Tired all around

There is a lot of sleeping going on.

Miss Pink took her afternoon siesta to a whole new level.

And Miss Yellow thought it best to go off and sleep on her own.

On the other hand, Red is a serial spooner and always needs someone to cuddle up to.

Big foot and little feet.

I think it is safe to presume that Darbi is the most tired of all.

But the creepy chicken is always awake.  Always watching.

Wee Babies

The babies are doing wonderful.

They are gaining 1-3 oz a day and are very content.

Darbi, as always, is a great mom and I don't have much to do at this stage except make sure Darbi is looked after and happy.

I will start the Early Neurological Stimulation on the pups this evening, to go along with their nightly weighing.  I've already cut the little gaffers' nails once as well to keep them from poking mom too much when they nurse.

Little Red decided that spooning was the way to go.

Got milk?

It was a busy night at the buffet tonight.

Pups will get their dew claws removed tomorrow.

Here we go again

For anyone who has been following this blog for a long time, you may remember Darbi's obsession with a stuffed toy when she had her last litter.

It seems she has a new obsession.  The chicken from Miikka's "intelligence building" toy.

I can't take it out of the whelping box.  Hopefully it will make smart puppies.

Miss Pink enjoyed a nap on Momma D's tail.

Cute faces.

The pups had a great day today.  I'm going to weigh them shortly to be sure they've all put on weight in the first 24 hours, but they look fantastic.

First video

I feel like I've been hit by a truck.

I shouldn't complain in front of Darbi.

I hope this little iPhone video shows up okay.

Puppies are here!!

It's been awhile since I worked a night shift.  I had forgotten two things.  1) How exhausting it is and 2) There's nothing on TV other than infomercials in the wee hours.

As predicted earlier today, Darbi had her babies tonight.  There were moments of doubt early this evening though, as her and I had a staring contest that lasted an eternity.  

She did not have the 6-8 I was hoping for and there will be a couple of disappointed people on the waiting list I'm sure.

The delivery went smoothly, although there was a tense moment to start.  Darbi had been in hard labor for almost an hour and I was starting to get worried.  I was minutes away from calling a vet and possibly taking her in for a c-section.  She had been pushing and pushing with no results and we weren't getting anywhere.

Well, out came a little sac.  Then it disappeared and reappeared a few times.  Darbi worked hard for a few minutes, but we weren't making any progress.  So, I just reached in a couple fingers and grabbed some puppy and started to help Darbi out.  I was careful not to pull too hard, but I needed to get that little guy moving.  He came out healthy and strong, and the rest of the pups delivered easily.

So, introducing.

ORANGE: male/born at 10: 24 pm/1 pound

PINK: female/10:42/15 oz.

BLUE: male/11:40/1 pound

YELLOW: female/1:11 am/15 oz.

RED: male/2:41/13 oz.

A nice uniform litter.  Mom and babes are resting comfortably and I'm going to stay up with them the rest of the night.

They are a healthy looking little bunch. 

Darbi is a tired momma.  6 hours from onset of labor until we were done.  She sure worked hard to get the first guy out.

Maybe tonight?

Tonight may be the night.

Darbi didn't want to eat her breakfast this morning, but instead wanted to bury it.  She eventually ate it though.

She then nested a little bit for the first time...a little digging around in her pillows in the whelping box.

Now she is laying in her box panting a bit.  Not much panting, just a little.

She does look like her patience is wearing thin.

All quiet

All quiet on the home front.

Darbi is doing great and showing no signs of any impending delivery as of this morning.

Of course, when the big event starts to happen I'll update here.

I'm looking forward to a beautiful week ahead weather-wise and of course...puppies!

You be the judge

I dug this picture out of my photo archives.  This is Darbi when she was 3 years old...and had significantly less grey.  In this picture she was 6 days away from whelping 8 puppies by "Tiger" (Esprit's Out Of The Woods).

And this is Darbi just this morning in the Texas sunrise.  I imagine she is also about 6 days out from whelping today.  Even though the ultrasound said "5-6 pups"...I'm beginning to wonder if it's going to be 6-8.

She's as big as a house.

And yes Peanut, I see you.

Smarty Pants

While shopping for puppy toys the other day I found this Martha Stewart "chicken coop".  As noted it is an intelligence building toy.  Although I found it laughable (as my dogs are already the smartest dogs in the world), I had to buy it.

There are 3 squeaky chickens inside the chicken coop and Miikka had to go find them.

"I don't get it" was the first response to my ridiculous "find the chicken" question.

Eating the chicken coop was the first action.  Not a good choice.

Oh, there's a little hole in the side?  Perfect.  I'll go digging.

The birth of a chicken.  Way to go Peanut.  Your are officially smarter than you were 5 minutes ago according to the claims on the box.

Darbi vs. the Chicken Coop.

"This is stupid and beneath me.  I refuse".

I'm already stockpiling toys for the upcoming litter.  Miikka is the official product tester in this house.

Fun in the sun

Pretty nice weather this week in Texas.  It needs to rain some more to fill the ponds up fully, but apparently we have a few days coming up where that need will probably be satiated.  Yuck.

This is one of the properties we train on.  It's pretty nice that we have quite a variety of places to train.  There is about 4 pieces of water like this on this property.  It is owned by Bill Schrader of Two Step Kennels.

Manu (the GREAT FC AFC Tangata Manu) comes out of retirement every so often to make a retrieve.  I sure wish I could have seen him in his prime.

He is 12 years old and his joints creak a little.  The good dogs like him are so hard on their bodies when they're young.

What a cool old dog.

I love his grey face.

Miikka is doing better these days.  The poor girl is a kennel dog again to try to get her mind on her work.  I asked Kenny the other day whether her issues last year were from chronic hearing loss (which we are convinced she has from hunting), being too spoiled or from having her litter a year ago.  He said "yes".  Okay...I get it.

And we're getting closer to Tub Tub's due date!!  Less than 2 weeks now.  Her belly is expanding more and more and I felt some subtle puppy kicks last night.  It will feel like there is a kick boxing lesson going on inside her in a week or so.

She ran one single today and that was it.  I've cut back the training to almost nil now.  She was enjoying the spectator role a little too much today.  She only broke once though.

Texas Update

Having a great time in Texas.  They are long days, but rewarding days.

Weather has been chilly down here, but much better than if I was in Canada!!

A typical Texas training scene.  Dog, horse and oil jack.

Darbi is doing wonderfully.  She is still in training, although we have slowed down on her a little bit.  She's not running two to four tests a day like the other dogs, but doing about 1/2 of what the other dogs are doing.  She is feeling fantastic and training like a star. (If you click on the above picture, you can see a close up of her surgical scar from the breeding).

But as you can see, she is developing quite a little belly.  She has also become a food monger!  She stares at me day and night hoping more food will come her way.  It is indeed strange behaviour for a dog that is not food crazy by any means.

We may be in the far south, but the toques and coats give away the weather.

There's a dog we are training by the name of Boomer.  He and I have become fast friends.  Boomer has an incredible water entry on marks or blinds and I took some pics of him today on a water double.

He has a much better swan dive than I ever did.

Only 2 1/2 to 3 weeks until I'm up to my eyeballs with puppies.  I am so excited!

Ultrasound fun!

Party at the vet clinic!!  Even Darbi looks like she's into it.

And introducing one of the little gaffers...can't wait to meet him/her!

She's pregnant!

I'm on my iPhone, so can't post pictures...but Darbi is pregnant!! The vet in Houston saw "5 or 6, and maybe more".
He did see one empty sac that was a re-absorbed puppy. He said this was perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. It could have been a defective puppy or Darbi was just trying to get the numbers down, which sounds like something she would do.

As a precaution though, he has put her on antibiotics "in case" she has a small uterine infection. We also drew blood for another progesterone test to be sure she is still at adequate levels.

He said the other pups were 2.3 centimetres, which is perfect for their age. Amazing how he can tell that.

I took a pic of poor Darbi getting her ultrasound, so I'll post that in a day or so.

Elmingo Gang

We just got to Texas a few days ago and the weather is sure lovely!!  It's supposed to get a little chilly next week and the locals say it will be "freezing", but they don't know what freezing is, trust me.

With our crew of dogs, we have SIX Elmingo dogs for this winter trip.

From Left to Right:

Elmingo's Little Man (Shaq x Miikka 2009) "Zink"

Elmingo's Flip Your Lid (Shaq x Miikka 2009) "Libby"

FTCH AFTCH Revilo's Red Hot Rumors "Miikka"

Revilo's At Full Tilt (She beats me, I swear she does) "Darbi"

Backwater's Smokin' Turq (Prime x Darbi 2008) "Turq"

Elmingo's Prime Suspect (Prime x Darbi 2008) "Meg" 

And it looks as if Meg and Turq don't quite have the "sit pretty while we throw things to bring Darbi's ears up" concept down yet.
And if you notice...it didn't bring Darbi's ears up anyways.

Meg and Turq have become the best of friends in the short time they've known one another.  So much so that we air them separately now as they spend more time playing than peeing.  I wonder if they remember?

And the view from our kennel this evening.

Amazing.

Pheasant Hunt

Had a great pheasant hunt with the "girls" today.

I love watching them work.  They are a real team.

They were sure sacked when it was over though.  I don't think I'll see them lift their heads for the rest of tonight.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with your loved ones.  And to all the emergency service workers that are on shift today...thank you.

Not only is today Christmas, but yesterday was Libby's FIRST birthday!!  She was literally born under a Christmas tree last year (before the mad rush to the whelping box for the rest of the births).

Libby thought that her take of the loot was pretty impressive.

And seeing as the weather was so beautiful, we all went for a long walk today.  Joining the "girls" is Meg, who is a daughter of Darbi (and Prime-2008), and she's in for training.

From left to right:
Darbi (I didn't get what I asked for, so therefore I pout).
Meg
Miikka
Libby

The run at the camera seemed fun.

Except for Darbi, who did a good job of holding up the rear.

But she was all smiles for me.  She is feeling great and doing amazing since her surgery.

Life is Hard

Life is SOOOO rough Libby, isn't it?

I'm having lots of fun with my new horse.  We decided to call him Zed, so he could have a somewhat Canadian connection.

Since he is an "off the track" thoroughbred, he doesn't have very good brakes or steering.  Even though he is a hunter/jumper prospect we are riding him in a western saddle right now as part of his re-training process.

He is a really, really sweet horse and wants to be a team player.

Air Time

Lili likes the water.

She is MHR Elmingo's Water Lili is and from the Shaq x Miikka litter of 2007.  She is also Libby's older full sister.  

Recovering

Darbi has slept pretty much straight through since coming home from her surgical insemination yesterday.  She seems only slightly uncomfortable and isn't fussing at all with the stitches on her belly.

She ate some breakfast this morning and is now sleeping on the couch.

The vet told me that she had "the uterus of a 3 year old dog".  I told Darbi this, but she wasn't impressed nor flattered.

Interestingly, a dog's uterus is damaged after each heat cycle, whether a dog is bred or not.  The uterus is actually MORE damaged with each cycle that she is not bred.  So, the more cycles, the more wear and tear.  Since Darbi only cycles about once a year (as opposed to twice a year in some females), her uterus looks like a dog half her age.  The vet was excited about this.  This is why we opted to do a surgical A.I. and not a transcervical (pipette through her hoo-ha).  A surgical allows the vet to physically examine the uterus and deal with any cysts he may run across.

We've done everything right.  The timing was dead on, the semen was of a very good quality and Darbi did her part by ovulating and having a very pretty uterus.

Darbi is on about a week to ten days of bed rest now, and then she can ease back into training.  It is a proven fact that bitches in good condition have an easier time whelping puppies than bitches left idle and overweight.  The puppies also do better with stimulation while in mom's womb and are more easily whelped when not overweight themselves.  So, Darbi will be trained right up to when she tells us she can't.  This is usually about 2 weeks before whelping.  Then, she will go on daily long walks for exercise until her whelping day.  I have done this with every litter and so far so good...4 litters and 4 very, very easy whelpings.  (Knock on wood of course, as anything can happen even if everything is done "right")

There is also a genetic factor that I have no control over.  Luckily, Darbi's mom and grandmom were easy whelpers, so I have the genetics on my side as well.

I'm excited.

Bred Today

I just got a call from the vet.

Darbi's surgery went very well.  The semen quality was very good and she is starting to wake up.

30 days until we ultrasound.

I'm off to go pick her up and she and I can cuddle on the couch for the rest of the day.

Ovulation

It looks like Darbi ovulated yesterday according to her progesterones.

We're taking her in for one last progesterone test today to be sure.

If she did ovulate yesterday, then she will be bred on Thursday.  It takes two days for the eggs to move down and then an additional 24 hours for them to mature after ovulation.  Since frozen semen lives only about 12 hours after implantation, it is important that we get our timing right.

I'm sure poor Darbi feels like a pin cushion right now.

She's in.

Darbi came into season today.

We start progesterone testing in just a few days as she may ovulate sooner than usual with the ovu-plant.

She will have the implant removed when she is bred via surgical A.I.  It is located in her vulva and you wouldn't even know it was there (yes, I looked).  It's the size of a microchip.

This is to be Darbi's third and last litter.  She will be spayed when the pups are weaned.

I'm already dreaming up names for the little girl I hope to keep from this litter.

Ovu-what?

So Darbi had an ovuplant inserted into her hoo-ha today.

This is a small capsule that releases a drug to make her come into season.

Both of Darbi's litters were the result of "bringing her in", but with a different drug than Ovuplant.

My repro vet here in Colorado suggested trying ovuplant as he thinks it is a better choice.

She should be in season in 3-5 days.  Here's hoping...

I've been waiting Darbi's lifetime for a daughter from her, and it's now or never.