First Pics of Puppies!

Hi Everyone,

So Summer delivered seven puppies overnight Wednesday into Thursday!  Everyone is doing well and at final count we have 4 girls and 3 boys.  The puppies' birth weights ranged from 6 oz to 7¼ oz, with the first puppy, the blue collar boy (front and center above) being the both the firstborn and the biggest of all the puppies. 

Summer and the puppies seem to have recovered quickly from their birth, but I'm finding I'm not recovering quite so quickly!  (Hence the reason I am just now posting the good news and pictures for all of you.)  While this is Summer's first litter, she is proving to be the best mother we've had to-date.  She keeps the puppies and her nest meticulously clean, is gentle & patient with the puppies, and while she does worry over them, she lets me handle the puppies to examine them and take their weights.

All of the puppies seem to be healthy, vigorous, and evenly matched when it comes to vying for a feeding slot with mom.  Appearance-wise, the puppies are all tri-color with markings that promise to be gorgeous.  Most of the puppies have white blazing evenly in a stripe from their nose to their forehead, with the exception of one little male who is largely black and tan all over (though he has a white tail tip and paws).  It will be interesting to see how personalities develop, because even with the puppies only being a few days old, personalities have begun emerging.  The little pink collar girl is already a diva who is the biggest cry-baby when she doesn't get her way and the black and tan male is a wanderer and an escape artist.  (Perhaps coming from his father's line, Valerie?)  As everyone grows and changes, I will try to share updates and more individualized pictures.

For those of you who are getting puppies from me, I will be asking you to make deposits on puppies within a week to confirm your position on our waiting list.  If I haven't spoken with you directly yet to make arrangements for payment, I will do so within the next few days if I don't hear from you first.  Additionally, if you have questions, concerns, or just want to hear more about the puppies from me directly, feel free to give me a call.  I enjoy having the opportunity to get to know better the families who will be providing homes form my puppies, as it helps me match the right puppies to the right families and also makes it easier for me to ultimately let the puppies go to their new homes!

The Post I Never Posted: Expecting the first puppy within 24 hours!

Hi Everyone,

I had thought I posted this on Tuesday night, but discovered later that I never hit the post button...  At this point, I guess I'll still post this as a recap of what lead up to the birth of our newest litter of puppies!

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Holy cow, it looks like Summer is going to go a few days early!  Taking a dog's temperature is a very good way to tell when an expectant female will be starting labor.  Typically, when a mother-to-be is getting ready to deliver her first pup within 8 to 24 hours, her temperature will drop by a degree or more.  Last night [Monday] and this morning [Tues], Summer's temp was 100 degrees F, but this evening [Tues] around 9:30pm her temperature dropped to 98.3 degrees.  While we were expecting Summer to deliver puppies Friday or Saturday night, she is certainly far enough along that the puppies should be fine.  Actually, the fact that Summer is ready to deliver already supports our guess that this will be a big litter - we are guessing 6-8.  (It is not unusual for large litters to be delivered in advance of 63 days.)  I had every intention of posting pictures of Summer's belly to share with all of you, but instead I'm trying to make sure I have everything ready to go for puppies to come into this world.  I'll post those pictures as soon as I can, but it may be awhile before I make another post, since I expect to be tied up with newborn puppies very shortly!  Wish us luck! 

Expecting Again!

Fan Woods The Boss "Bruce" (Photo courtesy of Fan Woods Beagles)

Westside Summer Squall

Hi Everyone,

I'm sorry it has been awhile since I have been in touch.  I last communicated with most of you via email to share the disappointing news that Rogue had lost her litter.  We have been making plans and putting them into action for another attempt at a litter, but wanted to be sure we had good news to share before we made any announcements.

We were lucky enough to obtain a wonderful, handsome, spunky little male from champion show lines, named Bruce, from Valerie at Fan Woods Beagles.  We bred him to our best little rabbit dog, Summer, about a month ago and have been eagerly, but cautiously hoping luck would be on our side this time around.  While we have not confirmed things with the vet, it is very clear at this point that Summer is expecting and we suspect she is going to have a large litter given the current size of her belly!

I understand some of you were still going to keep your options open in your search for adding a beagle puppy to your family while others were set on getting a puppy from us.  If I don't hear from you first, I will be in touch over the following days to find out if you are still interested in getting a puppy from us.  In the meantime, I made sure to take some pictures over the weekend so I could let you see what Bruce and Summer look like.  I have uploaded their pictures to Picassa for your viewing enjoyment in addition to posting pictures of them with this blog.  Dave and I are getting very excited about this litter, which will be the first for both Bruce and Summer.  We are hoping this match-up will give us puppies with great looks and strong noses - plus, with Summer's sweet, affectionate personality and Bruce's bouncy good nature, these pups should make wonderful pets as well.

Nothing Like Having to Wait a Little Longer!

On the way to the vet!

Hi Everyone,

Work was a little slow yesterday and so I ended up bringing Rogue in for her x-rays a day earlier than planned.  With Rogue being 53 days out from breeding, little puppy skeletons should have definitely begun to show and a day should not have made much difference.  However, we were extremely disappointed when we looked at the x-rays and discovered we could not see any little puppies showing up.  The vet and I began discussing the possibility that Rogue was having a false pregnancy.  Just to be 100% certain, we did a pregnancy test, fully expecting it to come back negative.  When I arrived into work today, I got the surprising results back - Rogue's relaxin pregnancy test was positive!

So what does this mean, since the relaxin test was positive, but no puppies are showing?  The vet informed me that she has never seen a false positive test, though she has seen false negatives when a bitch was only carrying 1 puppy.  Therefore, she has no doubt that Rogue IS pregnant.  Rogue most likely had not ovulated yet at the time she was bred, and so fertilization took place later.  Based on the negative x-rays, Rogue is probably about 10 days or so behind schedule, so we will have to take x-rays again next week to find out how many she is expecting.

What a rollercoaster!  I was dreading having to write all of you and let you know the disappointing news that Rogue was not expecting!  While it is still disappointing not to know how many puppies she has, at least we know that she has at least SOME buns in the oven!  Keep hanging in there for another week and I will post when I finally have an estimate of how many puppies we're expecting.

Isn't this exciting?

Hmm...  Am I or aren't I?  This is confusing!

Rogue is Getting Closer!

So the wait should soon be over!  Rogue is due on June 11th (Day 63) and she is definitely looking pregnant, although she is not as large as she was with her last pregnancy in which she whelped 6 puppies.  We will be taking her for x-rays this week to see if we can come up with an estimate of the number of puppies she is expecting.  The following information is a re-post from a previous blog entry, but should provide you with some useful information.  Once we have updates, I'll share them with all of you here on this blog.

Information updated on 6/2/11.

The options for determining pregnancy in dogs are as follows:

1. Wait for all of the obvious signs, such as weight gain & lactation. However, some dogs may go through false pregnancies where they show abdominal distension and even produce milk! This is definitely not the most reliable way to tell!
2. At ~22 days post-breeding, ultrasound can be used to detect fetal heartbeats. It may be difficult to tell exactly how many hearts are beating, but this method can still be used to help estimate litter size.
3. At ~21 to 31 days post-breeding, abdominal palpation may be used to try to feel the walnut-sized fetuses. Ideal timing is to palpate at approximately 28-30 days. This requires skill and experience and is not the best way to estimate the number of puppies present.
4. After ~21-30 days post-breeding, blood may be drawn to run an early pregnancy test for the hormone relaxin. Ideal timing to test is 28 days post-breeding.  This is a negative or positive test, and does not give us any additional information about the puppies.
5. At ~45-48 days post-breeding, puppy skeletons have begun to calcify and can begin to be picked up on x-ray.  Ideal timing is closer to 50 days.  This can be used to help estimate the number and size of puppies. As for any safety concerns, x-rays are commonly done in this later stage of pregnancy and are considered to be relatively safe. Early pregnancy is when x-rays pose the most significant risk to unborn puppies.

We typically wait to do x-rays to confirm pregnancy because this allows us to estimate the number and size of the puppies. This information helps us to make critical decisions during the labor.

Stud Male is FC Five Star Smokey out of Rapid Run Kennels in Kentucky: