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HOW TO HAVE A PUPPY LITTER PICTURES- coming soon
Animal Kingdom Kennel
301-582-3353
www.akkennel.com
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In this How To segment brought to you by the Animal Kingdom Kennel, I will discuss several areas of having a puppy litter. The discussion will cover heat cycles, breeding, preparation and birthing. What I include here is taken from my own experience breeding two Labrador Retrievers this year (2006) Where should I begin???? I guess I will start with my two dogs. The dam is named Leal (Spanish for ‘Loyal’) and the sire named Waylan. We intended to have a litter when we bought Waylan. Leal was 3 years old and Waylan 1 ½ years old at the time of breeding. Heat Cycle Let’s begin with the heat cycle. The female will go into heat about every 6 months. Some dogs are very regular and some are less. Leal, our Lab, would range from 6-10 months in between heat cycles. The cycle lasts about 3 weeks. It is customary to wait until the female is at least 2 years old before breeding. She will have her first heat around 1 year of age. During the first year, her teets will grow. This is normal. After the first heat, the teets will remain large and prominent. A neutered female will look different in this aspect. Her teets will stay small, like a males. During a heat cycle, you will also notice an enlarged reproductive area and some level of bleeding. Again this will run for about 3 weeks. If you have a breeding facility where the dog stays, there is not much to worry about in terms of cleaning. Make sure she does not run off during this time. Her instincts will push her to explore. You should also be careful of roaming male dogs. It was not uncommon to find a neighbor’s dog at our gate during a heat cycle. If the female stays with you inside the house, you will need to do something about the bleeding. We found doggie diapers to work well. You can buy them at any pet retail store. They are simple to use with velcro straps and a hole for her tail! It takes a little getting use to for your girl. I find having 3 of them on hand is best. That way you can wash a couple while using another. If you have a male dog on the premises there are a couple things to consider. He is prepared to breed at the 1 year mark. He will show great interest in the female during heat. In fact the male will do everything possible to reach his mate. That means destroying any barrier between them. Unfortunately in my case that resulted in a broken screen door and a scratched up laundry door. If you need to give her some space, the best way is to lock the male up in a secure kennel… You may need some earplugs too. |
BreedingIn our case, I had both a female and a male dog to breed. You may only have a female. In this case a breeder can be used for studding. Stud fees range from the price of your first puppy to many thousands of dollars. An easy way to find a stud is to check the Sunday newspaper classifieds or to search online at Google or Yahoo. There will be a specific window of time for breeding to occur. It lasts about 3 days. The time begins right after the female stops bleeding. Her reproductive area will remain swollen during this time. An indication she is prepare to breed is her tail position. When the male approaches, her tail should move off to the side creating exposure. If the female does not exhibit this behavior, the window of opportunity has been missed. You will need to wait until the next heat cycle. The dam will not accept the male before or after this time. She will fight pretty viciously if mounted. Our first attempt to breed Leal was with another stud. As it turned out we missed the window. She defended herself fiercely. Obviously, we got nowhere. Leal came home upset with us. She had this look on her face that said- “what did you stick me in that yard for???” The second time attempt was a success. But not without struggle. My wife and I would watch from the window as Waylan pranced after Leal. He reminded me of the cartoon PePe Le Piu. It was amusing. She would run off and plant her butt on the ground against a wall. But Waylan would bite at her and chase her from the wall. Now Leal was no push over, she was the alpha in this relationship. We had our doubts Waylan could succeed. She would frequently bite and send him crying. But nature has a way. He persisted through bites, scratches and snarls. Then finally on the third day he completed his task. During breeding, the male will commonly get stuck to the female. They can even get stuck in a back to back position. This is nothing to worry about. Once he calms down, they will be freed. It may take 10-15 minutes. During the heat cycle it is common for dogs to mate several times. This will increase the litter number. Preparing for the New PuppiesThe gestation period will last for different times depending on the dog. Gestation lasts for 58 to 68 days. During the first 5 weeks there will not be much change to the mother. In the last 3-4 weeks she will gain weight and her teets will enlarge with milk. In the final week she will exhibit nesting behaviors. She will seek seclusion, dig dens under structures, may soil in the house and will shred up papers or blankets. Birthing the pupsWe put Leal in the extra bedroom. We newspapered the area and bought a plastic kiddy pool. The pool was from Toys R Us for $10.00. It worked great. The night before she had pups, Leal was restless. She wined, pawed at us and paced the house. We knew we were close. The next morning at 10:30am she began to birth her puppies. Her first one was in the pool. But then she wanted to get away from the pup. She left the pool to sit by Jamie. She was confused by the situation. This is normal with a first litter. The second pup was birthed outside of the pool. We moved Leal back in the pool and put the puppy with her. She cleaned them off by licking them. She will also bite off the umbilical cord and consumed it. The puppies will begin crying immediately. Leal had 10 puppies. The delivery lasted about 5 hour to 6 hours. All of the puppies were healthy. It is important to know, she did not let them nurse until she was done delivering all of the puppies. Some people like to take the dog into the vet to have an xray done before birthing. That way they know how many puppies are coming. We decided not to. That is all for now- Be sure to check back soon. I will be updating this page with photos and more details in the upcoming weeks. Thanks. Sunny 8/12/06
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