Getting ready . . .

Tacie pups expected next week . . .  Getting ready for a new litter of puppies is quite an arduous task here at the kennel. There is plenty of cleaning to do . . .  most especially of the birthing room.  The chosen birthing room (we have 5 options) was thoroughly cleaned after the last litter vacated it as a nursery but now it will be cleaned again and bleached. 

We use large plastic swimming pools as our whelping box and they and the cushions they are placed on also get cleaned and bleached.

Then an invenory of 'birthing stuff' is taken and all that is prepared to be sterilized when Tacie begins her labor.  (We also make sure that there is an adequate supply of the essential stuff like coffee and chocolate chip cookie dough, etc.) 

One of the hardest things to accomplish in preparations is making sure that Emily gets a couple of naps in before the day comes.  With all the prep work that must be done, the nap scheduling is difficult but since it seems that most puppies are born in the very early hours of the morning, an 'all-nighter' is all but inevitable.  There are also a couple of nights that follow whelping that require very close and almost constant attention to make sure that both mom and all the pups thrive.

To help us minimize 'surpirses' we have gotten in the habit of having an x-ray taken of the pups several days before they are born.  It gives us a better guess as to how many pups need to be delivered and sometimes gives us a clue as to what complications to watch out for.  We'll have that x-ray done this Friday.  Then the waiting begins in earnest.  63 days is 'full term' but it is not uncommon for some girls to deliver earlier (or later). Since this is Tacie's first . . .  we don't know what her schedule is.

Our last litter was born towards the end of September so there have been a little over 3 months since the last births here at the kennel.  The last of the pups was picked up a couple of weeks ago so we have had a little bit of a 'breather' here.  The next few litters are spaced out nicely so we should have Tacie pups next week (mid-January) with Leucy pups following towards the end of February and Libby pups maybe in mid-late March.

You will be able to follow Tacie's puppies arrival on the kennels Facebook Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/RosehallLargeGermanShepherds and on Mia's twitter account @MiaRosehall

Check us out on the web site too . . .  Tacie's pups are not all spoken for . . . http://www.rosehallkennel.com/PuppyDreamPage.htm

until next time . . .    Eliot