Puppy Journal

You’ve read my scribblings about our two field spaniels (Mo’i and Lea). In fact, you’re probably really tired of them <smile>! Well, I’ve got bad news for you: things about about to get worse.

We’re going to have a new field spaniel puppy in a few weeks! That means completely out-of-control field spaniel blogging (with photos!) is just around the corner…

Meanwhile, Sheila Miller will pick up the slack. Sheila is the field spaniel breeder whose inspired matchings produced Mo’i, Lea, and a whole bunch of other beautiful brown dogs. This time, though, they’re not all brown — you see, field spaniels come in variations and mixes of browns, plus black and white.

Picabo just gave birth a few days ago to the litter from which our puppy will come — and that litter, as you can see below, has a variety of colors. A little later Sheila will have the puppies “temperment tested", so we can choose one with a better likelihood of being a good agility dog. I’m hoping that the winner of that contest will be at least partially black — I really like the black, black-and-liver, and black-and-white field spaniels that I’ve seen at shows…

Sheila is writing a “Puppy Journal” on her experiences with this litter, and here’s the first installment:

Sheila Miller’s Puppy Journal:

First, let me thank all of you who have sent private and public congratulations. Its not like me to not reply to an e-mail but I’ve been busy. :-) I appreciate your warm thoughts.

I also want to thank Picabo’s co-owners Debbie Miller and Sandy Burt-Jones for allowing me to lease Picabo. Like Scarlett O’Hara’s line, “I depend on the kindness of others”. LOL

Let’s go back to May 23, 2004 when Picabo whelped her first litter. Her puppies were huge, the time between water breaking and first puppy being born was long, and every puppy was delivered with screams from her. I told myself that I would not lease Picabo again (I’m a wimp when it comes to the pain of others). After the dust settled with that whelping, I told myself that IF I lease her again, then 2006 would be a good year to have puppies.

Picabo’s first litter was sired by Cosmo, son of Spicer and Juno. They are turning out very nicely and I figured I would breed her to a relative of Cosmo’s (half-brother, nephew or cousin). Well, the best laid plans… After the fourth stud dog choice wasn’t going to work out, I found myself with an in-season bitch and nowhere for her to go. So I brought Picabo and Cosmo to the vet for blood tests (brucellosis and thyroid) and made the appointment in Reno for eye checks.

I’ve never repeated a breeding before. I don’t have anything against it. It is just that since I’ve never bred a bitch more than twice in her life, I’ve always chosen different studs just for the genetic variety. The breedings went very well. I would crate all of my dogs for dinner, put Picabo out in the front yard and Cosmo out in the backyard. I would close all the doors to rooms where I didn’t want a breeding to take place and then let the two of them in. They would run around the house while I flipped channels on the TV. When they stopped running, I would go look for them and wait out the tie. What could be easier than that? :-)

Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago. I’m getting ready for the whelping by making sure I not only have everything the dam and puppies will need but also everything I will need such as food, paper products, beer, wine, etc. Once the puppies come, I will be a weekend-only shopper.

Wednesday, February 8th. Picabo and I run to Elko after school for her x-ray. Since I live so far from my vet (75 miles) and there aren’t any emergency vet clinics closer than 250 miles, I x-ray my bitches to get an idea of how many and how big to expect. Picabo is water buffalo big but the x-ray only shows 4 puppies. One puppy shows a complete spine, full ribs and head. I ask Dr. Rob if that couldn’t be two puppies overlapped. He said, “Where’s the second head"? OK, good point. So four for sure, maybe, just maybe a fifth. Rob thinks they look good-sized (i.e. big like the first litter). He then tells me that he is leaving the next day (Picabo’s first due date) for a four-day rock climbing trip near Las Vegas. He asked me if I wanted some oxytocin to go. Of course I do. I always have a shot on hand in case I need it. If I don’t need it, then I give it an hour or so after what I think is the last puppy as a clean out shot. He gave me four shots. OH MY GOD. Does he think they will be so big that I will need one per puppy??? Oh, this will be a long weekend by myself.

Even though Thursday is her first due date, I absolutely don’t expect puppies until the weekend at the earliest. Picabo’s first litter taught me that she breeds well before she ovulates. Thursday and Friday go by as normal days for little black water buffaloes.

Saturday is pretty normal too. The only thing I noticed about Picabo is that she crated herself after dinner (not her crate, but Cosmo’s crate). No nesting, just sleeping. She didn’t show any other signs of labor. Her appetite and attitude were both good. She was crated in my bedroom that night and I awoke at 12:00 a.m. to sounds of her digging in her crate. I listened as she flipped her crate pad around and settled back down. I fell asleep. I awoke at 1:00 a.m. to the same sounds. She settled down and I fell asleep. I had a dream…

I dreamt that Picabo easily whelped her puppies. Puppy #1 was a bitch! Unfortunately she was a rather large Bernese Mountain Dog. :-( Puppy #2 was a dog. A big, fat, deadgrass MALE Chesapeake Bay Retriever. A handsome boy but I need another male CBR like I need… Puppy #3 was a bitch! A small bitch! A black bitch! A black bitch with two white stripes down her back??? Puppy #3 was a skunk! LOL Not a puppy marked like a skunk but an actual skunk. It doesn’t take a dream analysts to know that I was worried about the size, sex, and color of these puppies. I awoke again at 2:00 a.m. to sounds of Picabo digging in her crate. Enough was enough. I put all of my dogs outside for a potty break and went into the spare room/office/whelping room and made up the bed in there. By 2:30 a.m., Picabo and I were in bed. She scratched around the whelping box a couple of times then jumped in bed with me. We slept the rest of the night away…

Sunday morning dawned and Picabo’s appetite and attitude were good although once again she crated herself. She had to be in the early stages of labor. She asked to go out with the rest of the dogs around noon. I watched her dig a nest under a bush. By the time I walked to the back door, Picabo was at the front door asking to come in. She came in and went back to bed. Later that afternoon came out all peppy and joined us on a walk (well, more like a waddle). When we came back to the house, I told the dogs we would feed the birds and put out the trash. Picabo said, “groan”. I said, “Picabo was that you"? Again she said, “groan”. The two of went in the house. I admit all I could think about was that I was hungry and wasn’t going to get to eat for awhile. :-) Her water broke and she delivered the first puppy ten minutes later. This was an easy, stress free delivery. Boom, boom, boom. 3 puppies followed and Picabo took it all in stride. I on the other hand, became more depressed with each birth. We were expecting four puppies and the first four were all boys. I crossed my fingers that there would be a fifth but I had to wait about an hour to find out. Boom, boom, two more puppies this time girls!

Here they are in birth order:

black male - 9 ounces

liver male - 13 ounces

liver male - 12 ounces

black male - 10 ounces

black female - 15 ounces

liver female - 14 ounces

These sizes are all normal for FS and very good for little Picabo. They are now four days old and the only puppy who hasn’t yet crossed the one pound threshold is the first black male and he is only an ounce away.

To be continued…

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA