final tally

#1 girl - 10.5 oz
#2 boy "Taxi" (born in car on way back from 1st vet visit) - 11.5 oz.
#3 boy - 9.5 oz.
#4 boy - 9 oz.
#5, 6, 7 (c-section) - girl - 9 oz., girl - 8 oz., boy (mismark) 9 oz.

There were 3 others in there that didn't make it.

All puppies are/were brindle except one black boy who couldn't be revived.

Kayla is a wonderful, attentive mother. We tube fed this morning anyway just to help. All are sleeping including my buddy Kim Kiefer who I couldn't have done without. I don't think I could do this without any of you. Thanks to everyone for the emails and being available for phone calls to get reassurance about the right thing to do next. Thank you, thank you.

first pushin!!!!

every 5 minutes or less

puppy alert

Kayla's temp dropped to nearly 98º. She hasn't eaten hardly anything all day, not even ice cream...

All because Kim Kiefer packed her car today.

and just in the nick of time

ok so it still needs pigrails...



Kayla checking it out...


"Are you sure about this?"



Thank you to Thomas for helping me get this done. It's designed to break down when not in use and is light enough to be carried by 2 people when assembled but sturdy enough for the whole brood to knock about a bit.

I welcome any questions, suggestions, criticisms of our whelping box prototype.

99º!

:-)

tiny bubbles

Kayla soaking up the extra belly rubs. There are puppers wrigglin' in there. I thinks she's gonna 'slode!

beast eyes and belly of the beast

Thanks to Chloe for these photos.

Let's go CERF'ing now....

Drove the 3 girls down to a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel club event for what was supposed to be super cheap CERF's. Oh well. At least it wasn't too expensive.

All 3 got "Normal" on their paperwork. Yay!! "Best eyes I've seen all day." Well, considering the only other breed there...

Poor Kayla. She's huge-normous. With 2 weeks to go give or take... I'll take pics and post later. She stands at the bottom of the stairs and looks at me as if to say: "I don't think I can do this much longer."

Kayla loves her Dr. Rick

After the seminar I wrote about and learning about pyrometra I wanted to be sure there wasn't something I was unawares about. We love our vet, Dr. Rick of Orchards Veterinary. He is so-o-o nice and talks to me like I have a brain in my head. Love that.

He confirmed she is preggers and healthy. NO pyrometra. Yay!!!

35 lbs. so far.

Little doubt...

Yep, Kayla. You'll be just like that. For weeks... Thanks in advance.

measuring hope

On Monday, April 26th Kayla's waistline was 18 1/2 inches.
Today it is 19 inches.
Nipples more pronounced.
And she is telling everyone she is happy and loves them. Definitely more affectionate.


Fingers crossed.
Stay tuned.

another hurdle

Kayla's DM clear. And just heard Huxley is too. Woohoo!!!

So far the mantra belly rubbing is working *fine*!!!

"Healthy puppies, free whelp...

X-Puppies

Well, Penni asked about any planned theme. Funny I had just the other day thought of one I've never heard anyone use but I suppose it's still possible they have.

I was thinking X-Men.

I've put the call name first and thoughts and ideas for registered names in ( ).

Girls: Storm ("real" name Ororo Munroe - sounds like a dog is saying it), Rogue (Raven's Child - or better yet Destiny's Child - so now we know your name*), Phoenix (I know there's another one out there), Sage, Sway (also a cool song), Karma,...

Boys: Have to have a Logan (Wolverine - loved the character before Hugh Jackman and now, well enough said), Charles or more likely Charlie (Professor X), Remy (Gambit), Warren (Archangel), Khan, Azazel, Magnus, Ruckus (kind of obscure but a cute name for a puppy),....

ok, I'm up way past my bedtime...

More names and bios here.


* The R&B and pop girl group Destiny's Child had a song called "Say My Name." A comedian remarked once that "We can't say your name. We don't know your name... We only know your mother's name."

sigh. I guess you had to be there... good night.

Adventures of dog dating

The long awaited breeding of Kayla and Huxley is upon us.
On March 19 I emailed Carolyn to say finally the bitch is bleeding. Kayla's body decided to wait a bit longer than the past 2 cycles for whatever reason(s) past understanding. We were sure Kayla would do this while Carolyn was on vacation. So I drove 5 hours down to pick him up and then the next day drove 5 hours to come home. (And managed a speeding ticket. sigh. I deserved it but yes, sigh! and ouch.) Carolyn went on south and back but no sign of estrus from Kayla. Took Huxley home, thankfully Carolyn met me halfway and I was a better driver.

Four days later Kayla went into heat...
So we thought perhaps the timing might be perfect for the Albany show. A hotel room was already available.
When the first encounter happened, Kayla was only on day 9. They both wagged their tails, Huxley sniffed, Kayla sniffed and they both laid down to take a nap. I brought my AI stuff and my bestest buddy and master AI-er, Kim Kiefer. Then the same on Saturday. Huxley, BTW, thinks Kim is quite the comely lass, especially when carrying latex.

That evening I went to the repro seminar. hmmmm. Possibly too soon? Kayla's not standing yet... Ovulation is pretty tough to tell from behavior alone, which is influenced by many other factors:
-When stressed, say from a strange environment, a bitch can voluntarily stop her cycle creating what is termed a split heat. Kayla is not a big fan of dog shows, or hotel rooms.
-A dog's semen can last as long as 6 days but perhaps as few as 2. We don't know how long Huxley's stays viable.
-A bitch's egg is not mature when she ovulates. It's takes a couple of days to "ripen." The seminar speaker, Dr. Kutzler, said best breeding takes place 4 days after ovulation.
-To more accurately pinpoint ovulation one can smear vaginal cells on a slide and view under a microscope or even better a progesterone test. Neither of these tools was available.
-All of these numbers are averages. Could we be dealing with an odd dog or bitch who breaks the rules?

So on Sunday we had little time to wait and see if she would accept him so we just went with an AI. I was worried with all this information this was all for naught. So we agreed that Carolyn take Kayla home with her (I had no room in the car we had to bring Huxley home) to give us some insurance.
Last I heard the lovebirds are playing around and I imagine there will be an au naturelle soon if not already.

Fingers crossed and that all goes well. If so puppies, fluff-free, both parents with awesome hips, will be expected around June 1.

Thanks to Kim and to Carolyn for the opportunity to learn the elementals of this thing called breeding...

Correction made 4/2/09: Dog semen, fresh, can last up to 12 days inside the bitch according to mentor Kim Shira. It's the chilled stuff that has a much shorter "shelf life." So we're pretty confident that fertilization took place. Fingers crossed, spilled salt tossed over the shoulder and all that superstitious stuff. Let the chanting over the belly commence. Sing it with me: "Healthy whelping, healthy puppies..." Huxley has the "no fluffs" covered. Thank you, Sir Hux.

hard recall

When my dogs call do I come? That's not a grammatical error.

Getting a dog to come when it's called is so important to its safety.
I have been wanting to do it since forever but unsure of myself and not wanting to do more damage than good I blamed my lack of time, lack of energy, the weather.
But enough is enough.
I recently got some advice (thank you Mark Thorson!) on exactly how to teach this vital training. I purchased a long length of rope. Ok so 100 feet of it may have been a bit excessive but I wanted to have it long enough so they'd forget it was there. A snap clip was attached to one end. That, a greyhound collar and some cheese and I was ready.
I started with Kayla. I have to admit I thought it was going to be days and days of working on this. I say this because I trained her to gait by jogging with her and making her stay at a trot. Keeping her from galloping was almost more than she could stand. Took a full mile before she could calm down and just gait properly.
This, however, piece of cake. I let her run and told her "Go!" She took off. About 25-30 feet away and I said, "Come!" She ignored me but I yanked on the rope, not too gently. I wanted to send a clear message that I was serious. I was advised that in this particular situation to drag her if necessary. Fortunately, going that far wasn't necesssary. I kept saying "Come" all the while pulling on her lead. When she got close enough I gave her a piece of cheese and lots of lovin.'
Then all over again with "Go!" and off she went. Over and over and within 5 or 6 times she understood what was expected.
That was yesterday.
Today. She needed a reminder the first time. This time we weren't in the pasture but on the driveway and when the dogs have gotten out they run off up our driveway and down the private road. The full 1/2 mile!! She thought, I'm sure it was time for one of these adventures. "Come!" No? Yank. Oh I see. You mean it here too. After that she came every time.
It's best to work with only one dog at a time and then when they have it solid move on to the thrill of having a cohort. So in the future I will try to share how training two or three at once works out.
1/2 dozen times with her. Started Celie on this training then too. And after Pan (aka Panda) and I worked on show handling. Put everything away and looked at the clock. 1/2 an hour. Um my excuse of not having enough time just bit the dust.




My dogs teach me that obstacles disappear when I stay focused on what really matters.

CH Kayla!!!

Wow! What a season. As I've said I have learned a lot from my Kayla. The last three shows finished her and then some.

Kayla's win photo

Damn!! She does look good if I do say so myself!