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 Party Girl
Posts: 12293
   
Location: Buffalo, Wyoming | I have not had an intact female dog since I was in grade school. We are due for some puppies in about 2 weeks (if my calculations are right). What are some things I should be getting ready or should be watching for? My dogs when I was younger just went to a quit place to have them and were usually fine. This dog has had some issues (not with her pregnancy) so I want to make sure everything goes smooth.
She is an outside dog and she has her own barrel with hay in it but I don't like the idea of her having them in there. Am I being to over protective? My SO thinks I am....
Edited by UTAHCANCHASER 2015-06-05 3:30 PM
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1182
Location: Do I hear Banjos? | It depends on the weather. Remember that newborn pups cannot maintain their body temperature if it gets cold. If it's going to be cold I'd bring her indoors or provide supplemental heat. |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | How big is she? She'll probably go where she's comfortable. We had a weiner dog that had 2 litters and we just made up a box on its side with blankets in the closet and she had them there.
When they are a bit bigger you can get a kiddie pool (no water of course) but then it holds them all in once place and you can put newspaper down and hose it off of need be. |
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Party Girl
Posts: 12293
Location: Buffalo, Wyoming | hammer_time - 2015-06-01 4:15 PM How big is she? She'll probably go where she's comfortable. We had a weiner dog that had 2 litters and we just made up a box on its side with blankets in the closet and she had them there.
When they are a bit bigger you can get a kiddie pool (no water of course) but then it holds them all in once place and you can put newspaper down and hose it off of need be.
She is standard Aussie size. I brought up the kiddie pool idea with the SO but he thinks I am weird and I just need to leave her alone.
This is my Spuds girl...
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1162
Location: White Mountains of AZ | I made a dog pen inside my laundry room and put down leftover tile. Disinfected that, then I cut open old feed bags ( grain and pellets ) , disinfected those, then I put blankets down. As they got older i would start to put towels in one section so they learned not to potty on the blankets, but on the feed bags. I would just make sure you clean and disinfect everything! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1162
Location: White Mountains of AZ | UTAHCANCHASER - 2015-06-01 3:20 PM
hammer_time - 2015-06-01 4:15 PM How big is she? She'll probably go where she's comfortable. We had a weiner dog that had 2 litters and we just made up a box on its side with blankets in the closet and she had them there.
When they are a bit bigger you can get a kiddie pool (no water of course) but then it holds them all in once place and you can put newspaper down and hose it off of need be.
She is standard Aussie size. I brought up the kiddie pool idea with the SO but he thinks I am weird and I just need to leave her alone.
This is my Spuds girl...
I have mini Aussies :) Beautiful girl! |
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Party Girl
Posts: 12293
Location: Buffalo, Wyoming | QH<3er - 2015-06-01 4:24 PM
UTAHCANCHASER - 2015-06-01 3:20 PM
hammer_time - 2015-06-01 4:15 PM How big is she? She'll probably go where she's comfortable. We had a weiner dog that had 2 litters and we just made up a box on its side with blankets in the closet and she had them there.
When they are a bit bigger you can get a kiddie pool (no water of course) but then it holds them all in once place and you can put newspaper down and hose it off of need be.
She is standard Aussie size. I brought up the kiddie pool idea with the SO but he thinks I am weird and I just need to leave her alone.
This is my Spuds girl...
I have mini Aussies : ) Beautiful girl!
Dad is a Mini. They should be some cool pups. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1162
Location: White Mountains of AZ | UTAHCANCHASER - 2015-06-01 3:25 PM
QH<3er - 2015-06-01 4:24 PM
UTAHCANCHASER - 2015-06-01 3:20 PM
hammer_time - 2015-06-01 4:15 PM How big is she? She'll probably go where she's comfortable. We had a weiner dog that had 2 litters and we just made up a box on its side with blankets in the closet and she had them there.
When they are a bit bigger you can get a kiddie pool (no water of course) but then it holds them all in once place and you can put newspaper down and hose it off of need be.
She is standard Aussie size. I brought up the kiddie pool idea with the SO but he thinks I am weird and I just need to leave her alone.
This is my Spuds girl...
I have mini Aussies : ) Beautiful girl!
Dad is a Mini. They should be some cool pups.
I'll be waiting for pictures!! I'd post a pic of my momma and babies but I have no idea how to resize pictures!!! |
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Party Girl
Posts: 12293
Location: Buffalo, Wyoming | I will for sure post pictures after she has them. I hoping for a small litter for her first plus we have 3 other dogs...
I would love for her to have them in the laundry room but we currently live in a single wide and it is TINY... and the only way to get to the back yard. May set something up for her in the horse trailer. |
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 Firecracker Dog Lover
Posts: 3175
| The nice thing about a kiddie pool is when the puppies are small they cannot escape but mom can - she may need that break on occasion! :) Pretty dog. |
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 Serious Snap Trapper
Posts: 4275
Location: In The Snow, AZ | My advice, MAKE SURE SHES PREGNANT. LOL. I'm sure she is. We bred our English mastiff just over two months ago. She showed ALL signs of being pregnant. Appetite change. Behavior change. Started nesting and tearing blankets. Started producing milk. She gained weight, but not a ton. Research says first litters for mastiffs tend to carry more in the ribs and is common to not show excessively. But were at 68 days and pretty positive she's not just late. Hehe, durn her.I'm sure it will all go well. Good luck! |
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 Namesless in BHW
Posts: 10368
Location: At the race track with Ah Dee Ohs | UTAHCANCHASER - 2015-06-01 5:20 PM hammer_time - 2015-06-01 4:15 PM How big is she? She'll probably go where she's comfortable. We had a weiner dog that had 2 litters and we just made up a box on its side with blankets in the closet and she had them there.
When they are a bit bigger you can get a kiddie pool (no water of course) but then it holds them all in once place and you can put newspaper down and hose it off of need be. She is standard Aussie size. I brought up the kiddie pool idea with the SO but he thinks I am weird and I just need to leave her alone.
This is my Spuds girl...
Our standard Aussie had pups and we used a kiddie pool. Worked out great. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2276
Location: ohio-in my own little world with pretty ponies :) | ~BINGO~ - 2015-06-01 8:06 PM My advice, MAKE SURE SHES PREGNANT. LOL. I'm sure she is. We bred our English mastiff just over two months ago. She showed ALL signs of being pregnant. Appetite change. Behavior change. Started nesting and tearing blankets. Started producing milk. She gained weight, but not a ton. Research says first litters for mastiffs tend to carry more in the ribs and is common to not show excessively. But were at 68 days and pretty positive she's not just late. Hehe, durn her.I'm sure it will all go well. Good luck!
thats like our cat. was for sure she was pregnant. gained weight, appetite change, nesting, even starting leaking. then all of a sudden she was thin and normal....she had a phantom pregnancy. our outside cat did the same thing a couple months before. read that sterile males cause that when they attempt to breed. she and her body thought she was pregnant when there was no babies.
Post pictures when that pretty girl has the pups! |
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Party Girl
Posts: 12293
Location: Buffalo, Wyoming | I am pretty positive she is prego. If I could get a good picture of her I would post it, she looks like a beached whale! |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 452
Location: Alberta | The kiddie pool is a great idea if she will go for it, my females wouldn't even step foot in them so took them out of their runs before the pups were even born.
Both our mini Aussie females are "hiders" so I would strongly suggest that within the next week if she isn't right by your side when out in the yard or house then lock her up somewhere and build her a bit of a nest and consistently put her back there until she has the pups. My one female has had a litter at the very back of our round bale shed and we had to move every bale to get her and pups out, 2nd litter was under an old shed that I could hardly get my arm under (no idea how she got under there) and our other female has had 2 litters at my mother in laws under a closed in deck and had to move a rock wall to get them out! So we have now since learned that a week prior to due date they are either on a leash or in their dog run, all they need is you to turn your attention to something else for 5 seconds and they are gone! lol Also if she's not usually a cuddly, house dog I wouldn't put her inside as its not the norm for her so she might stress about it which can cause her to hold out and you could lose the pups.
We have two dog runs in our barn and setup a little straw bale house at the back of the run (tip two square straw bales on their skinny side about 2ft apart and set 2 squares on top to give them a dark quiet place to hide out, also insulates some if its cold outside and then I lay straw down in their run as its easy to clean out and change frequently. I hate putting "dog towels" in my washing machine - yuck!
I currently have 2 litters of mini aussies (11pups total) and I have serious baby brain right now and calculated my dates wrong so I had a surprise litter just about 2 weeks before expected, luckily I knew the 2nd was bred exactly a week later so I was prepared for her.
She may go off her food a day or so before having them and not eat again for a day or two but then be prepared for her to eat like a horse until those pups are weaned.
Until you have a litter its so hard to predict what kind of mom she will be but I suggest only letting her away from her pups for a few minutes a couple times a day for the first couple weeks. My one female won't leave her pups for days and even now at 4 weeks can only be gone for 5minutes max before she starts freaking out. Our other female I only let out twice a day for a short time as she tends to wean early and I'm hoping by not letting her roam as she pleases like we did with past litters will keep her interested in the pups longer.
Good luck and I can't wait to see pics!! |
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Party Girl
Posts: 12293
Location: Buffalo, Wyoming | She has always been a very lovey dog but after she got sick 2 years ago she became and more lovey dog and same goes for now that she is prego. She is supposed to be an outside dog but spends every second she can inside. She knows exactly what the couch is for and has learned to jump the baby gate at night to get to it.
She hasn't eaten much dog food this week but will scarf down steak or chicken. |
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 Miss Laundry Misshap
Posts: 5271
| Trim mom's belly hair so that the babies aren't sucking hair. I would take the horse clippers and give her a surgical (or shortest length) shave a clipper width on the outside of her teets and then the long hair on her tummy inbetween teets.
You may have to worry about them getting too hot vs. too cold this time of year. We take empty soda bottles and fill them with cool water and then if it's really hot, freeze them and put them in your kiddy pool. The pups will drape themselves on them if hot, or crawl away from them if ok.
As far as where to keep them, just someplace where nothing can get to them. A barrel is probably too narrow. Mom would lay on them. We make a 4x8 box out of 2 sheets of plywood (one cut in 1/2) against the garage wall (inside). Then make a whelping box 4x4 or 3x3 out of 2x4s and 1x4s. Make a square out the of the 2x4s and then lay the 1xs on the top to create a ledge. This keeps momma away from the edge of the box so the pups don't get squished if they are against the edge. I can send pics if all of this isn't making sense!
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Party Girl
Posts: 12293
Location: Buffalo, Wyoming | Nateracer - 2015-06-02 2:16 PM Trim mom's belly hair so that the babies aren't sucking hair. I would take the horse clippers and give her a surgical (or shortest length) shave a clipper width on the outside of her teets and then the long hair on her tummy inbetween teets.
You may have to worry about them getting too hot vs. too cold this time of year. We take empty soda bottles and fill them with cool water and then if it's really hot, freeze them and put them in your kiddy pool. The pups will drape themselves on them if hot, or crawl away from them if ok.
As far as where to keep them, just someplace where nothing can get to them. A barrel is probably too narrow. Mom would lay on them. We make a 4x8 box out of 2 sheets of plywood (one cut in 1/2) against the garage wall (inside). Then make a whelping box 4x4 or 3x3 out of 2x4s and 1x4s. Make a square out the of the 2x4s and then lay the 1xs on the top to create a ledge. This keeps momma away from the edge of the box so the pups don't get squished if they are against the edge. I can send pics if all of this isn't making sense!
If you could send a picture that would be great!
We live in Northeast Wyoming so we never know what the temp is going to be this time of year. It could snow the day she has them, who knows?? LOL
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Veteran
Posts: 133
| My boyfriend's mom raises Aussies, you will have so much fun with them! She had a very nice whelping box made, but when she has more than one litter at a time she says the kiddie pool is the next best thing. However her dogs don't usually have them in there, they have them in a closet in their house that she has set up for it. Once they are a day or two old she moves them into the box/pool. If you have a closet that is quiet and out of the way, that might be an option for you. |
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Party Girl
Posts: 12293
Location: Buffalo, Wyoming | SO just called and she is panting really hard and pacing. We may have puppies SOON!!! |
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