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Any Breeders in Our Group? – We’re Gonna Have Puppies!
My sleepless nights have already begun! I’ve been “in dogs” all my life: grew up in a search-and-rescue home, raised puppies for Guide Dogs, trained various service dogs, was a vet tech and a behavior vet tech, and a shelter behavior department manager, to name a few things I’ve done…. Know what I’ve never done?
Raised a litter of pups!????
I’ve always wanted to, but like many of you, take the job so seriously, I didn’t want to do it without doing it right, being able to start with the best dogs I could find, have a purpose to the pairing, do all the health tests & commit to the pups for life. I do not enter this lightly.
And so, I’m reading all the books and joining all the discussions and learning all I can… which, of course, had me up at O-dark-thirty this morning, thinking of everything that could go wrong. ????????????
I’ll be sharing our journey and some of the learning along the way, you bet! Anyone in our group ahead of me with whelping experience and want to share some encouragement?
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9 Replies
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How exciting for you!
No whelping experience advice to offer but I do need to ask; how are you not going to want to keep ALL the puppies?!!? ????????????
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First of all, CONGRATULATIONS, CATHERINE & BLISS!!! I agree that it will be so hard not to want to keep them all, with 2 beautiful parents like that!
I wish I could offer experience, unfortunately, I was 8 years old when my mom’s dog, Tasha, had our first and only litter of Samoyed puppies. But, I thought we should keep them all. I helped my mother (woke up right after the first puppy was born in late summer of 1981) and helped cut tiny cords and whatever odd tasks would help our beloved girl and babies.
I took it very seriously, all the way back then, so I can only imagine how you feel, Catherine! I’m so very happy for you and this litter will be very special to you, I’m sure!
HUGE HUGS!!!????
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So exciting Catherine!! I can’t wait to hear all your updates! I am in the middle of the book Puppy Brain- it is so interesting me the process of breeding and all the steps involved. So mind blowing!! Of course your two dogs are so beautiful!! It is going to be an amazing journey for you!
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I’m so excited for you, @catherine , and am certain you will do an exceptional job helping Bliss to raise the most amazing pups.
I’ve never whelped before, but once had the enormous privilege of raising a litter of 9 BCs, from 3 days old to 7 or 8 weeks. The breeder transported mama and 9 babies to me. I immediately began early neurological stimulation, introduced sod for indoor potty zone as soon as pups were crawling out of open half-crate, and ultimately exposed them to all sorts of sights/sounds/novelties/other dogs/car rides while mama nursed them/simple training/alone-time training in crate/careful exposure to polite children/enriched outdoor areas when they got older/ and even paired classical music with nursing (wondering if such music would be soothing to them when they transferred to their new homes).
Anyway, it was endlessly educational, exciting, and exhausting!
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I’m sure I will be enormously attached to ALL OF THEM! This is my first litter and also my first experience being a “grandma” – Hit me up with some granny names! lol @bernerlabreclectus @pawsup @jenz
Krista, thanks for the book recommendation – I’ll check it out!
@virginiad – lucky BCs, those, and gorgeous. You did a ton to start them off right. I’ve got Puppy Culture and will follow those guidelines for milestones and activities. I’ll also be doing ENS and ESI in the early days. I’m already recruiting my neighbor’s grandkids who have helped socialize Bliss & Magic… they are perfect children for it, ages 1 to 10. One big challenge I’ll have is finding culturally diverse folks… I’m in Oklahoma and it’s very mono-chromatic here. I’ve been to a few events where it’s more diverse… but the challenge of bringing a whole litter to an event…? ????
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oh and just to clarify… only Bliss is mine. We drove a long way for hot dates with daddy Tripp! ????
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I will know mid Oct if I’m gonna be a grandma!!!
The days. Can’t. Go by. Fast. Enough!! It will be my first as well.
And Girl I know the struggle of doing it right…. It’s hard! I own the bitch. She’s got her UKC CH (pending UKC approval – we went UKC because she’s all natural in an AKC d/c breed), a sport and virtual title. We are training for Rally & Obedience now.
The stud has many more titles performance titles and an AKC CH that I don’t remember them all lol.
We were planning on waiting til spring but something just hit on like, day 12/13 of her cycle, and we decided to try it – we can always rebreed in the spring if she doesn’t take, but I’m REALLY hoping she takes as my AKC show prospect is hopefully in this litter *crosses fingers and says a prayer). She’s missing one health test which is scheduled for soon, and then once submitted with a few others I haven’t submitted, she’ll be issued her CHIC# (tested WELL beyond CHIC standards, as my breed has very few required tests). I am impatiently waiting to find out, as I’m sure you’re impatiently waiting for them to be born!! I’ll be doing PC, ENS, and I’m debating on looking into Avidog. I heard it went free? Not sure — been trying to study and train and work, I haven’t had a chance to look it up yet haha. Bestest of luck to ya, Sis! Don’t forget your puppy count xray on day ~58/whenever your vet suggests! 🙂
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Ooh how exciting, @jenn8911 !! What breed do you have? I need photos. haha.
Sounds like we have similar viewpoints in all things breeding. The time between her hot dates and first signs of pregnancy seemed to last forever, but as soon as she reached the date she could have an ultrasound I realized I don’t need one… there’s no doubt in my mind she’s pregnant. I didn’t see the need to spend another $200 to get a “yep” from the vet. haha
I will absolutely be doing a puppy count x-ray! Looking forward to that in about 2 weeks. Eeep!
Whelping box arrived yesterday. I’m collecting all the supplies (so many supplies!).
I got the book Nurturing New Life: Whelping and neonatal care for the responsible dog breeder by Ji Khalsa (Midwoofery) and it is really comprehensive. I’ve read a few others and didn’t like them as much.
Let me know if you find any other great resources!
Here’s an article by Dr. Andrew Luescher that I found fascinating. He said: Puppies can already learn in utero. If a particular flavor is fed to the pregnant bitch such as
aniseed, the puppies will show a preference for that taste after birth. – Not terribly surprising, given the research on human fetal development and learning… but I can’t think of how to optimize that fact. Fun facts: I worked for Dr. Luescher at Purdue Vet Teaching Hospital. He bred Entelbuchers and conures too! He retired to run the breeding program of THE Saint Bernards… in Switzerland, his home country. Fun stuff.
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