Paws for Puppy Tales -February 2022

2/2/22. How’s that for a date to start this months posts? Big to-do about the string of 2’s in todays date. It IS February and two weeks from today (give or take a day or two) we will have our 12th litter of Biewer Terrier puppies here. Dolly is 7 weeks PG and progressing nicely, eating well and getting quite a belly on her. I am getting anxious for her x-ray in the 11th; will there be 4 puppies as seen on the ultrasound or more? We’ll find out before to long. A new date for Westminster was announced yesterday, set for June 18-22 at Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown, NY. Now we can start making plans again on travel arrangements, hotel reservation, show entry, and getting Winston back to the handlers. I read today that entries for the show don’t open until mid March and that new invitations will be sent out to the invitees so there is some time. Yesterday was DK’s 11th birthday and this Friday (the 4th) is John’s. Crisler ended up in the hospital yesterday for appendicitis surgery so their birthday celebrations will be different this year but at least they are together. Crisler will be in the hospital for a few days, so I am having John and DK over for dinner tomorrow. Hoping John can get our internet network working in my laptop; it’s been in the fritz for the last couple of days and that just won’t do. That’s it for now…….

2/4/22 Happy 36th (?) birthday to John today! We ended up keeping Dk here overnight last night after dinner so that John could spend the night at the hospital with Crisler. Happy to hear that she will be going home today to recuperate for another two weeks from her surgery. As it turns out the big problem with our internet was not so big at all, only that somehow our WIFI got turned off on our modem(?), so it was basically a flick/push of the switch/button to get things back up and running again. DUH!

I started setting up Dolly's whelping/nursery pen/cage area. Wanting to figure a way to keep her and the pups up higher for the first two weeks or so (for the sake of saving some aches and pains on my back and knees), I purchased a large wire dog crate and set it on a grooming table. I'm not quite comfortable with the little room it leaves for Dolly to go potty or get up to eat something. I've been looking on Facebook Marketplace for a larger crate and also have seen options of baby cribs, even a mini baby crib, which might be better.??? I just don't know and hate to spend more money on something that may or may not work. Hmmmm, what to do, what to do.

2-9-22 Nothing much going on except that Dolly is getting HUGE! Her x-ray is set for Friday and I am anxious to find out how many puppies she is carrying. With as big as she is and being up to 9 lbs already I am thinking (and hoping)she has at least 5 so that it's not her puppies getting so big that could cause problems when it comes to giving birth. We want everything to go smooth and as easy as possible for this first time momma. In other news, our federal and state income tax refunds have been deposited into our bank account already; I think it was even less than two weeks since submitting them to the IRS. So a nice chunk of change was added to our savings account even with leaving a little of each in our spending or bill pay account. Next weekend is the dog show in Des Moines; Winston will be there with Kathy while I sit this one out being home with new puppies. There is a total of 10 Biewer Terriers showing, all being Kathy's, Winston, Christine's, and one other that Kathy says is going to be Stryker, another Windsong CH dog that I think has always won over Winston when they've shown together. Hoping maybe he and his handler won't show up. But, with 10 Biewer Terriers there, at least I think that even a "Select" placement might earn him a point or two???

2-11-22 X-rays this morning confirm quite clearly that Dolly will be having 4 puppies. Dr. Rhine came in to the exam room stating 4 big puppies. That word big is not necessarily one I like to hear, however she did not come in stating that the looked to big to whelp naturally, so for that reason I will consider "big" to mean healthy for now. The x-ray was a nice one; very clear and easy to see. Now the waiting game begins; I'm looking forward to seeing what the puppies will look like and what sexes they will be. With both Winston and Skye retiring from the show ring, I sure hope to get my next show dog from this litter. I did mention to Debarah Billings (Dolly's breeder) about the litter, not knowing whether she would want her "puppy back" from pups that were not a Dolly/Winston litter, but she said that she would at least like the chance to see the pups before deciding. I've also got applications on file as well as a few new ones coming in this past month. If the pups are marked nicely, they will not be made available for adoption as pets until they are much older so that I can watch how they mature. For now. . . . . on to the anticipation of the wait!

2-12-22 Well, didn't have to wait very long!! Dolly showed early signs of first stage of labor in the early evening on the 11th and progressed to more definite discomfort when we moved to

the whelping area at around 9 pm that evening. Lots of nesting, shredding potty pads, panting, with some light pushing (?) went on for a couple of hours before I decided to get up off the floor

and lay in bed to try and get some rest since it seemed this first stage was lingering on. At about

1 AM I heard Dolly doing quite a bit of licking so I got up to see what was going on. Dolly had just

given birth to her first puppy on her own, a healthy 5 oz GIRL. The other three pups came sporadically lasting until about 3:30 AM when the last one arrived; two more girls and the last being a boy. Unfortunately, the second pup born had a very difficult birth and was stillborn, unable to be revived. I'm not sure if it was the difficult birth that caused her to be stillborn or if she was already gone before then. It seemed that she was born along with the placenta and possibly with it wrapped around her???? The male also was tough to come out and needed some help taking his first breaths, but thankfully he survived. All of the pups were in the 5 oz range confirming Dr Rhine's prediction of "big" puppies. I'm so thankful that Dolly was able to

whelp them naturally and no middle of the night ER vet trip was needed. First impression of the three surviving pups, the girls are both fairly nicely marked and could be nice show prospects. The male has very little black on his body and a wide white blaze on his head. One eye has only a very little color to it, so it seems he will make someone a very nice pet.

It is shortly after 7 AM and I haven't been to sleep all night. I think it's time for a nap!

2-21-22 Dolly's puppies are a little over one week old and all three of them are doing great! Nursing well and happy & content, doubling their birthweight at one week old as the rule of thumb goes. Dolly is being a very attentive mama, BUT. . . . . . SHE WILL NOT EAT/HAS NOT EATEN ON HER OWN since they were born. Anything she has eaten has been spoon fed by me. She otherwise seems perfectly fine, temperature is normal, acting normal, going potty normally, and a good mama, she just won't eat. She eats what I feed her though does not enjoy the process and will sulk when she sees me coming with food. I'm very close to calling the vet for a wellness check up and/or advice or a shot of something to get her eating habits back on track. I do remember having this issue with other girls but I don't remember it lasting this long. Other than that though, all is well with mama and puppies. This past weekend was the dog show in Des Moines. Kathy and Dave picked up Winston on Friday. The best Winston could get in the two shows was Select Dog placements due to having the competition of another Windsong CH male there that we've competed against before with no luck getting BOB over. Kathy said he earned 2 points each day but I'm wondering if it was 3?? Time will tell when the points get logged on the AKC site. Now unfortunately there will be no more shows for us until April, since Kathy will be busy with a family trip in March. Darn! :(

That's it, nothing else to report for now. . . . . .

2-26-22 One more entry before we enter the month of March. Today Dolly's puppies are two weeks old. The two bigger pups are just at and slightly over 1 lb. and the other is just shy of a pound at 15 5/8 oz. At two weeks, their eyes should be opening soon though I don't yet see any changes just yet. It is always fun when they open their eyes, it gives their faces a whole new look, so I'm looking forward to it hopefully this week sometime. I broke down and took Dolly to the vet this past week due to her lack of appetite. I called them on Monday and just spoke with Dr. Peterson on the phone; he advised to continue what I was doing (feeding her making sure she gets plenty of calcium enriched foods) and to give her a few more days to see if she would start eating on her own. With no changes by Wednesday and not wanting to go into the weekend without some sort of answer, I called them again and got an appointment on Thursday to see Dr Rhine. Initial exam showed her as looking good, nothing abnormal with her post whelp discharge or teats. I had her do bloodwork to look for anything hiding there; results were "beautiful" as she put it. The only thing she noticed was that her kidney levels were slightly off suggesting that she might be just lightly dehydrated. With her bloodwork fine, the only thing left to do was to give her a dose of sub-Q fluid and send us home with 4 doses of Entyce, an appetite stimulant. Since then, Dolly has eaten AT TIMES on her own, but will still snub much food. I've noticed that it seems she eats the Stella & Chewys rehydrated raw food on her own best. This "not eating" is so odd and something I've never experienced before. I hope I don't end up having to take her back in again. Right now my thought is that since everything came back normal, if she continues to act her normal self I will just keep hand feeding her when I have to and hope her appetite and self feeding of the raw food continues, and just do what I have to do until the puppies are weaned. Gotta do what we gotta do, but it does seem a bit ridiculous. Still hoping her appetite will get back on track though. Time will tell.