Puppies Have Arrived

dog pup 1

Kaisa wasted no time in getting down to having her puppies.  Having 'prepared' her nest, she was very unsettled on Sunday morning and tried to bury her breakfast - since, when it comes to food, Kaisa is very much a chip off the old block (Toive) this forewarned me that her labour was not far away.

dog pup 2

I would have guessed she would have the puppies over the night of Sunday/Monday, but she was a good girl and decided to have them in day light hours.  The first really noticeable contraction was at about 16:00hrs on Sunday 10th April, and by 16.45 the first boy puppy (with white tipped hind feet) was born, weighing on at a good 400g, a few minutes to find out what to do and clean him up and the contractions started again with the second puppy another boy born at 17:15 (380g), he has a little white streak like a  lightening flash from chest to tummy.  Both puppies were quickly suckling - something I am keen to get started as this stimulates the bitch to produce more oxtytocin which brings milk down and encourages uterus to contract - to push out next puppy.

dog pup 3

The scan had shown 4 puppies, and Kaisa still looked 'pregnant' so we were expecting more: only another half hour passed (17:45) and out came the third puppy - yet another boy at 400g, settling down to enjoy the new family we had to wait an hour for the fourth - a little girl at 18:45, another with the tiniest of white tips to toes and a white bib at her throat, she was a shade lighter than the boys at 350g.

the bitch pup

I then got Kaisa to stand as I was not convinced she was empty, and a gentle feel highlighted what appeared to be another puppy - so I set the 4 puppies suckling and we did not have long to wait for the "stowaway" and 4th boy at 19:15, weighing in at 400g as well (he has the tiniest white tip to his tail).  A lovely even litter all good weights.

dog pup 4

The pups don't have a lot of white on them, but markings are bright and already very noticeable, so think they will follow mum, Kaisa (Elbereth Kaisa at Arktinen) and dad, Usko (Int/NL Ch Fidelis Duuri) with lovely markings.  On health front, Kaisa has a hip score of 8:6 and Usko is A, both are prcd-1 PRA clear so puppies will be genetically clear of this form of PRA, they both hold a current clear eye certificate.   All the puppies are already spoken for:)  More photos of the lovely new family.