Last week I had the new experience of watching a dog give birth to ELEVEN puppies. We had somewhat inadvertently bred our male yellow lab with our best friends’ female black lab. When we got the parents as puppies the long range plan had been to mate them after they were two years old. While they technically are now two years old, in an ideal world we were waiting for one more heat cycle, but nature, or instinct, had other plans. We didn’t realize Piper was in full blown heat when we got all our dogs together for a normal playdate back in March. I turned my back on them for a couple of minutes, and well, was a little mortified to discover them in action. What, though, were the chances it was going to take on the first encounter, brief as it was since I insisted on breaking up the arrangement? A little over a month later and Piper was showing definite signs of pregnancy, with only about three and a half weeks to go. Not only were they not entirely planned for, the puppies would be due the day before our friends’ daughter graduated from high school.
There was an element of denial, but what we thought was hopefully enough preparation. On Tuesday we took Piper for an x-ray to see how many puppies to expect. We placed our bets, mostly going conservative as it was such a brief mating and her first litter. The most common guess amongst all the family members was 7. Seemed reasonable. The vet techs brought in the x-ray and said they counted 10 skulls, but were waiting on confirmation from the doctor. Doc comes in and reiterates the count of 10, but maybe 11. Back at their home my friend and I counted again. Definitely 10 skulls, but what about this “extra” spinal cord that doesn’t appear to be attached to a head, that kind of trails off the x-ray boundary?
Still thinking we have a few days until the delivery, everyone attempts business as usual until Wednesday morning when I get a text that the dogs are acting weird, would I come over and sit with them while friend goes to an appointment, just in case. While I’m getting ready to head over, I get a frantic text saying Piper’s water has broken. So much for plans. I hurried the 3 miles to their house and walked in to my friend completely wigged out because the cat had chosen that exact moment to bring a mouse in and drop it in the whelping box (kiddie pool). Thankfully I’m not super squeamish and the mouse ran under a blanket so I could grab it and throw it outside. Now…how long to wait for the puppies to come?
Online sources led us to believe it could still be hours until the first delivery. Nope, an hour later puppy number one, a healthy, hardy yellow male came out. In our excitement and lingering panic, we probably helped a little too much, but all in all it was a successful delivery and he remains the biggest of the litter. Then we waited. And waited. The vet the day before had said call if more than 30 minutes passed. Everything we read in the book my friend purchased and online said not to worry until 4 hours. At 2 hours, 15 minutes, puppies two and three arrived together, but one was stillborn. We posited that maybe that’s why there was a delay, cleaned up the healthy pup, another yellow but female, and assisted in making sure both puppies were nursing. We intend to let Piper handle that birth more independently, but the stillborn threw us off a bit. Okay, next round would be better.
My husband came over, brought us some lunch, and decided he wasn’t getting any more work done for the day so stayed to see how the rest of the births would go. Another two hours passed and we decided to sit within eyesight, but try not to stress out mom by hovering. Let nature take its course. Next thing we know my friend’s older son walks by and says “There’s another puppy…no, wait, there are two more puppies.” Crap. Rush over and sure enough, Piper had given birth again, this time to a tiny chocolate female, and another yellow female. Now I was really wondering if the double births were happening when one pup wasn’t strong enough. But small as she was, the little chocolate was feisty and willing to nurse. The remaining six puppies started coming about every 30 minutes or so and were all thankfully healthy and hearty, and mom was getting the hang of cleaning them up herself and nursing in between. Total labor and delivery was about 8 hours. At that point all human family members were home and we decided what we had read about providing a calm, quiet birthing environment was overrated. Our dogs were used to chaos and activity and that probably felt more normal.
Five days later, the 10 surviving puppies are continuing to grow and gain weight and Piper has been a rockstar getting the hang of motherhood. She knows where all her babies are at any moment and will retrieve one from your human lap if she decides to do so. We’re supposed to be calling them solely by their collar colors and not naming them as they will eventually go to other homes, but we each have our favorites and have nicknamed a couple of them. The first boy is “Baby Blue” but also “Porker” since he continues to be the biggest; “Little Miss” is technically “Yellow” but she’s taken a little extra care so I’ve also named her “Peanut.” In keeping with Peanut, I’m calling the only other chocolate, a bigger male, Charlie Brown. We get pick of the litter and had said ahead of time we’d like a chocolate so I’m not really concerned about naming our potential new family members.
Our friends may beg to differ as they are bearing the brunt of the care and initial stress of the unplanned adventure, but I think there’s something to be said for letting nature take its course. I’m a planner too, and I generally hate change, but sometimes we get in ruts and we need a little shaking up. Sometimes we need a distraction that forces us not to worry about situations outside of our control. Sometimes we need to see that someone else should be allowed to take the reins of care. Sometimes we need to be reminded of what’s really important…family and being there in the moment, being there for each other, remembering the fun times and ties that got us to this place. And sometimes we really really just need to cuddle a puppy…or 10!
Girl with Dog 