead singer.

Two pups sleeping... love the pink paw. :)

Figgy Temperature - 101.6


Puppy Weights:
1) Patch Boy - 1' 1 7/8 oz.
2) Liver Boy 1 - 1' 5 1/8 oz.
3) Liver Boy 2 - 1' 1 3/4 oz.

Day Four...

Isn't it amazing how they really aren't doing too much yet, but I could just sit there and watch their ears twitch and bodies jerk as they sleep. A healthy newborn puppy, will not lie motionless but body parts move while they sleep. It is fun to see the ears all of sudden flutter or a leg jerk. Are they dreaming of chasing rabbit already? They don't even know what a rabbit is... yet! :)

Figgy's temperature was 101.1 at 12:30 p.m. today. All is well with her. If a dam's temperature stays high or spikes up it could mean retained placenta (but I accounted for all three), an infection, mastitis... etc.
so I am pleased that her temperature returned to normal so quickly.

Momma Figgy and Boy 3... a precious moment.

Puppy Weights Day 4:
1) Black Patch  - 1' 1/4 oz.
2) Big Liver Boy - 1' 3 1/2 oz.
3) Liver Boy - 15 5/8 oz.

Another little pink paw... cracks me up. Precious!

Day Three...

Three days old. I took Figgy's temperature at 12:09 p.m. and it was 101.3. Good deal!

Puppy weights:
1) Black Patch Boy - 13 3/4 oz.
2) Big Liver Boy - 1' 1/2 oz.
3) Liver Boy - 14 1/8 oz.

Well now #3 Boy caught back up and passed the Patch Boy and Patch Boy lost a few from yesterday.

Puppies had vet check and dew claws removed today. They are healthy and have good lungs or vocal capabilities.. maybe another reason to go with "Three Dog Night" names... LOL.

Day Two....

I took a little video today on Day 2 but it was too large to upload here.
I had to convert the video into a different format and not as hi-res, but here it is...

Pups are chow hounds. Not much going on except eat, sleep and potty and poo with the help of momma dog. Newborns are unable to urinate and defecate on their own. The mother dog stimulates elimination by licking. In some cases, new mothers do not like to lick them and the breeder must use a cottonball soaked in warm water to help the puppies relieve themselves. Puppies can cry when they are hungry, but they can also cry when they have to go! Figgy is a great momma and keeps all flowing. Thank goodness!


Figgy's temperature was 101.9 this evening. That is just fine.

Puppy Weights:
1) Black Patch Boy - 14 1/2 oz
2) Boy 2 - 15 1/4 oz
3) Boy 3 - 12 7/8 oz

The smallest boy (#3) lost a little bit since yesterday. He has good suction. I will make sure he is getting one of the best teats so he can catch back up.

Day One...

Momma Figgy and puppies one day old.

Just now getting caught up on blog... my apologies. I intend to make a post or update each day if I can. I am fighting off a head cold, flu and bad
cough... cough is better, but head feels worse today. I did get some sleep last night so hopefully will be getting over this soon. No time to be sick and it has been going on... and on... 

This post is for Day One, which was yesterday...
Pups are gaining weight, nursing readily. I am afraid at this rate they will be the three little pigs... Figgy's temperature was 102.1 the evening after whelping and was 101.4 on day one. That is good! That is in normal range for a dog.

Puppy Weights day 1...
1) Black Patch Boy 13 7/8 oz
2) Boy 13 1/4 oz
3) Liver Boy 13 1/8 oz

More color coming in on #2 boys nose... may be a liver after all... will check again today when weighing them. I try not to take them too far away from mom or mess with them too much while momma is getting settled in with her new babies. You don't want momma to be stressed at all or may stop the milk coming in.

Figgy and the Three Musketeers? or the Three Amigos?

Figgy waiting while I weigh her 1st born pup.

1st born, Black Patch Boy 11 1/4 oz at birth.

Two more boys... 12 3/4 oz and 10 5/8 oz. See brown nose on last pup, he is a Liver.

Figgy with her three strong boys.

Puppies were born on March 25, 2014 as expected. We have three boys. 1 is a Black Patch boy. So are they the Three Musketeers? Three Amigos? Three Dog Night? all good suggestions... :)

Figgy had a long, drawn out delivery, but no complications and all are healthy and strong. Figgy has plenty of milk, and her temperature is back to normal already. It can run a tad high the first few days after whelping and with the whelping box needing to be kept at a pretty warm temperature. I have a space heater going in my room, plus a trouble light and a heating pad. I am almost ready to put on some shorts, and break out some Pina Coladas (feeling a bit tropical) but when I go into the other parts of my house... brrr... c'mon Spring!

Boys are nursing well and standing up on rears when nursing. Strong little buggars. :)

1st Pup Born...

4:58 a.m. the first pup was whelped! Black Patch boy 11 1/4 oz, strong, healthy and nursing. Now 7:00 a.m. and we wait...

On Whelping Watch...

This is the least fun time... waiting, up and down all night, little sleep and hoping all proceeds into the safe delivery of the puppies. I had a very busy weekend so will recap the progress now. I believe I caught the temperature drop on Saturday. It dropped to 98.1. In my experience this can also indicate a lost puppy if it is too early. Normally whelping will begin 24 hours after the temperature drop, so I am getting a bit concerned. I expected them to come last night.

I have felt puppies moving around in there. Last night very active. Some say the pups become still before whelping, but I do not find that to be the case most times. I have seen contractions here and there, but no major pushing or continuous contractions. She is wanting to just stay in her whelping box, only going out to potty when I ask her to. She has left a few wet spots on the blanket, but no water bag yet. I think she was just leaking a bit of urine. I have not seen the mucous plug yet. When they go out to potty, after urinating a snot-like stringer will be hanging from the vulva. She is serious, but will still wag her tail and lay on her side and paw the air for me to pet her. She is cleaning her teats, and only occasionally licking her vulva. She has milk in all her teats. About a week before delivery they may start to get a tiny bit of milk in the very back teats. As the days get closer to whelping day, the milk will start to move into the forward teats progressively. And by whelping time there is milk the in the very small front teats. At least this is normal for my girls.

I have the electric heater setup in my bedroom and it is nice and toasty. It is critical that you keep the whelping box around 80 degrees in the "cool" side and  warmer around mother or under the light or heating pad of course. Newborn puppies are unable to maintain  their own body heat. If they get too far away from a heat source and get chilled they can die quickly. You never want to warm up a chilled puppy too quickly. Their digestive tract can shut down so you do not want them to nurse until they are warmed back up. A good way to warm up a slightly chilled pup is to put them under your shirt so your body heat will warm them up. I have my laundry basket with a heating pad in the bottom and towels on top, to keep pups warm during the whelping process.

Sometimes it is only the look in their eye that tells you something is not quite right, so a breeder needs to be in-tune to their girl and use their gut instinct at times. I am a bit concerned. She is not straining or uncomfortable, and her estimated due date is not until tomorrow, however, at times I see that look in her eyes. I hope it is just contractions that I can't see. Still waiting...

And waiting... and you do not want to get nervous and anxious... it will make your girl upset.

I have a bunch of blankets and old comforters laundered and ready to trade out during the whelping process. Some bitches have a lot of fluid and some don't seem to have as much. Not sure if some are just faster lickers than others or what. I have small towels ready to rub pups down, blunt-end scissors to cut umblical cords, if mamma does not chew it off all the way. It is best to let momma dog sever the cord, they do not bleed as much as a clean cut.

Puppies c'mon out now, please... It is really the puppies that trigger whelping, the hormones that the puppies produce to start the whelping process. So I bet Figgy and I are both thinking... let's get this show on the road... :)

Temperature Taking...

It is important that you start taking the bitch's temperature three times a day to try to catch "the drop". Figgy's temperature tonight was 100.5. The drop is usually 98 or below and whelping should begin 24 hours after the drop. You can miss the drop if you do not take the temperature three times a day, because the temperature does not stay down, it returns back to the 100 range. Night! I need to get to bed. Not feeling well and need extra sleep before the long pre-whelping process.

Yes we ARE expecting...

5 days to estimated whelp date! I have my bedroom all set up for whelping duties. Wish I could shake this cold. It is not good to start into an upcoming whelping and the first few weeks of a little already tired.

It's all Planning, Timing and A Lot of Luck!

Planning...  

The planning of this pairing began at the 2012 National Specialty in Tulsa, OK. OD was a puppy then but I thought he would be a great future match for my sweet Figgy. Alot of planning and thought goes into breeding a litter. A breeder who is breeding to improve the breed and their line from generation to generation takes many things into consideration and that not done lightly, I might add. I don't know how many hours I have stressed over who to breed to, where to go next. All good breeders do this. It is a ritual. What dog will bring desired traits for the next generation into your line? What do you need to improve upon? What will compliment your bitch? Weighing the pros and cons... determining risks and potential.. studying the pedigree... looking up health information on several generations back, looking at temperament, not only on those in the pedigree, but littermates of those in the pedigree. There are no perfect dogs, so it is never an easy decision. At least not for me.

Health Testing.... 

Each breed of dog has a list of which tests should be completed for a dog to be certified with a CHIC number. For Dalmatians it is BAER (hearing), HIPS, and either Eyes or Thyroid testing. A dog does not have to pass these tests to get a CHIC #, only has to have completed the tests, but it shows the dedication to breeding healthy dogs by the breeder. Health testing and paying for the submission of the results into the database is not cheap. By submitting them into the database that breeder is helping the breed as a whole by supplying information and statistics for other breeders and the parent club. Future trends and what we need to focus on as caretakers of the breed may become evident if we keep track of such things. Every breed has a limited gene pool (some more than others) and we take breeding very seriously. That is a good breeders job. To produce wisely and not just make puppies.

Figgy was already a Champion and had her CHIC #. OD completed his Championship and when he turned 2 he had all of his health tests completed. He is BAER Bilateral, OFA Hips Excellent and Thyroid Normal.  Figgy is BAER Bilateral, OFA Hips Excellent and Eyes Normal. All tests were turned in, CHIC #'s granted. Very good. We can now proceed.

Timing is everything!

Frozen was not an option for me, so even though OD has frozen available we had to try for fresh chilled.  Using frozen makes the timing much easier as the semen can wait indefinitely until the exactly right time.

Timing was not going to be easy and may not work out at all. If the dog is at home with the owner it should not be too difficult but OD is currently out specialing with Michael Scott and is a very busy show boy. The timing of getting him collected for a fresh chilled litter was going to be a big fat hit or miss.  No in-between. If he was traveling on the road there would be no time to stop and get him collected and get it shipped at just the exactly right time. We were hopeful, but also realized that timing just may not work out. I have always been one of the faith... "Where there is a will there is a way"... and "We make happen what we want to make happen".

Figgy was due to come into season in December... OD was home for a bit of a break but nope... she didn't come in. She waited until January! When she came into season I called Daniel and asked... "Where is OD going to be this next weekend?" I was hoping he would be at Michael's home base or somewhere close enough I could drive to him.  Daniel checked the schedule and OD was going to be in Florida at shows that weekend! That gave us the option of Daniel and Kevin driving an hour and half to the show, picking him up and getting him collected. Hurtle one down, at least he was going to be in-range. However, the most important part is receiving the semen at exactly the right time when the bitch is ready to be bred! Will Figgy be ready that weekend and what about Fed Ex... you can either ship on Thursday for a Friday delivery, or Monday for a Tuesday delivery.  What if she is ready on Sat, Sunday or Monday? Note: Some remote or rural locations do not have Saturday morning delivery. Most larger towns this is available.

Figgy has had a litter before and by those estimates she would be ready on a Wednesday. That is okay for shipping overnight, but OD will be back on the road traveling by then. The show ends on a Sunday! Hoping/praying she would be ready earlier! I called Carolyn Bolt, who does collection in Florida. She has some super duper extender and was sure OD could be collected on a Sunday, kept refrigerated overnight, and ship out Monday morning. This meant I would get the semen on a Tuesday (almost 48 hours after collection). This is usually not done, but I was determined and had faith. If it is meant to be... it will be...

On doing fresh chilled AI's, I also like to do two inseminations. If you can collect one day and ship and then collect the next day and ship you have a really good chance of getting the timing right and much like you would do for live breeding.

It is a bit of a drive for Daniel and Kevin to pick up OD and take him to Carolyn for collection and back to Michael. It could interfere with Group showing that day and being a Sunday, he would need to get out on the road as soon as possible.  Shoot... a little snag. Carolyn thinks there is a semen clinic at the show. I go online and look at the show program and there is a semen clinic at the show!!! WOO HOO! What luck. 

Okay so... Semen kit and shipper and extender purchased from Carolyn. Daniel and Kevin drive an hour and half to pick up. They get it to Vet at show. They wait the latest they can on Sunday to do the collection. Vet keeps semen overnight and packages on Monday morning for delivery on Tuesday to my vet. But will Figgy be ready????? 

It is a miracle that all of this worked out so perfectly on getting the semen collected and to me... but the most important part is the timing on the bitch! If she is ready on Wednesday, as her history suggests, the semen would have to wait another 24 hours... 72 hour old semen! Usually only overnight (24 hour old) semen is used to AI a bitch. This is pushing our luck!

Meanwhile, Figgy is getting closer but not ready yet. My boys at home not telling me it is time. Will she be ready too late? Semen is due to arrive on Tuesday morning after 10 a.m. On Tuesday morning, I take Figgy in early for Progesterone test so we can get back by noon. Semen arrives. We wait a bit for progesterone results. She is at 10.37.  Vet checks semen under a scope... holding our breath. Is the semen still alive, did it make the journey okay, and did the extra day make a difference? It looks excellent!!! Ooo.... time to inseminate!  

We held our breath until the 6th week of Pregnancy when she definitely was looking PG! Whew! Another hurdle down! I opted not to do an ultrasound. A friend of mine read a study that suggested ultrasound can cause dyslexia in human children. I guess if a puppy was dyslexic, how would you know? Unless you teach them to read. :) But since then, I have not done them anymore to just confirm pregnancy. We can tell soon enough if we are patient.