Treasure Pregnancy: Day 60

Friday Night, Day 60:
Treasure is doing very well tonight. There are just a few, new subtle observances from today to add to her behavior of this past week, her 8th week.  Most noticeable is her little waddle.  Boy they talk about pregnant women walking like penguins - it's nothing compared to Treasure!  Her temperature is remaining consistent with the exception of the rise/fall/rise of yesterday.  It's funny that when  I let her out of the house now, she'll walk down the steps then stop and look back to see if I'm going to follow her.  When she realizes I'm not then Treasure will turn around and come back in.  She continues to be very restless. When outdoors I can count on her heading out towards the side of the garage and nosing around in the brush there.  I'm a little embarrassed to say that our Christmas tree is still up against the side of the porch but nevertheless, that's another of her favorite spots to check out.  She also loves to roll on her back a lot, wiggling and squirming as if she is getting some relief doing so. Getting up on all fours though after doing this is a bit difficult for her in her rotund condition. Her puppies continue to grow stronger and are not only easily felt but it is easy to detect where they are as their movements are clearly noticed. Treasure does not have an ounce of fat on her, what you see when you look at her in regards to the weight she has put on is all puppy.  To think I considered her to be wide as early as 4 weeks along.

When she's resting now I can often hear her deep sighs and moans. She will stretch her body and roll or lift her head to look around as if to check out where she is, then lay back down again.  Sometimes there are several successive and spontaneous kicks with her back legs.  Each time we spend more time in the puppy room and it seems she is becoming much more settled while there, even if the other dogs are running outside.  I like that because I know at first all Treasure wanted to do was join them.  I decided to use those opportunities to teach her to offer an alternate behavior to me instead of barking at the door to go join them.  As a result, with very little coaxing, she will come over to where I am sitting and lay on the floor in front of me.  This happened as a result of just a little bit of clicker training to reinforce her "down" command, something she learned at a very young age. (She's the consistent on in this - I'm not so much!) This way Treasure is more focused upon the reward for laying down (or sitting) than the dogs running around outside. And my motivation for this is to help alleviate and diffuse the stress which rises during those runs.

The cot is fixed up comfortably for me in the puppy room with pillows, an afghan and a comforter. Tonight Treasure spent most of her time  there tucked in underneath the cot. That is where she tried to have her puppies in January 2011.  Her whelping box is fixed up comfortably for her plus there is an empty crate with a pad, the large wicker basket, an upholstered chair, and the cot itself. There are several corners she can tuck in behind and enough room to pace back and forth, roll, scratch dig or whatever. I have the newspaper ends (unprinted) on the bottom of her box along with the spread.  She's not yet actually shred any papers but that'll be coming eventually.

The other two times that Treasure had puppies (with Gibson) I believe they arrived on Day 62/Day 63 from the earliest tie. The journal is out in the puppy room and I'm too tired right now to look it up for certain but I'm pretty sure about this. I am of course hoping that will be the case now with the pups she has with Bullet. So for now, we continue with the hurry up and wait phase of the arrival of a beautiful new litter of Brittany puppies.  And I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!  John and I both are looking forward to that phone call to Julie when we share the good news that Bullet is a father for the first time. I hope he is ready to pass out the cigars!

Thanks for following along... you know we appreciate your interest.  Take care and God bless you and  yours always - John, Ann and ATB