Harmony bred

So, I mentioned a couple weeks ago that Harmony was in heat. We tested her progesterone; she was in early pro-estrus (not quite ready to breed). We tested her two days later - her levels had gone down instead of up. Tested her again three days after - they were even lower, at "non-heat" levels! What the flip? So I decided before giving up, I'd wait a bit longer and do a final test, and voila! She was ovulating.

Harmony the beautiful

 So on Sunday, 17 April, she and Hugo had a date. They were both virgins, but Hugo knew exactly what to do (even though he's not yet 8 months old!!). It only took half an hour and the job was done. I'd hd a semen evaluation done on Hugo, since under eight months one can't be positive a boy has the goods, yet, but he tested out with flying colours! My vet was impressed at how easy he was to collect. 

Hugo when he was a pup!

 Counting nine weeks from ovulation, these pups are due to arrive around June 17 - the same weekend that Phoenix's pups will be ready to head home! Means we won't have much overlap, which is okay. 

We are still waiting for Galena to go into heat. Since Harmony was early, I'm just fine with Galena being late, as - again - we prefer not to overlap litters too much as we only have so much space. I'm thinking as long as she's in heat by mid-May it will be fine; we'll still have summer puppies and they can home while it's still early fall, with enough time for house-training before winter sets in. 

Gorgeous Galena

It's gonna be a puppy-filled summer!!