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The Puppy Diary

by Cathy Lewandowski

307 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-0557; ISBN 1-4120-0189-7; US$24.95, C$36.00, EUR23.40, £16.30

Follow a litter of puppies from birth until they go to their new homes.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book Follow a litter of puppies from birthday until they go to their new homes. The diary contains lots of pictures, tips on puppy rearing, some breed specific information, and lots of information on the care of any breed of dog. I started doing an on-line puppy diary since many of the people that would be getting one of my pups would not be able to travel here to see the pups. I did not want to put a bunch of cute puppy pictures online, and encourage anyone to have a litter just because they wanted to see cute puppies! Breeding dogs, if done the right way, is a lot of work. Lost sleep and sometimes heartache. It takes a lot of time, effort and money to raise a litter of puppies. Enjoy my litter as I see them. Day to day.

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About the Author Cathy Lewandowski has been involved in the world of Pure Bred dogs since 1979. She competes with her dogs in the breed ring, obedience and agility. Pictured is the Author with SoftMaple's Pheasant Dreams CGC, a young Curly Coated Retriever at her first show.

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Sample Excerpts

Week Two (Days 8-14)

DEVELOPMENT OF THE PUPPIES

+ Eyes should open around days 8-10

+ Ears should open around days 13-17

+ Temperatures should be around 97-99F

Neonatal Period Birth to 2 weeks
Puppies are born with eyes and ears closed, Their experiences are through touch and smell. They are able to sense heat, cold, and texture. They are totally dependent upon their mother for everything, even the stimulation of bowl and bladder function.

Transitional 14 to 21 days
The puppy's nervous system undergoes rapid development. The eyes and ears open, and baby teeth appear. He begins to stand up and by three weeks will try to explore his environment.

He begins to interact with littermates and learns play behavior. By 21 days the puppies are able to lap food from a bowl, though they continue to nurse.

4/18/2002 8am: 1st day of week 2. :-)
The pups heads still look more like wrinkled old men. You can see the rounded nose, and small fat ears. Eyes are still closed, but should start opening up any day. When the eyes start to open, that's the end of the close up flash pictures for a while, since sudden bright light could damage the immature eyes.

3:00 pm. When I let Seger out this afternoon, she started digging a nest in the sand in our storage area. Sometimes dogs feel the need to relocate their young. Betty, Jet's mother, used to try to do this. She thought under the canoe would be a good place to raise her family, and every chance she got, she would dig a bigger and bigger hole under the overturned boat!

Needless to say, she was not allowed to move them!

Since it was another unseasonably hot day today, it may be Seger's way of looking for a cooler place. The heat supply is off in the puppy room now. For the first week, I had to keep the temperature in the 80 to 90 range, since the pups could not regulate body temperatures by themselves.

This is the second week, we can gradually lower the temperature to 70. Since its hotter than that outside, I set up a small fan for Seger in the corner of the whelping room. The pups still have to be protected from drafts and chilly night air, but Seger is feeling the heat. If she looks too uncomfortable, I will take the clippers and shave some of her coat.

She is also blowing her coat. Many times this beautiful mom looks like a haggard, pathetic bald thing when the pups are weaned. People coming to see the pups are usually shocked at how much hair a bitch can loose while raising a family. The combination of her spring shedding, the demand on her body feeding the family. Hormonal changes also contribute to the hair loss. Since a Curly does not have an undercoat, the hair loss is very noticeable. Seger is shedding quite a bit, but not as much as other bitches I have known. Her mother, Bumper, had a wonderful coat, even after raising 14 pups! Maybe Seger will be that lucky!

Are we having fun yet?

Think you want to try this at home*.
Breeding dogs can be a wonderful event. You've got a great looking animal which is very special to you, and you have found a great looking mate who is also wonderful, and between the two of them, you reckon that you can produce some wonderful pups. You may even have a bunch of people that say they would love a pup from your girl.

Unfortunately, the reality of life is that while beautiful puppies can result, in a large number of cases events happen during the breeding of a dog that far outweigh the much-wanted puppies.

A lot of people think that breeders make a lot of money And sometimes that thought alone is enough for some people to put their beloved friend at risk. I've yet to make money out of breeding.

When you breed your dog, you put her at risk. Yes, she can die giving birth, and you don't have time to grieve since you will be raising orphaned pups.

It's almost impossible to get a fading puppy to survive, and you can lose a whole litter to fading puppy syndrome. Your bitch can die while having them. I have known breeders who's bitch bloated and died when the pups were a few days old. I have known other breeders who have lost their bitch during an emergency C-section. They aren't just left to deal with the loss of their bitch; they are also left with whatever puppies live through the ordeal. These they have to hand raise, or find someone with a compatible bitch who will accept them as her own to nurse, clean and raise.

These are some of the costs that you will have to budget for:

• stud fee
• cost of shipping the bitch to the stud. I have spent anywhere from $300 to 1500 shipping a bitch for a breeding.
• brucellosis testing on both the bitch and the dog.
• Whelping box, heat pads, heat lamps, thermometer, scissors, towels, baby scales, tweezers, hemostats, baby suction bulb
• milk replacement formula and/or goats milk, baby bottles, tubes for tube feeding, sterilizing solution, nail clippers
• puppy wormer (2,4,6,& 8 weeks), puppy diarrhea medicine
• food - a pregnant female may need up to four times what she normally eats, and a nursing female will also need a lot of food. Puppies also eat much more food than what you would think
• vaccinations
• dewclaw removal
• Vet visit for health checks prior to going to new homes

Here are some of the hidden and not so hidden costs that you may not have thought about:

• vet checks and health tests to make sure that the bitch is ok to be mated and whelp
• ultrasounds or X-ray to confirm pregnancy, or see if there are still pups left to deliver when she stops having them.
• lots of extra washing for bedding in whelping box (water, detergent, paper towels, mops, bleach*)
• emergency vet trips (invariably late at night)for the emergency c-section
• emergency vet trips to save a dying pup
• increased electric and heat bill to keep pups warm.
• time off from work that you need to take to help the bitch and to make sure that no puppies get squashed, etc - allow at least 5 days off work for this
• vet visit and antibiotics for the bitch for such things as mastitis
• advertising to sell puppies (puppy packets, pedigrees, pictures)
• lots of phone calls to and from interested and not so interested puppy buyers

Let's look at the costs:

• stud fee - usually equivalent to the cost of one pup
• neonatal deaths - average 25% per litter - ok so let's say you lose two pups here (this means that so far after the stud fee, we only really have 5 left that we can sell to make money from)
• vaccinations, worming, eye certifications - that adds up to another pup (of course, you can save money by ignoring these important steps)
• food - extra food for bitch, and then food for puppies until the age of 8 weeks - that's half a pup. If you have to keep pups for longer, due to owner or family conflict, you still have to feed them, and they are growing!
• emergency vet visits to try and save the dying pup, or the emergency c-section on the mom - maybe both! - that is at least one pup, and more likely two. Let's say 1 and a half pups.
• Health checks on the bitch prior to whelping - checks for HD, annual eye certifications, thyroid checks, etc - that's another pup (but if you want to cut corners and ignore these very important checks you can save money here)
• Advertising the litter and answering numerous phone calls - that's half a pup
• Time off taken from work to whelp litter - which is at least one pup, more likely two, and in some cases, equivalent to the total selling price of whole litter. Let's say one and a half pups.
• Breeder support - for the life of the pup a good breeder will be there to take back those pups whose owners can no longer keep them. Also a good breeder will keep in regular contact with her puppy owners. Let's be really conservative here and say, that's the cost of just one pup.
• And you want to keep one pup for yourself, so you can't sell that one.

Okay, now go back through the list and work out, realistically, how many pups you need to get from a litter so that you just break even. 12 - maybe. And of course, for those of us that have bred litter with that many pups know exactly how much extra work that is, especially if the bitch is not a great mother, and only has 8 working tits.

If you make any profit at all, set aside some of it. You want to guarantee your litter, don't you? What is someone comes to you 2 years down the road, who purchased a show quality bitch and her hips don't pass OFA? You will want to refund their money, and give them a pup from your next litter.

It has been well documented that about 75% of 1st time breeders do not attempt to breed again because of the cost, work and time involved.

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Catalogue Information

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