Second trimester: Phoenix

Phoenix's pregnancy has now made a lot of progress. The second "trimester" is now complete and the embryos have turned into foetuses - from blobs of cells to almost-formed pups.

During the fourth week, the spinal cord and nervous system complete their development and facial features are beginning to form. At the beginning of the foruth week an experienced person can feel the embryos by palpating the uterus; by the end of the fourth week the uterus has filled with amniotic fluid to protect the developing pups and nothing will be felt until the pups have grown much larger. The embryos grow from 5-10mm to 14-18mm in length. It is during the third and fourth week that the embryos are most susceptible to malformation. Embryos that are not developing properly may be resorbed by the bitch.

Puppy late embryo

  During week five, the sexual characteristics take shape and the eyes are formed, sealed by eyelids to protect their sensitive development. Whisker buds form on the face. The leg buds lengthen and toes and claws form. The internal organs begin to form. The foetuses almost double in size, from 18mm to 30mm. By now they are really beginning to resemble puppies, and they are more resistant to developmental problems.

Foetus at 39 days

 By the end of the sixth week, thepuppies have skin with colour pigmentation. They have grown to 45mm in length and weigh around 6g. The internal organs are well under development and the fetal heartbeat can be heard with a stethoscope.

By now, Pheonix's belly has started to swell - she no longer has a narrowing of the body below the ribs, but a fairly flat belly line. Her abdomen feels like a water balloon when you press it. With the pups getting bigger, she is eating smaller meals more frequently to get enough food to nourish both herself and the developing puppies.

Phoenix: Ultrasound results

Phoenix had her ultrasound late this afternoon.

We had no doubts that she is pregnant, as her belly is already starting to swell very noticeably, and she is starting to eat more to feed those hungry little developing puppies. 

We are happy to report a preliminary count of SIX or SEVEN puppies!! They are a very good size and look very healthy.With pups of almost six weeks' gestation you can actually see some details on the ultrasound. We saw little waving feet, beating hearts, and tiny faces - too cute! It's actually a bit harder to count them when they're this big, as they won't all fit on the screen at once and some might be blocking others. But Dr. G. is pretty sure it's either six or seven, and he's usually almost spot-on. (Very possibly eight, but not likely.) We had lots of guesses for both six and seven, so it'll be down to the closest date/time to determine a winner of our contest!

Indeed, the countdown is now on as Phoenix's due date approaches in roughly three weeks.

We don't know yet what sex or colour these pups will be, but we are now accepting up to five deposits on this litter. (We are expecting to keep two of the pups ourselves as potential breeders.) If you're interested in one of Phoenix's pups, sign up now! The order in which we receive deposits will determine the order in which puppies will be allocated to families. They'll be ready to go home around May long weekend, just in time for spring fun.In

Last Saturday's Doodle Romp

A few days before the Romp I had thought it was going to be a very small gathering, with at most two or three dogs besides our own. Then I got a few more responses – and realized, going back through my e-mail trail, that I’d forgotten to note down a few of the dogs who were attending. In the end, it turned out to be a sizable bunch!

We welcomed two of Amore’s former pups – Carny & Galena with their human parents – and three of Galena’s pups – Matilda, who just turned a year old a few weeks ago, with her human parents, Nellie (from Galena’s August litter) with her four humans, and little Ophelia who still needs to find her forever family. Four of Amore’s grand-ups out of Garnet also joined the party: Cassie with her three people (including baby Aria, only nine months old!) and her sister Lyra, along with canine companion Skylar, and their human parents, along with their half-sibs Leo, with his four people, and Lily, with her mom (but I don’t think any of her boys came, unless I missed them!). And of course Amore and Phoenix rounded out the gang, for a total of twelve dogs and twenty humans.

We couldn’t have asked for a nicer day to be outside! After a long, cold winter, the first really nice day of the year gave us a mix of sun and cloud and temps rising to a few degrees below zero. (Of course we’ve had a few nicer days since then, with several days of plus temps this week – but hey, spring is on its way, that’s to be expected, right?!)

The kids climbed up and slid down the snow piles in the nearby parking lots, with the dogs chasing after them and having a blast. It’s always nice to meet up with our former pups and their people. We get a chance to see how the dogs have grown, how their characters have continued to develop since they left our home, and how well they get along together. All the dogs remember us and greet us happily – especially the ones who spent longer with us, but even those who left after only two months still remember their original people. Though I sometimes wonder if they remember their canine mama or grandma!! And we get a chance to chat with the humans and catch up on the interesting events in their lives.

Even with the nice weather, it did get a bit chilly after a time and we wrapped things up within an hour. Nellie and popped in to say hi to my son, who had stayed home with a bad cold (after playing soccer hard that afternoon).

Thanks to all who made it out, and we hope to see even more of you in March! (Tentative date: March 23, 4pm at DragonRam HQ.)

Now we are six!

We would like to wish

a very happy (belated) birthday

to our beloved Mama Momo,

aka Amore, the Valentine’s girl!

 

We celebrated her birthday by taking her, Phoenix, and grand-pup Ophelia to Wag, a Posh Shop for Pampered Pets located not too far from home. In addition to the usual doggie (and kitty) gear, they offer doggy treats and human drinks and some simple desserts. Being Valentine’s Day, the place was quite busy with other dogs, humans, and a musician setting the mood. I’m not sure Mo actually like the evening that much, as we were seated right next to the musician and it was a bit loud for her. But she did enjoy her doggy treat and having some lap-time with her people.

Galena’s first pups also celebrated

their first birthday recently

= January 29^th to be exact. I sent them all an individual e-card (hope you received it!) but would like to acknowledge them all here on the blog as well.

Cupcake Kiera, the chocolate parti, is a breeding prospect at Barksdale Labradoodles in Mississippi. The three solid chocolates, Hershey-Crispin, Apollo-Oscar, and Matilda-Nubia, all live in Ottawa, as does one of the caramel girls, Tara-Firefly. Sister Kacey-Lunette moved to Toronto, where she enjoys life with her two girls and mom and dad.

All the best to the six of you – many happy springs to come!

 

Just a note [aka I (sometimes) hate technology]

You may have noticed a dearth of pictures on this blog of late. In part it's because recent posts haven't been so "picture-worthy" - no cute little pups to show off... But in very large part it's also because my computer has simply been refusing to recognize my camera since we got back from Christmas holidays.

I plus the camera in and turn it on - nothing. The automatic download window doesn't appear.
I go to the My Computer directory to directly copy the files from camera to computer and there is no camera showing in the list. As if it weren't connected.
I remove the memory card from the camera to plug it directly into our new notebook, and get an error message that the card isn't properly named, or some such nonsense.

So I'm left with taking pictures with my phone (or the notebook computer iteself) and then e-mailing them to myself (or using directly from the notebook computer). They both are a hassle and the former eats up my data transfer package so fast...

I hope to have this resolved byt the time Phoenix's pups are born - any suggestions?

Guesses so far in our Guess How Many Puppies contest

Just 9 days to go in our Guess How Many Puppies contest for Phoenix.

Sor far, we have the following guesses:

Name	# of puppies	Date/time of first arrival
Beth D	4	21 Mar, 12:00
Karen P	5	16 Mar, 16:00
Monica S	5	17 Mar, 20:00
Sarah P	5	18 Mar, 20:30
Yolande	5	20 Mar, 21:00
Mary Q	6	15 Mar, 12:00
Calvin B	6	16 Mar, 06:42
Suzanne W	6	16 Mar, 10:20
Mathom	6	16 Mar, 12:30
Martin L	6	21 Mar, 15:00
Jojo TC	6	19 Mar, 09:30
Tristan	7	17 Mar, 19:00
Patrice P	7	17 Mar, 19:00
Amélie TC	7	18 Mar, 16:30
Wendy S	7	18 Mar, 19:00
Emma P	7	19 Mar, 14:00
Your name here!!

 
As you can see, the guesses are heavily weighted in favour of the 5, 6, and 7 puppy range. Just one each for 4 and 8!! I'd like to see some guesses for 3 and 8 or even 9!! 

While Phoenix isn't displaying any real change in appetite - unlike all our other Mamas, who became very picky - she is seeming a bit more effectionate with us and aggressive towards little Angel. Her belly is swelling just a little bit already - so that's a good sign! And mama Momo seems to feel her place as queen of the household hierarchy is threatened, as she's started t pick on Phoenix more and more. She never did that with Galena or Garnet, but then they only ever arrived a day or two before their pups were born and left at weaning, so maybe she never had time to feel threatened before the pups were here and her maternal, protective instinct kicked in.

Reminder - Doodle Romp this Saturday!

Just a reminder that the mid-winter DragonRam Doodle Romp will take place on Saturday 15 February at 4pm. Meet at DragonRam HQ for an hour or so jaunt around the nearby parking lots.

As long as the temperature is above -10 and it's not storming or pelting freezing rain, we will go ahead. If you haven't already done so, please confirm your attendance by e-mail so we know whom to expect.

Looking ahead:
March romp: Sunday 23 March at 4pm (Phoenix's puppsi should have arrived by then)
Easter romp: Friday 18 April at 4pm (Subject to change depending on anticipated arrival date of Topaz's puppis)
Tulip romp: Saturday 31 May (time TBC)