Breeding and Puppies - The Facts of A Dogs' Life.

We recently, in 4 days, tripled the number of grandchildren we have so I am in the mood for writing about babies. Most dogs these days do not get to experience the joys and tribulations of parenthood, much less grandparenthood. Pet owners have become aware of their responsibilities to help control the population growth in dogs and cats. They have also learned that dealing with a pregnancy in their pets can be a lot of work, and can be very expensive.

Dogs and cats can become fertile at about six months of age. The mating urge is strong and persistent. It can, especially in a young pet, at least temporarily over-ride any training, ties to the human family, or common sense. Just like in humans. If anything, worse than in humans.

An old story from years ago serves to illustrate this. Our neighbors at the time, Jeff and Jane, had a young German Short Hair Pointer. Jeff built her a good secure kennel outside, with a concrete floor, chain link walls and roof, locking gate, and nice doghouse. She often spent evenings in the house with the family. One evening, while she was in heat, Jeff took her out of the kennel and brought her in to watch some TV. Later, he brought her back outside, put her in the kennel, and locked the gate. Before he got to the house he heard her yelp. A male dog had gotten in the kennel and was hiding in the doghouse.

There is a "morning after" shot that may prevent pregnancy in such cases. It should be given within 12 hrs, at least within 24 hrs, of the breeding. It is a type of estrogen and can have serious side effects. It will prolong the heat period and may cause a life threatening bone marrow suppression.

Pregnancy can be diagnosed by ultrasound at about 25-30 days after breeding. Fetuses can be aborted at about that time with prostaglandin injections but these may also have serious side effects. It may require several shots over 2 or 3 days, and the mother can have painful muscle cramping.

Puppies usually become visible on X-Rays at about 45 to 50 days after breeding. This can provide a pretty reliable puppy count. It may be nice to know how many puppies there are so you know, on the night of delivery, when you can clean things up and go to bed.

Puppies are usually born 63 days after the first breeding, though this can vary considerably. If you start taking the mother's temperature a couple of times a day, you will likely see her temperature drop from the normal of about 101.5 F to 99.0 F or so, 24 hours before the start of labor. She will also become restless, do a lot of panting, and start building a nest at about the same time.

The onset of labor can be gradual and there is a lot of variation but the first puppy should come within a couple of hours of serious labor, and successive puppies should be born within two hours apart. A good rule of thumb - if she goes more than two hours between puppies, wake your veterinarian up and at least get some advice.

This ordeal usually happens at night, often on weekends, and veterinary care, with the time spent assisting with labor can easily run several hundreds of dollars. A C-Section can add $800 to $1200, perhaps even more.

It's a lot cheaper to have your dog spayed, even if she is in heat, and it also will avoid all this hassle.