From the Start to Home - Havanese Conception to Going Home

I decided to leave http://talemakerhavanese.com/ as a daily musings of our lives with all our dawgs and separate the gestation to home into a new blog...called Havanese Life.

My goal is to give you a glimpse into the craziness of Havanese breeding and not just the fluff.

Let's start at the beginning - the heat... Havanese go into heat on an average of twice a year. If you have a male in your house, you are either breeding them to your female(s) or having insane times. Breeding shouldn't be done just to make your life easier or to make $$ as there are lots of hidden costs and you can't make much - certainly live on such unless you are breeding like crazy and then something falls apart beyond the ethics of such things and you can't possibly do what we do with our pups with such an operation. If your desire is to perfect the breed, then you may use your own male or you may go out and use another stud for a variety of reasons that should all compliment your female and bring something into the equation that helps you get something you are striving for.

Last heat we had a few gals in heat but only Wasabi being bred. Things were fine when she was being bred but Abigail who is not being bred till next heat had the focus on her. Males that are not fixed - well they can be a tad crazy..well tad is an understatement. Okay - they are over the top determined. They can stop eating - whine for the gals and their teeth chatter and you get NO sleep. It's awful. You suddenly don't know your male. You could send them out or send your females out and it would make life easier but then we tend to just deal.

We have separate doors in each room. We negotiate who goes out when - sleeping is separate - the marking and then finally its over. No one can tell you how it really is until you experience it. Then when it is over, your life returns to normal and your male is back to being his fun loving self.

When all that is done, you wait and you try to figure out if your female is pregnant. There are days you say - yes - days you think not or you are sure. It's a crazy game of waiting but at least it's only approx 63 days.

This is a calendar of sorts in this waiting game for our Havanese Wasabi who is pregnant now...

April 21, 2009 - first day of mating. (she had 12 others) - not the usual

April 22, 2009 - If the eggs are there the sperm travels to find the eggs.

April 23, 2009 - Sperm meets the eggs

April 24, 2009 - Fertilization

April 24-26, 2009 - Eggs migrate down the oviducts and into the uterine horn

April 27-May 1, 2009 - Eggs grow into blastocystes and implant in the wall of the uterus

May 2, 2009 - The blastocystes start growing into embryos

May 5th - 11th, 2009 - the dams nipples enlarge and turn pink and the fur on their tummies get thinner

May 12th - 18th, 2009 - Morning sickness can occur. It didn't with Wasabi but did her first time around

May 16th - 20th, 2009 - Palpation by an expert can occur to confirm pregnancy. You should not attempt this if you do not know what you are doing.

May 19, 2009 - the fetuses has transitioned into tiny beings (pups)

May 25th, 2009 - the canine mom's tummy grows by the day. Remember their pregnancy is much shorter than a humans.

May 27, 2009 - pregnancy confirmed with ultrasound.

June 4, 2009 - It's easy to feel pups although we could do this a week earlier just before the ultrasound.

June 7-9, 2009 - Canine mom may begin to get restless. She may look for a suitable place to have the pups. We get our whelping box up at this point and make it real comfie. She may spend time resting in it - getting familiar with it again. She may lose her appetite as the pups tend to grow. We tend to feed a lot of small meals to make this transition easier but still get sufficient nutrition in her without making her overweight. If a canine mom is too fat, it will make delivery very difficult if not impossible at times. C-sections are too common when your mom is too heavy. There are other reasons for a c-section but this is one contributing factor that you like to avoid.

It is also easy to feel movement at this time. We will try to get an upclose photo of movement in the tummy so you can see what it looks like - when it is time for Wasabi.

June 9 - 24th, 2009 - This is the time to shave the tummy, if not already done. Wash the tummy and make sure she is completely clean and ready for delivery. It also gives you extra time with the canine mom to make sure you have her in a positive state of mind - that she is loved and cared for and you will be there for her. Her state of mind is important and so is yours.

June 18, 2009 - X-ray is done to count how many they are and to give you an idea if the timing is on track.

June 19 - 22, 2009 - You should be able to express milky fluid at this time from the canine mom's nipples.

June 20, 2009 - You start to take their temperature twice a day. You are trying to get an indicator on when they are due to deliver.

June 23, 2009 - Twelve to twenty four hours before the canine's mom may drop from 101 to 98 degrees and then go back up again. You know pups are coming soon. Clear discharge may occur.

June 24, 2009 - Expected day of whelp but this is just an average. Whelping can occur from day 59 to day 65 from conception. With a mating over 2 weeks, it's hard to be accurate but Wasabi seems to be on track with this date if the changes that are occurring with her are any indicator.

We will be posting daily changes in Wasabi, her whelping, the pups straight to home and then some. We hope you will enjoy this look into how we do it. We promise not to sugar coat it but to be honest. It's a lot of work but a lot of joy. We hope you enjoy our journey.

More tomorrow....