[DanaRuns]

Puppy No. 2: 11:43 a.m. Boy. 1 lb. 2.5 oz. He's a good sized one.

 

[DanaRuns]

Woah, they're coming fast now.

Puppy No. 3: 11:53 a.m., just 10 minutes after the last one. Female. 1 lb. 1 oz.

Good girl, Summer! Good girl, Theresa!

Since Theresa is whelping this litter by herself unless she runs into trouble, I have nothing to do but wait like a nervous father. And I am nervous! LOL!

 

[unpublishable]

I’m following and cheering both of you on for healthy and successful days ahead.

 

[DanaRuns]

Three puppies so far, and Summer is being a fastidious and doting mama.

Here's a link to an 18-second short video: Short video of three brand new puppies so far.

 

[cwag]

Thanks so much for sharing this with us! This is just the happy distraction I needed today and likely the closest I will ever come to this experience.

 

[DanaRuns]

Puppy No. 4: 12:41 p.m. Female. 14.5 oz.

So far, 3 girls and 1 boy. Keep popping out those girls, Summer!

 

[DanaRuns]

Puppy No. 5: 12:58 p.m. Male. Tiny. 12.5 oz.

These are two of the smallest puppies we have ever had.

 

[girlwiththegolden]

Wow, this is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing and congratulations to you and momma Summer on the beautiful pups!

 

[DanaRuns]

Puppy No. 6: Stillborn male. 2:05 p.m. Buried on our property. Very sad. 😭

Theresa worked on him for quite a while trying to bring him around, but he never breathed, never had a heartbeat. He was breech, with the cord wrapped all around him. He was gone before he ever came out.

I hate this part of breeding.

 

[DanaRuns]

Puppy No. 7: 2:58 p.m. Boy. 1 lb. 2.5 oz.

Thank goodness this one is alive and healthy.

3 boys, 3 girls so far. Come on, Summer, give us more girls!

 

[DanaRuns]

Puppy No. 8: 3:32 p.m. Boy. 15.5 oz.

 

[DanaRuns]

Puppy No. 9: 4:58 p.m., Stillborn girl.

That's all of them.

 

[DanaRuns]

Summer has a litter on the ground! She has seven Redford puppies, 3 girls and 4 boys. Mama and pups are healthy, and Summer is a doting first-time mother. Theresa whelped them all by herself, and she is more exhausted than Summer, I think.

Here's the pedigree, if K9data will load. Pedigree: Redford x Summer

There were two more puppies, a boy and a girl, who were stillborn, and who are now buried on our property. The first of many animals to eventually be there, I'm sure. And me, too, if I'm lucky, but not too quickly I hope. Theresa and I are both traumatized by the stillborn puppies. She tried everything to bring them back, but it didn't work. They were each the last one in their horn, and they were fully formed. We don't yet know why they were stillborn. Breeding is not for the faint of heart.

The puppy cam will be up tomorrow, and I will post a link in this thread.

We are thankful to have a civilized dog, who whelped her litter in the daytime, for once. That's a huge blessing.

 

[Molly421]

Miracle of life and all, right? But breeding is not for the faint of heart. If you do it, I suggest you get a mentor, first.

So many things can (and do) go wrong. It is heartbreaking to watch a puppy fade, and even though you're up 24 hours with the puppy, doing everything you can for it and making frantic trips to the emergency vet, you watch it slowly die before your eyes. Or to have a puppy born with its intestines on the outside. Or to have your whole litter get sick with something like Parvo and it costs $50,000 to care for them at the vet and they still die. Or to have your dam have complications during whelp and you have to rush her to the emergency vet in the middle of the night for an emergency c-section, and be in danger of losing not only the litter but your dam, too.

And even if everything goes right, as a breeder you have to spend 24/7 within arm's reach of the puppies, day and night, getting very little sleep, for their first three weeks. If you're lucky there are two of you who can split duties, but even then you can forget about having a life for a while. What happens if your dam rolls over and smothers one in the middle of the night? What happens if they get too cold, or too hot? They are extremely fragile the first three weeks. What if your dam gets mastitis and can't nurse her puppies? What if your dam freaks out from calcium deficit, or turns on her own puppies, or gets pyometra or another infection from failing to eject afterbirth?

Even when everything goes right it's time consuming. We take temperatures twice a day, and take the dam's temperature daily. We weigh them and track them every day. We have to make sure that the smallest one is getting enough to eat. We are constantly washing and changing bedding, multiple times a day, as puppies simply poop and pee everywhere. You hope the dam keeps the whelping box clean, but they don't always. You have to repeatedly clean and bathe your dam in the beginning, too, as well as take her out multiple times a day, feed her multiple times a day as much as she will eat because she needs as many calories as you can force into her. Sometimes you have to tube feed neonatal puppies, meaning sticking a tube down their throats into their stomachs and put food in through the tube. Sometimes you have to supplement puppies, and make a complicated formula with all sorts of hard to find ingredients. We have to trim their nails every other day starting on Day 3. Then you have to start potty training them. If mom isn't good at cleaning them you have to clean and potty all the puppies (neonatal puppies can't eliminate on their own; they need their mother's stimulation to be able to go).

Proper development is important, so starting as young as three days old we start working with them, beginning with early scent introduction and early neurological stimulation. We do this daily with each puppy. As they grow, open their eyes, and become more mobile, we have to change their environment every couple days to continually stimulate the puppies with new challenges. We have to expand their living area several times. We have to constantly change the toys and challenges in their environment, like every couple days so that they keep developing and become confident, capable dogs. Eventually, you have to start weaning them and making gruel for them, and make sure they all get enough to eat. Plus, at first they practically bathe in it, so you are constantly cleaning up to a dozen puppies each time they eat. LOL! You have to give them obstacle courses and things to explore. Then you have to start potty training them, which involves lots of cleaning of poop from everywhere, hopefully mostly the litter box you have to buy/make and keep fresh litter in it. And by that time they are making a mess of their entire area, so you are constantly cleaning it and sanitizing it.

Eventually, you have to get all those puppies outside to start experiencing the world. You have to watch them every second. And then we take them on "adventure walks," where we lead them through the "world," and force them to solve problems, get over and around obstacles, learn to follow human beings, and gain confidence in the world. Also, we do things like temperament testing, which takes two entire long days with each litter, and requires setting up a sanitary environment somewhere where they have never been, with various controlled situations for temperament testing. We crate train them. We start to housebreak them. We teach them a basic recall. I mean, imagine doing that with one puppy, then imagine doing it with 8-10 puppies. It's chaos! LOL! We also start to socialize them by taking them for car rides (and an expensive trip to the vet), having them meet safe animals, try to get their little feet on every conceivable surface, and have them meet as many different people as possible, all while trying to keep them healthy and safe from Parvo and other disease.

And then, if everything has gone right, you'll get to the day when you say goodbye to them. It takes ALL DAY. We educate every buyer. We have lots of paperwork to do. We microchip every puppy. We vaccinate them all. We register them with the AKC. We prepare "puppy packets" for every buyer, with everything about their own puppy, a wealth of information for rearing their puppy, all the records they need, photos, pedigrees, nomographs, vaccine records, food, toys, a blanket that smells like mom and their siblings, and a million other details. You have to answer questions, and buyers have a million questions.

And then they're gone, and it's time to put everything away, clean everything up, and get back to normal life. But at first you're getting almost daily calls from multiple puppy buyers. Is this normal? How much should I feed? Is my puppy too fat/thin? My puppy wants to eat poop! Or sticks. Or pebbles. Or socks. She screams in the crate. He won't come when I call. He's going to the bathroom everywhere in the house. She's biting my daughter. She doesn't want to cuddle with me. We're not getting any sleep. I'm overwhelmed and want to return the puppy (I can't tell you how often we get people frantic because they thought they were getting a plug and play cute toy rather than an infant of a predator species that doesn't speak English or know what it is supposed to do in a human environment).

Meanwhile, your dam is blowing her coat and there is dog hair everywhere. Her body has gone through a lot of trauma, and you have to nurture her back to normal health, and watch for complications even after the puppies are gone.

Finally, about a month after you send the puppies home, you start to get some peaceful days. And if you're lucky, you'll get pictures of some of those puppies from proud and beaming owners. More often, you think about the puppies often and wonder how they're doing, and you just have to trust that you've chosen homes well, and that they are all in happy, healthy, productive environments, and that you didn't make any mistakes in placing them. Because when you breed and create these precious little lives, your most solemn responsibility is to make sure they go to homes where they can have the biggest little lives they can possibly have. And if you place them in a home that beats them, or neglects them, or otherwise mistreats or maltreats them, you know that you've sentenced that innocent little soul to a decade or more of torture and abuse, and there is nothing in the world you can do about it. You just have to live with that knowledge.

Gosh, I didn't even get into all the stuff that goes on pre-whelp, before the puppies are even born or conceived. The literal hundreds of inquiries you have to manage and research. Choosing a stud. Getting health clearances. Doing the deed I don't think we have ever just put two dogs in the back yard and let nature take its course. We have medical tests. Often our stud is somewhere else in the country and we have to ship semen and get the timing just right. There is progesterone testing every other day. Figuring out when they ovulate. Making vet appointments for insemination. The insemination (usually two; usually transcervical, occasionally surgical). Ultrasound to confirm pregnancy. Pre-whelp vet appointments. Pre-whelp x-rays (in our case) to count puppies. There are a ton of supplies to buy. You have to prepare the whelping environment. There are planned c-sections and emergency c-sections. And if everything goes right, you are up literally all night long whelping puppies, which is after spending a restless night with your bitch in Stage I labor.

Well, I think I've said enough. LOL! I'll be surprised if anyone has read this far.

Breeding is not for the faint of heart, as so many things can go wrong, and do. And even if everything goes right, it is a long, exhausting process that begins well before birth and lasts until well after the puppies go to their homes.

Any smart person would be with your daughter on this. Clearly, Theresa and I are not smart!

Not only did I read to the end, and read it again, but my husband actually read it too! Thank you so much for taking the time to share this information! I was so worried that we haven’t heard from the Breeder since the pups were born (10 days ago), but now I completely understand why. Even though this will be our 4th Golden, your post has taught me more than I’ve learned I’ve the past 20+ years from Breeders! Thank you!

 

[MushyB]

Thank you so much for sharing! So sorry for the stillborns; how heartbreaking for both of you (and Summer). Lovely photo of Summer with her babies; can't wait for the camera. Hope you both have a nice dinner and easy, restful night 🤗

 

[FUReverGolden]

Congratulations and thank you for sharing. Best of luck for the future days ahead. I know you will be overwhelmed. Good job Summer.

 

[JerseyChris]

Thank you again Dana for taking all this time to share with all of us the process, pics and even video clips. I am so sorry to hear of the 2 pups that didn't make it. Summer looks like a wonderful Mom..

 

[FurdogDad]

Wow, Dana! It was super kind and thoughtful of you to document this on the forum and include such an in depth look at the whole process. This is as close to an actual whelping as many of us will ever get. I bet all of us who were following along have new insight and even more respect for all the ethical reputable breeders that preserve this breed so the rest of us can enjoy them. I think we all shared in the heartbreak of losing the 2 stillborn little ones. It sounds like Theresa did a fantastic job and Summer is a great mom to her pups. Congrats and thanks!

 

[JerseyChris]

I would imagine you have 10 rimes as many homes as you do puppies so when are the homes actually picked out? That has to be really tough to do. I know if I was on a list and found out 2 puppies did not make it I would be heartbroken thinking that might have been mine. Just to add that much more stress to being a breeder. 😢

 

[DanaRuns]

I would imagine you have 10 rimes as many homes as you do puppies so when are the homes actually picked out? That has to be really tough to do. I know if I was on a list and found out 2 puppies did not make it I would be heartbroken thinking that might have been mine. Just to add that much more stress to being a breeder. 😢

Very good question. I don't know how other breeders do it, but this is how we do it. I'm sure there are better ways.

It's more than 10 times, actually. We start by collecting questionnaires from interested people. On the strength (or weakness) of the questionnaires, alone, we weed out a bunch of them right away. The remainder stay in our pool until we have a breeding. Once we do the ultrasound to get an idea of how many pups we might have, we make a big cut to weed it down to a core group. By the time the puppies are born we cut it down even further, to a smaller group of potential buyers, and we tell them they are in that group but that we won't know for sure until the puppies are on the ground and we see what we have. It's still more than the number of puppies we were expecting. So that's where we are with this litter.

Of course, two were stillborn, so that makes it harder for those remaining. But up until now we haven't promised a puppy to anyone. We now know the sexes we have, so we can do further weeding. Like, we have three girls, and we will likely keep one, so that's two to place. But we have more than two on the remaining list who have said their preference is a girl. So this morning we decided who is getting the girls. Same process with the boys, except that we haven't done that yet, but will within the next few days. The best chance to remain in the mix are the people who said they'd be happy with a boy or a girl. In any case, we have a tentative final list as of now, though there are still some decisions to be made about the boys.

By the time the puppies are three weeks old, when they are pretty much out of the woods and we're confident in the number of pups we'll have, we'll make the final-final decisions, if there are any left to be made. People will know they are getting a puppy, they just won't know which one. But they all watch the puppy cam and have their favorites, which they usually lobby us about, and which we pretty much ignore. LOL. We don't make final decisions on who gets which puppy until we do temperament testing. Then we tell folks which puppy is theirs, and they can focus on that puppy on the cam until gotcha day.

Today, we are emailing to inform those who are not getting a puppy this time, and we are referring them to a friend who is having a litter and says she would like us to send our folks her way. If we know of other litters coming up, we'll point them in those directions. We try not to leave them hanging when we can avoid it. We try to steer them to a good breeder with an upcoming litter if we can.

And that's it.