Yes, She Is

If you've followed this blog for awhile, you know that we experienced great disappointment earlier this year when we bred Treasure only to learn that no pregnancy resulted. We began documenting her anticipated pregnancy in February with the post called Puppies Cometh.  Our journey ended with the post Reflections of An Empty Whelping Box.x.  Treasure is a little over 3 years old, and a lot of thought went into making a decision to breed her.  We were happy with our choice for the sire of her first litter but it was just not meant to be.  In June, we had our first puppies born here since September 2008.  Two amazing beautiful pups from Wish (Treasure's mother) and Gibson, Moxie and Shiloh are featured throughout our summer posts. We've also talked alot about Gibby beginning with the post Welcome Wish! and went on through the summer months including highlighting the DVD 12 Dogs of Christmas in which a young Gibson has a starring role. 

The fact of the matter is  I like this dog, and I like him a lot!  Having said this, he also has similar lines to the the male we bred Treasure to earlier this year.  Gibby hunts with style, he knows his purpose in life plus he has a personality and intelligence which just makes me laugh.  Treasure is equally stylish in her hunting, a loving personality and keep perception.  That could probably be said about a lot of Brittanys! 

In August, John and I made several trips to the home of our friends, Pam and Sam Jackson who own Gibson and another beautiful Brittany "Paris".  (Pam likes to name her dogs after stars!)  And we just happened to have Treasure with us each time, as she was in full standing heat.  Gibson and Treasure were successfully bred to each other over the course of a week.

I do believe we have a very pregnant Treasure who is 4 weeks away from having her very first litter of puppies and we could not be more excited!  She has exhibited all the early signs that I watch closely for including morning sickness (yes dogs get this), a loss of appetite, changes in personality or reaction to other dogs, changes in the color of her nipples, and most noticeable - her physical body change as seen with her ever widening rib cage and fuller abdomen.  (For about a week she had no interest in eating anything but all that has changed as she now is Miss Chow Hound!)  Her diet now has been changed to reflect these changes and her specific nutritional requirements. This includes adding  yogurt, salmon oil, liver, and Tums to her daily food (Purina Puppy Chow). 

It's going to be hard for Treasure to slow down over the next few weeks but I will see to it that she does.  Her day begins, includes, and ends with several extended periods of running laps around our house.  She flies and this is her happiness trigger!  Consequently Treasure is in outstanding physical condition for the demands that whelping a litter of pups puts on a dog.  She's not going to be happy to think I'll be exercising her on a check cord though at first.  Another change for Miss Treasure is that she's not playing/exercising  with the entire ATB crew, just one or two of them at a time.  I don't want to take any chances of her getting bumped or getting involved with roughhousing. This does mean Treasure is enjoying a lot of time by my side and vice versa. 

As busy as the summer was, I drew a line and said NO MORE for awhile.  My focus is here at home and not running to and fro every weekend.  Even this weekend, with John being so involved with the Maine Bird Dog Club Championship - I did what I could do to support the effort, but I remained home.  With the exception of a lovely birthday party for our daughter, Maryann.  And home is where I'll remain.

I'm going to remain positive and confident about the next four weeks and look forward to a visit to the vets a week before pups are due, for an x-ray to determine number of pups, size, position etc. Treasure is our very first generation of 'bred by' pups - we are Treasure's proud breeders, and this is the first time we have ever bred a girl we also whelped. And we're very pleased we were able to breed her to CH Gibson JH CGC!  (Gibby dog!)

We'll keep you updated!

God Bless you and yours from John, Ann and All Things Brittany