ATB: Piper At 7 Weeks

A very special happy 3rd birthday greeting to the family of

Jack and Molly born on January 26, 2010!! 

Becca, Jersey, Chase, Red, Remi, Max, Tenzing, and Annie!!

 

 

PIPER: 2 Weeks to go and Counting

Here she is, looking as pretty as ever and realizing that slowing down, even just for a few minutes does have it's benefits!  Piper is spending a lot more time just hanging out and relaxing. She's always on the go and can make an adventure out of the most mundane activity so it is just a little bit of a challenge to persuade her that at this stage of pregnancy, she really ought to begin to take things a wee bit easier. Besides, I am really in need of an excuse myself to just take things a wee bit easier too.

 

Things are coming together nicely in the whelping area.  Next on the particular agenda of setting everything up is my need to take care of my tack (grooming bags and show totes). I shall confess it's all been sitting on the grooming table since returning home from a dog show several weeks ago.  But to put them all away I needed to find some empty totes to store them in. Never mind that last summer we bought some pretty turquoise totes just for my show/grooming stuff which ended up being used to stash excess files which needed purging. So-o-o-o most every day I have spent a little time going through my gazillion files, sorting through, purging, and re-organizing just so that I could empty those totes and use them for their original purpose. The other part of this project also included putting the last of the Christmas decorations totally away until next Christmas. There was a method to my madness, with the ultimate goal being of course to land myself with all the time in the world necessary to devote to being with Piper.  Alas! This morning the remaining Christmas decorations which John thought had found a permanent home on the dining room table were carefully packed away. They were put into the totes which actually were purchased for the purpose of,  you guessed it, storing Christmas decorations! And so on and so forth. There is still a lot I want to do in the ATB office. I have asked John if he would help me rearrange the wall photos, make room to put up new ones. I volunteered the hammer and the assortment of picture hanging thingies to assist but alas - that part of the project shall be continued. So enough about that already. 

 

I am anxious and wanting to get the whelping area completely set up. John has done already and is actually spending quite a lot of time there with Piper which is really very nice.  He's just as attentive as I am when it comes to All Things Brittany. We joke about which dogs are his, and which dogs are mine. In reality "we" belong to the dogs or so it seems most of the time! But there are those certain ones which are more attached to one of us than to the other. And that's okay.  Sometimes John steals my dogs, and sometimes I steal his.  Like True. He totally took True right out from under me and turned him into one of his top bird dogs!  He was my True puppy.  But Scooby? Scooby is MY boy... he'll go with John hunting and is obedient to a fault with a nice strong retrieve to hand. But put me out in the field with Scooby and John, my Scoob comes to me every time. What I'm getting at is that Miss Piper has always been John's girl. And I'm seeing the bond between them really develop as her pregnancy progresses. John is giving her plenty of belly rubs, having her with him whatever he's doing indoor or outdoors, and then spending hours sitting with her while she gets use to resting in the actual whelping box itself.

 

In just a few more days we will begin to monitor Piper's temperature. We have a chart for this purpose and record her temperature daily at first. This way we know what is normal for her. The average canine temperature is 101.3.  Hers may fluctuate for a few days before actual labor begins. We are committed to watching her temperature closely because what we want to know is when it drops below 100 and remains there. This is the first sure sign that whelping is about to begin.  It will then drop even lower in most instances.  At this stage we will not leave her unattended for any reason whatsoever.  We will expect to see pups at least 12 - 48 hours after that temp drop, if not sooner. 

 

Our vets will be on call, and as soon as the pups are born we call them and make an appointment for dam and puppies to be seen. We do not do our own tails and dewclaws although we know how. We do assist our vet however. In our opinion it is best to have their exam and procedures done the earlier the better. Piper will be seen and we'll come away assured there is no retained placenta or other issues.

 

We have a chart for each puppy. It will have the date and time they were born, how much they weigh, their markings, and other notations. We weigh our puppies every 12 hours for the first 3 days. We want to be sure they are gaining weight. The first 72 hours are the most critical hours for a neo natal pup, as well as for a first time mother dog. We do not leave them alone. John and I will provide for Piper to do everything herself but we are at the ready, standing nearby to assist if and when needed.  We identify our puppies at birth by taking digital photos with time stamps and keeping each picture with the pup's individual chart.  The information we record on the chart helps us monitor the well being and development of each pup right up until the time they go home!

 

So all of these things are fast approaching. Two weeks and counting. It's not much longer but it sure seems like an eternity doesn't it!! The rest of the crew here always know and understand when new lives are about to come into the world. There is an unspoken communication among them which I can only say you have to experience it to understand it. They. Know. And time does stand still here during that period when the pups are on the way. Our life absolutely must go on hold.  Our family and friends understand this although the timing of pups arrival does not always compliment our own schedule. Just ask our kids about family holidays and events when mom and dad have been whelping a litter of pups!

 

As you think of us, we especially appreciate your prayers for Piper and for her puppies. We anticipate a healthy litter of beautiful Brittany puppies at the appointed time.  And we cannot wait to share the news when the day at last is here!  Thanks for your interest as always - take care and God bless!!!

John, Ann, & All Things Brittany