The Wild Litter Diary, page 1 

November 4^th
After what we hope is a productive visit Titus takes a flight home to Southern, CA – we are hoping for Dec 27^th puppies.

November 11^th
Promise picks up her 2^nd CD leg, laps of concentration on Sunday cost us our 3^rd leg! So her last leg for her CD will happen in January if no puppies are coming? Or March if we have babies on the way! At least if we have puppies coming, just think, these puppies have already been in the obedience ring!

November 17^th
Ultra sound confirms it! Promise and Titus have puppies on the way! Adjusted due date is now Dec 28^th.  We also had the opportunity to learn something about when Promise ovulates – and chances are this explains why our chilled semen breeding didn’t work last spring, and opens up the idea again about perhaps one more try on a future frozen semen breeding.

November 22^nd  
Promise was FAR too distracted by FOOD, hard for her to think things through at obedience class, so training for Novice and Open will now be put off until her pups are weaned.

November 25^th
Promise came along when Banner and I went tracking, before her “walk” Promise got to work Banner and Star’s tracks and enjoyed herself! So the puppies have now been in an obedience trial and been tracking!

November 30^th
Promise is almost completely switched over to Precise Plus Puppy food, from Canidea that she had been eating. My vet Dr Lopate wanted her on a food the last 1/2 of her pregnancy that was dense in calories and had a 1 to 1, to 1.2-1 Ca:P ratio. Promise's due date is 4 weeks from today!

December 3^rd
Promise proud of the Sire of her Wild pups, Titus for his Best of Breed win at the AKC invitational at Long Beach!

December 19^th

Promise relaxing, I tried to see if I could feel any puppies moving today, but Promise just wanted a tummy rub and wiggled a lot! who can blame her!

December 20^th
It only took 12 hours! But this morning Promise was relaxed and there it was! the wonderful feeling of puppies pushing and moving! I just love this last week before puppies come!

December 22^nd
Puppies continue to move, and are active, Promise is doing well.
I elected to have a pregnancy xray taken today. I didn't used to do xrays to what I thought was "just counting" puppies, but my views have changed some on taking an xray the last few days before puppies are due. Why? Because of something I saw last year. Last year I saw an xray of large breed dog who was BIG and pregnant looking, due to have puppies but one she just had 4 puppies, 3 normal sized puppies and one GIANT puppy. The giant puppy was 32oz, it was abnormal, it was too large to be whelped, it was also didn't survive, and put the remaining puppies along with the mother at serious risk. I suppose I'm getting more cautious, I have pretty much had excellent luck whelping litters but any natural whelping is not with out risk to mother and puppies. I have decided I'm just less of a risk taker! Anyway, I was able to confirm that Promise's puppies are of normal consistent size. Promise weighed 58 pounds at the vet so has gained about 9 or 10 pounds. We figure about 6 days to go! I will start taking her temp twice a day starting on Saturday, and starting on Tuesday 3 times per day. A drop in temperature below 98F can be indicative of whelping within the next 24 hours.

December 27^th
Promise's temp dropped about 10am this morning! It was really interesting the other dogs started to pay a lot of attention to Promise sniffing her. Banner wanted to snuggle next to her and kept pawing at her. On a hunch I took her temp and she was slightly lower than she had been earlier in the morning. When I took it again 3 hours later she was down to 98.6! We should have pups with in 24 hours.

December 28^th
About 2am Promise's is in pre-labor stages.... puppies should be here soon! On to page 2 of the puppy Diary!

go to Page 2 of the Wild Diary