Daisy's Adventure! Breeding Dogs: Our story from start to finish
Daisy's Adventure! Breeding Dogs: Our story from start to finish
Back in September I first posted a blog about Daisy, our own special Dalmatian who is owned by Natasha (our Admin manager). Natasha and her husband made the decision to breed Daisy who had just turned two years of age. What an interesting process I have found it to be!
Step 1 was Finding Dad: The Stud looked like the perfect match! Found online he certainly looked the part - a prime candidate to be the father of Daisy's pups.
Step 2 was cutting The Deal: all went smoothly when Natasha cut the deal with The Stud’s owner.
Step 3 was organising the Kennel Club Endorsements (see earlier blog for more details). Daisy’s progeny are now eligible for Kennel Club registration, an important step which ensures the pups are recognised as having been carefully and responsibly bred.
Step 4 was The Waiting. Finally at the end of October, Daisy came into season and her two sessions with The Stud were booked for a week later.
Step 5 was Daisy’s First Date, which all went very smoothly indeed and….
I’m very excited to announce that Daisy will be giving birth any time from next Thursday!
Natasha noticed a fairly immediate change in Daisy as she became a bit calmer and was more and more tired. Two weeks later she went off her food and was fed soft foot like scrambled eggs for a week or so. An ultrasound revealed that there were at least 9 pups but it would be normal to end up with 6, and also possible there could be as many as 13! How amazing that the gestation period for dogs is only 9 weeks for as many as 13 pups, while we humans take 9 months for just one baby.
Step 6: The Preparations
The first thing Natasha bought was the Whelping Box which has been put into one of the rooms at home within a large caged area to keep the pups safe. Under a section of the box is a heat pad which will be a warm place for the pups if they are feeling cold. Daisy and her pups will live in this area for the first 2 weeks before the pups are ready to venture further afield.
Daisy in her Whelping Box
So I’m looking forward to posting the next update with, of course, photos of Daisy’s beautiful new Dalmatian pups. We can't wait to see what colour spots these baby Dalmatians end up with! The pups' Dad is black-spotted while Daisy is liver-spotted, so the pups may be either.
In the meantime we get to enjoy having Daisy in the office, to keep an eye on her at this late stage. She doesn’t seem to mind the bustling about or the noise of the engraving machine which has been going non-stop over the Christmas break engraving pet tags of all shapes, colours and sizes. Soon we’ll be picking out a selection of tags for Daisy’s pups and maybe some nice warm sweaters for them when they're ready to go outside! The new Kennel Club Canine Boutique range of coats, sweaters and blankets will be perfect.
Check out our ranges of Design, Glitter, Bling (with genuine Swarovski Crystals), Fashion, Stainless, Brass and Plastic tags. Remember the Control of Dogs Order rules your dog must wear ID with the owner’s name and address.
Daisy in the Pet-Tags office