Time flies when you're having puppies

Galena is one-third through gestation – yes, ALREADY!

We’ve been so caught up with getting Topaz’s breeding accomplished that we’ve hardly had head-space for Galena’s progress, but it goes quickly when gestation is only nine weeks long. I’m not sure where these first three weeks have gone!

Puppy development starts quite slowly. The eggs are released on the day of ovulation (duh) and take two days to “ripen” so that fertilization can occur. That’s why we wait until two days post-ovulation to breed, especially when doing artificial insemination, as the fresh-chilled sperm don’t last as long as the sperm in a natural mating. 

Once breeding has taken place, it apparently takes another couple days for the sperm to get to and fertilize the egg, and another several days for the fertilized ova to reach the uterus where they will attach to the uterine wall. During that period the egg begins to divide – again this begins slowly. Three days post fertilization is when the first division, into two cells, occurs. A day later it’s four cells, then another day to get to eight cells (total of three divisions). By day 7 the ovum it’s still only at the fourth division (16 cells). During the second week it divides only twice more, to reach 64 cells and form the morula (early stage embryo of as yet undifferentiated cells) and find a place in the uterine wall to embed itself. By the end of the second week, the cells begin to differentiate, at first only into an outer shell and inner cell mass. During the third week the placentas are formed and development of the basic structure of the puppy begins in earnest. With the power of exponential growth, those 64 cells present at the edn of week two have formed over a thousand cells by the end of week three, and the beginnings of the nervous system are in place. At 20 days the ovules have finally changed shape, elongating to begin to form a puppy.

By this time we often notice some changed behaviour in the mama-to-be - she gets picky about eating (it's not just a human trait!) and might be a bit moody. Galena is known to be very picky during pregnancy –if I recall correctly, cooked chicken, bananas and raw carrots are about the only things she will agree to consume. During her first two pregnancies she barely gained any weight, and lost several pounds while she nursed the puppies, but she’s put on a several pounds since her last litter and is in good shape for another pregnancy.