Day 17 has probably been the most intensive that the puppies have experienced so far. The worming process that we started on day 15, has to be continued for three consecutive days, so today is the last of the worming solution required. Another worming session will take place when the puppies are 5 weeks old.  We have continued with the weighing process. weighing on alternate days, so that we can see the progress of each individual pup. Any that are showing minimal weight gains, are singled out to be first at the "petrol pumps" when Tilly feeds them!

Probably the most exciting thing so far, has been the pups drinking baby dog milk from a small bowl. This has meant that they have had to learn completely new skills. For a start they are having to either stand or sit whilst feeding, as opposed to lying down and suckling from a teat. They have also had to master the art of licking and swallowing the liquid and using their tongues to direct the food into their mouth. Needless to say the bitches appeared to be better than the dogs at this first attempt. The dogs were content to have the bowl held for them with the minimum of effort on their part! Whereas some of the bitches were stood up and drinking like a pro!

Here's ten bowls of milk lined up ready!

The whole business of feeding from bowls was a little messy and we ended up with lots of milk moustaches and milk beards!

 It's now the end of week 3 and we have been feeding the puppies from bowls using a combination of milk and wet puppy food. They are starting to roll the puppy food around in their mouths, but they definitely prefer the milk at this stage. We have progressed from one pup at a time, to feeding four pups in one go. We've found it useful to take a "good" drinker with a "not so good" pup, and hopefully the less experienced one will learn from it's brother or sister!

The pups are growing daily and are becoming healthy chunky pups. We have had loads of visitors this week, and the pups have been handled by many adults and children. We have been lucky enough to find six homes so far for our pups. We are still looking for homes for two bitches and two dogs, but we are happy to wait for the "right" people to come along.

Since the puppies were born, the last two weeks have seemed an age! Sleep deprived is an understatement, but the fun of watching the puppies has been immense.  We have watched them grow from small rat-like animals into cute puppies that can't quite sit up yet, and can't quite manage to stumble all the way across the whelping pen without tumbling over. They are now beginning to grow into their faces, and less resemble a "bulldog chewing a wasp" and more resemble a cute puppy-like face. They have opened their eyes (at Day 14) and now stare at you with sleepy looking eyes most of the time.

We have also completed the first toe nail cutting exercise! That was an experience! This will have to be done again very shortly, as their toenails are razor sharp and would do some serious damage to the skin on Tilly's underbelly if they were left without trimming.

Another drama underfolded earlier in the week, when Tilly's face suddenly started to swell and she came up in all sorts of lumps and bumps around her muzzle. It turned out, she had been stung, either by nettles or otherwise and had suffered a bit of a reaction. The vet was not overly concerned about the swelIing, as it had already started to reduce in size within an hour of it happening, but I took the opportunity whilst there, to get the worming solution necessary for both the pups and Tilly. It was also a good chance for the vet to give Tilly a check over. 

It turned out that the worming solution had to be given by mouth, and since they were still feeding from mum, we needed to use a syringe to administer it! To complicate things further, in order to give them correct dosage, we needed to weigh the puppies and give them the correct proportion of worming solution for their weight.

One of our neighbours rigged up a brilliant weighing machine, using a luggage weighing device and a handy storage box, and we were able to easily weigh the pups, tag them and then administer the worming solution. All this was done without any fuss on behalf of the pups. I think they are starting to get used to being handled. The toe nail cutting was a bit traumatic for them, but the worming was a breeze, which is just as well, since we need to do it again in three weeks time.

Here's a picture of one of the pups, looking less than impressed with worming solution all over it's chops!

 The benefit of having tagged the pups, is that we can now identify them and notice particular characteristics. For example, one of the bitches is so laid back, she is almost horizontal. I think she thought she was at the manicurist when her nails were being cut, she was not bothered in the slightest! I don't think she even woke up when we weighed her. That said, she is not backward about feeding, she is by far the greediest pup but very content once fed….  It's going to be interesting watching them as we move into the third week. We are going to start the process of weaning them, and already have ten little bowls lined up for them to use, once they are able to take milk from a bowl rather than from mum.

Here's a picture of our laid back girl pup….

Here's the question we couldn't answer the first night they were born… How many bitches versus dogs did we have?

After a day of recovering from the sleepless night before, we finally managed to confirm the exact number of boys and girls.  We actually have 6 bitches and 4 dogs! This does nothing to improve the boy/girl ratio in the house at all, girls still outnumber the boys, by a long shot!

The first three days are going to be the most critical for the development and survival of the puppies, so we are keeping an extremely close eye on the puppies, to ensure that they all get an even share of the milk. The puppies are certainly letting us know if they can't get milk, there's plenty of squealing going on when that happens!

Tilly is taking everything in her stride and is being the "best mum in the world!" She is endlessy patient with all the puppies and gets very concerned when one appears to be too still for a while, even though it is trying to sleep, she still tries to rouse it and encourage it to eat.

We'll continue keeping a close eye on them, we have another 7 weeks to go before they can be sent to new homes.

Lots of caffeine required though, for the night shifts, as Tilly requires so much additional food in order to feed the pups….

Lots more photos and videos to come, as the pups grow.

Well, we've ordered the whelping kit, the whelping box and an appropriate vet bed to line her box. Now we are just waiting and watching Tilly's tummy grow bigger and bigger!

The normal gestation period for dogs is said to be 63 days, which is a rough rule of thumb. However, dogs can give birth from 54 days onwards according to my Book of the Bitch which has become my bible over the past few weeks…..

I have been taking measurements of Tilly's girth (tummy) and the first one was 30inches – although I am not sure what she started off at, she's normally a very slim girl! It has gradually increased day by day until the last measurements were approximately 34 inches.

Taking Tilly for a walk is a completely different experience, whereas before we were used to jumping in the car and taking her for hour long or more walks - now we are restricted to walking around the village and taking much shorter walks and stopping when she wants to. We cannot allow her to jump in the car anymore, for fear of damaging the pups….

Anyhow, hopefully soon the waiting will be over, and a new chapter will start, complete with little pups!

The Story so far…..

For those of you that have been following the blog, you will know that we are in the middle of breeding our lovely black labrador, Tilly. So far, we have done all the necessary health tests and have had good  results. Even with all the best planning, we could not have anticipated Tilly coming into season right in the middle of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Normally, we would have been able to establish the correct day of ovulation by having blood tests done from about Day 9 of the season, but unfortunately at the critical time, the Laboratory has closed for an extended bank holiday, so we have had to second guess the ovulation dates.  We have been advised to have another blood test after the first mating, just to check that Tilly has ovulated.

So, once again, we are back at the vets having yet another blood test taken…..  This time, we need to know if she was ovulating at the time of the mating. If she has not ovulated, then we need to take another trip to the stud dog.

One day later……

The results are back and the vet has confirmed that the best time to have mated Tilly was the day AFTER we actually mated her. The progesterone levels were such that the "day after" would have been perfect. In his words, "we would probably be alright, but to be on the safe side, we should take her back to the stud dog and try again".

So once again, we all pile in the car and head up the motorway to the stud dog………

This time, it goes a lot smoother than the first time, and the stud dog owners are happy that Tilly is not likely to snap at their dog and she remains unmuzzled for the whole process.

We are now in the position that we cannot do anymore and have to let nature take it's course.

The vets have offered to do an ultrasound scan in 28 days time, but to be honest we're not sure if we will do this. All it will prove is that she is pregnant but we won't know how many puppies with any certainty. So now, we just have to take care of our dog, in the hope that she contains a precious cargo of soon-to-be cute cuddly puppies!

From conception to birth is about 63 days, so we anticipate the pitter patter of tiny paws around the first week of August.

Any ideas for puppy names????

The Story so far…..

For those of you that have been following the blog, you will know that we are in the middle of breeding our lovely black labrador, Tilly. So far, we have done all the necessary health tests and have had good  results. Finally, after keeping us waiting, she has come into season, we are waiting with baited breath for the day to come when she finally ovulates and we can take her to see the stud dog.

Well the big day has dawned. We have sweaty palms and feel like lambs to the slaughter as we take our unsuspecting dog to see her stud dog.

Thankfully we are put at our ease by the experience of the stud owners. It certainly pays to use experienced breeders.

The stud dog owner internally examined Tilly as she attempted to "prepare her" for the stud dog to do his business. Whilst this was unpleasant to witness, as no one wants to see their dog yelp in pain, it was necessary to ensure that Tilly didn't associate pain with the stud dog, otherwise she would have been unlikely to stand for him and we would not have had a successful mating.

Once Tilly was ready, a muzzle was placed round her nose, to ensure that she didn't whirl round, snap and take a chunk out of the stud dogs ear!  Tilly is the most sweet natured dog imaginable, but according to the stud dog owners, in their experience, even the most mild mannered dogs can turn into a crocodile with snapping teeth if they take exception to the boy dog!

Thankfully after a bit of dancing around and frantic pawing to try and get the horrible muzzle off her nose, Tilly eventually stood still for the stud dog.

After the boy dog had "performed" the stud dog owners gently manouvered both dogs hind legs into a more comfortable position and they stood there for a few more minutes letting nature take its course.

The dogs essentially lock together for a number of minutes and they cannot be separated. They are almost back to back at this stage, and it looks terribly uncomfortable for the male dog as he appeared to be bent round a bit like a banana.

Whilst the dogs are locked together, the breeder took a seat (whilst holding the dogs on a lead) and patiently waited for nature to takes it's course. Eventually, after what seemed quite a few minutes, the dogs finally separated. Tilly was led away to our car, where she quietly recovered from her ordeal!

We went and had a cup of tea with the stud dog owners and also settled up with them. They gave us the Pedigree certificate for the stud dog, and also gave us a copy of Form 1 from the Kennel club, which is an Application for Litter Registration. This is where we have to choose names for the puppies and register them with the Kennel Club. Apparently we can do this online, but we have been asked by the breeder to send the copy to her first, so that she can add the sire's details and she will also provide a pedigree certificate with the puppies names on.

The only problem we have at the moment, is that we are not sure if Tilly has ovulated yet. Normally, we would be sure from the blood tests that are taken, but in this case, we have had to second guess, as the Jubilee Bank holiday weekend has fallen in the wrong place and the Laboratory which analyses the blood test results is going to be closed for an extended period of time. The vet at the lab, has suggested that we mated Tilly on the bank holiday Tuesday and then have another blood test taken the following day , to check when ovulation has taken place.

Watch this space for the results………