A new generation of canine deer trackers is born

It all started with breeding our "Tuesday" (FC Tuesday von Moosbach-Zuzelek) to "Kunox (FC Kunox von der Dohlmühle), which took place on January 4 and 6. All went well. This is going to be a second litter for Tuesday, and she has very good instincts and mates easily.  Kunox, even though inexperienced, finally figured out how to use his equipment.

Tuesday's pregnancy went smoothly. She had a good appetite for the first few weeks and towards the end she ate mainly home made food. She never got overly large and we did not bother to do an ultrasound or X-rays. We knew she was pregnant, probably with 5, tops 6 pups. Last year she whelped 5 pups, when she was bred to Tommy.

We have had a very cold and snowy winter so she did not get almost any exercise in January and February. But her spirits remained high. I love this dog, who has an excellent on/off switch - off in the house and on the field.

On Sunday night, March 8, I stayed up with Tuesday all night, and then in the morning was relieved by John.

 

We knew that the whelping would start soon. On Monday morning she started to pant heavily, shiver and she felt like she needed to go to bathroom every couple of hours. Finally her water bag emerged at 12:30 PM and the first puppy arrived at 1:40 PM. This was a female pup, dark in color and weighing 9.6 oz. We call her Willette (she has a pink collar).

Then we had a long break, which was quite nerve wracking. Just about when I was going to call our vet, the second pup was born at 4:14 PM. It was another female, Wiki (yellow) weighing 8.6 oz. Three more pups followed:
4:37 PM a female weighing 9.4 oz, whom we named Willow (lime collar)
5:37 PM an 8.8 oz male Woody (blue)
6:30 PM an 8.8 oz male Waldi (purple)
I can't believe that the whelping actually took place during the day! John had his first litter in 1965 and I had mine in 1991 so we have assisted our bitches to whelp over many decades, yet one never knows in advance how things are going to go. We were lucky this time as everything went smoothly without complications.

From left: Willette, Wiki, Woody, Waldi and Willow.

Today (Saturday, March 14) puppies are five days old and continue to do very well. Tuesday has a good appetite and pups have put already a lot of weight. Waldi put on 6 ounces!