Happy Birthday! Puppies are 1 week old.

Last Thursday, in the wee hours of the morning, Eve gave birth to six puppies - two girls and four boys. Two of these males were tan and white, while the remaining puppies were all tri-color. Eve's first delivery was not easy, as the puppies were quite large, and we were close to calling the vet about performing a c-section. However, we managed to avoid this and were excited to welcome all of the new little lives into the world. Sadly, within the first two days after birth, two of the male puppies passed away. These two puppies had the most difficult deliveries, so we speculated that the deliveries may have contributed to their deaths, but unfortunately we will never know why these puppies didn't make it.

Given our concern over the deaths of the two male puppies, we have been carefully monitoring the remaining puppies for any signs of problems. Luckily, everyone looks to be healthy and thriving. They are nice and chubby, gaining 1-2 ounces daily and everyone already weighs over a pound! So, without further ado, let me please present our beautiful new additions...

Tan & white male (2nd born)

Tri-color female (last to be born)

Tri-color female (4th born)

Tri-color male (3rd born)

X-rays tell the tale... Six puppies expected!

There's no doubt about it, Eve is expecting! If her huge belly didn't give things away, the X-ray above showing six little skeletons definitely tells us puppies are coming. We've moved Eve indoors with us so we can keep a close eye on her and we are currently busy getting everything ready for whelping. 

So when will puppies arrive? The answer is, soon! Today was Day 57 from Eve's first breeding and typical gestation period for dogs is 63 days.  We've rarely had one of our beagles make it to Day 63, but we usually like to see our moms-to-be make it to at least Day 58, as puppies are more likely to have health issues from being born premature prior to this. Since puppies could be here as early as this weekend, keep a close watch for birthing news.

The belly says it all! Puppies are on the way!

Check out that

Well, there's not a doubt in our minds that Eve is going to have puppies. Last week she began waddling and she already looks bigger now than she does in the above picture, which was taken a few days ago. Eve goes to the vet on Tuesday so we can get x-rays to determine how many puppies to expect. With the way she is showing, we are anticipating a fairly large litter of at least 6-8. This is only a guess, of course, so we'll find out how accurate this guess is once the x-rays are done. Her official due date will be August 13th, which will be Day 63 from her first breeding, but with a large litter, she is likely to go sooner than that. Stay tuned for more information in the upcoming week!

Practicing her yoga poses?

Sire is FC Shawn's Choptalk Mr. Sam

Hopeful...

AKC Westside Rogue's Let's Call it Even (Eve)

Well, we were once again disappointed this spring.  Initially, we were very excited that Rose tested positive on a pregnancy test, this being our final attempt to get puppies from her.  However, when we took Rose in for x-rays, there was no evidence of puppies. We x-rayed again one week later, but still no puppies. This means that Rose resorbed her pregnancy.  This is different from aborting.  It means that something happened to make her body absorb the fetuses she was carrying.

Since this is the second year in a row that we found out we were not having puppies, we quickly started making arrangements to breed Rose's half-sister, Eve, who was due to come into heat.  When she finally did come in, I drove over 6 hours to central Virginia to drop her off at Mike Mooney's place, where he had a field champion stud named Mr. Sam that my husband had been wanting to breed a dog to for quite some time.  All in all, it was a 13 hour round trip to and from that I made twice - once to drop Eve off and once to pick her up a week later!  Now we are cautiously holding our breath and crossing our fingers that we may finally have puppies on the way again.  We should know more within the next week, so for those who have been waiting for some kind of news from us for a while, stay posted.  I hope to announce some good news very soon!