(First photo) Mai's litter
(Last 2 photos)Female and Male from Tessa's Litter




Well, here we are 2 years later with TWO new litters! We bred Wren last April 2008, and she did not conceive. We later discovered she was hypothyroid, now corrected. Not wanting too much time to elapse breeding Tessa and Mai, I decided to breed them both. That was when I left my brain behind in my bed that day. LOL Mai came into season one day after Tessa, so progesterone timing and the breedings would be very close. It unraveled from there. LOL Without making this a painfully long explanation, we did breed Tessa easily using Dr. Hutchison in Cleveland via a transcervical insemination. Getting Mai pregnant was another issue. After several interferences, an uncooperative Mai, going only on her LH peak, etc, etc, she stunned us by being pregnant! We had no clue she'd even conceived. Needless to say, she is VERY fertile and the sire, Doc, is VERY virile! LOL

On New Year's Day, 2009, Tessa whelped 10 black puppies. Then 3 days later, Mai whelped 7 black puppies, and 1 chocolate female on January 4, 2009! This from a dam who wanted nothing to do with getting pregnant, and us believing her ruse. The chocolate is not available until I see how she looks at 6-8 weeks. :-)

To bring you up-to-date, it's been a VERY busy week, hence the lack of photos until now. I sleep in the living room on the sofa bed just a few feet from both girls, ensuring nothing out of the ordinary is going on. Tessa is in the dining room behind me, and Mai is in the kitchen, adjacent to Tessa, but of course, separated by a very tall gate. The a.m.'s are busy with feeding, letting dogs outside in shifts, and weighing puppies. So far, all are gaining and looking very healthy and adorable! Both dams are very good mothers. That always makes my job easier.

I have a "puppy sitter" who is with the girls and their broods daily for about 4 hours. She's wonderful, and alleviates my anxieties about not being able to stay with the puppies for weeks at a time. When I return home late afternoons from work, it's feeding dogs and letting them out again in shifts. Then beginning on day 3 of life and for 13 days, I do neuro-stimulation exercises with all of the puppies. This has been shown to enhance canine health, endurance, and intelligence. When puppies are whelped their eyes and ears are completely closed. Their main functioning senses are smell and tactile. The neuro-stimulation exercises enhance those senses and increase neural pathways in the brain. At about the age of 16 days, the puppies' eyes and ears begin to open and they become more aware of their environment, so the neuro-stimulation is no longer as effective.

Keep checking back here. I hope to have updates frequently with pictures and video. Once the puppies reach 3 weeks of age, they then become very entertaining!