What Dogs Know

Doggie Update: Many have asked me to post photos as they got older. You do not know what you ask for! lol   So rather than clog up the OS machinery I'll direct you to a couple of YouTube videos I have posted and you  just click the link and go thru to it. Many thanks for your interest and comments!

Shakira's Puppies Out and About at 4 weeks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3OteAyfVWs

Heidi's pups

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrk_XsgUI8E

To know me is to  know that I show and raise show dogs (Havanese) and a rare breed, Russian Tsvetnaya Bolonkas and that I could just talk endlessly about them, the Dog Fancy and anything else canine related.  This is about the last scenario  I envisioned  for  the autumn of my life. But it's okay. I probably like most dogs more than I like most people (though I was really skirting around the big shepherd a cop had on lead in the vet's office yesterday. That bad boy's head ..dog not cop..reached the height of mine...and he was sitting down!)  I was more worried, actually, about the scent of 'labor' blood surrounding me and Shakira, my pregnant red havanese as they scooted us into a room.

I'm supposed to be retired now and I guess I am retired from teaching.  Running a small organic hobby farm as well as an active show/breeding kennel keeps a gal going strong...and on her fair share of Aleve.  It sure doesn't feel like retirement, though! It is , however, a never ending source of stories, oddities and plain hilarity with a fire and prowler thrown in for excitement.  About the time I think I have my understanding of dogs nailed down, something happens to change that and raise unending questions. Wednesday was no exception.Shakira started labor at 9 am. and despite my best efforts to keep her in 3 different puppy pens with the tops down and secured, she managed to open two of them from the top and then reach around and open the slide door on the other one! Oye Vay!  THEN,,,THEN with a gut the size of a medicine ball she leaps into Honey's puppy pen we had moved into the kitchen/great room.  I'm having a freakin' heart attack with PTSD flashes of Tuppence  and her munchie cruchie act earlier last year. So I'm like the lady in the carpet commercial, going slow motion to keep the wine from hitting the floor. Females in the throes of labor and giving birth are notoriously among the meanest creatures on earth.  

I needn't have worried. Shakira began licking them, cleaning them and letting them SUCKLE. I was pretty sure she had no milk but suckling will bring down oxytocin to keep labor going. By this time Honey has jumped over the pen and sat watching her...she never grumped or anything. I felt like I had fallen down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland.Finally Honey lay down at the other end of the pen and nursed 3 of her pups while Shakira nursed the other two. By that time I had speed dialed the vet who said to get our butts in there. Well my butt had to have jeans put on it but I scooted into those bad boys toot suite.  Then as the truck rose and fell over all the crappy ruts left by the spring monsoon season, Shakira begins screaming at the top of her lungs. I stopped twice to rub her tummy and see if I could calm her down (yah right!) As I hit the edge of our small town I heard puppy squeaks and pulled off the side of the road by the mill. Sure enough, there was a wee pup, but Shakira still groaning and crying.

 Well the story could have ended there and the rest of the pups born at home. However, my luck is never so rainbow colored so we pushed on to the vet's office (a 70 mile round trip which I had made twice the day before) Given Shakira's youth and her place in the breeding program we  made the decision to hold off on the C-Section until we couldn't hold off any longer. That decision was made  around 2:30pm  after xrays showed a wee lad who had curled himself up into a ball in the uterine trunk. Dogs have 'trees or limbs' off a uterine trunk. Each pup is in each limb and has to slide over and down the trunk into the birth canal proper.   Unable to uncurl himself  he could make no progress as well as keeping his two siblings behind him from  sliding down.  The downward passage was thoroughly blocked.  The C-section was uneventful and all the puppies survived.

 

I have  not in all my years seen an incipient mom, new mom or old mom do what Shakira did. The vet said that instinctively she knew that suckling would draw down the oxytocin and prolong her labor.  Would that mean, then, that Honey understood that as well and was being supportive in a sisterly fashion? Go figure! This morning is better as she and her pups settle in with one another, but Shakira still thinks I should move them into the living room/great room where we all hang out. In time Shakira, in time.