I have tried this before, but with two litters at the same time the first time I ever had puppies, I had NO hope of keeping an online journal up lol. So I thought I would give it another shot now that I am doing what sane people do, and just having 1 litter HAHA!

We arrived in Alaska on day 8 of her heat and got our first tie the following day, April 29. My guess is she ovulated on day 8, so likely "took" on the 30th/May 1st. So that would make puppies due July 1st, give or take a few days on each side.

Our ultrasound was May 29th and showed 6 for sure, possibly a 7th. As ultrasounds are so unreliable, we do have our xray scheduled for June 26th. I don't usually use ultrasound to count at all, just ask the vet to confirm pregnancy and make sure there is more than 1 in there - just so I can start to plan for a cesarean if necessary. This time a brand new vet did our appt, and asked for the practice, so I let her try her hand at counting.

This is Ironhide's third, and final, litter. Her previous litters were at 4.5 years old (7) and 5.5 years old (10). She is now 7.5 and I have noticed several differences with this litter that I didn't see with the first two - 1) she is SUPER affectionate. While Ironhide is hyper social and literally will climb in any friendly strangers lap for a quick greeting, she isn't "affectionate", preferring to share space than be pet or rubbed. Well imagine my surprise when this dog is now sleeping ON me, it was my first clue, and 2) she is slowing HERSELF down. With her first two litters we were having to slow her down for her own good, right up to the last week of pregnancy, before she finally would keep herself in check. This time, I noticed by 21-23 days she was already slowing herself down and she sleeps A LOT - much like a normal pregnancy I would see with one of my Pomeranians.

I will do my best to post at least once a week through pregnancy, whelping and puppy rearing - I beyond excited for this litter, just keeping fingers and toes crossed a lovely female will be able to stay back to carry forward her dams torch <3

Ultrasound - Meet "Squiggle" lol


Measuring our vet bed to fit the whelping box


When I first realized something was "different" - she was only about 14 days at this point, you can see my suitcase still not unpacked from our trip in the background lol


Ironhide is raw raised and fed, her puppies will be weaned to raw and raised raw until they are just about to go home. I will add kibble to their diet about a week before they go, so families can choose to keep feeding raw or switch them to kibble.


Ironhide's pre-pregnancy physique - for reference. She is 58/60 lbs normally.

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How exciting to have another litter on the way from such a nice dog. Ironhide is still looking great! Can you tell us a little bit about the sire you've chosen? Is this a repeat breeding, or a different sire than her previous two litters?

I will be looking forward to your posts. I'm wishing Ironhide a safe and successful pregnancy and wishing for you that nice female pup to carry on the legacy.

 Quote: Cheri Grissom

How exciting to have another litter on the way from such a nice dog. Ironhide is still looking great! Can you tell us a little bit about the sire you've chosen? Is this a repeat breeding, or a different sire than her previous two litters?

I will be looking forward to your posts. I'm wishing Ironhide a safe and successful pregnancy and wishing for you that nice female pup to carry on the legacy.

Thanks Cheri!

Here is the pedigree for the litter (Obelix's title info and health testing isn't completely up to date):
http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/breeding.result?father=1997001&mother=669832

Different sire than her first two litters (Which were also different sires).

The sire is absolutely amazing, earning his PD2 this last weekend with high in tracking. He has produced a few litters with my breeder and I was able to meet 6 of his puppies from 3 previous litters (male and female from each litter), and they all carried some AMAZING traits that repeated themselves despite the different dams. Great temperaments (even with kids), amazing protection work, great drives all around. I am just hoping those traits will come through in my litter - Ironhide has proven she can produce some amazing dogs too, so hoping the genetics align

Going to be cool keeping up with this!

Bump watch - day 37





This is the time in the pregnancy when I start to worry that the ultrasound was wrong, or maybe the litter was absorbed. I KNOW there are puppies in there, but she just doesn't seem to be as big as I *think* she should be lol. She also always keeps them up high, in her ribs, so it does take a bit longer for her bump to appear.

I have increased her food slightly - adding 1 cup of kibble in the morning, and about a 1/2 lb or raw food to her evening meal, 2 lbs total in the evening. I can still easily feel ribs, but her skin is starting to stretch. Following her previous 2 litters, her skin never did go back to its original "fit". She is one of those girls who packs on weight when pregnant (her mom was this way too), so its a balancing act of allowing her body to do what it needs to do, without getting out of control. She has previously produced TONNES of milk (her litter of 10 never needed any supplementation) and she has 12 functioning nipples, another plus.

Her regular weight is 58/60 lbs, when she delivered her puppies in 2015 (10 of them), she weighed an amazing 86 lbs!

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Only 6 days have passed since my last "Bump Watch" post, and she has grown exponentially over that time. I can't believe she has 20(ish) days left!

She has previously always gotten very large, and has only had one puppy under a lb at birth (of 18 delivered). So she can get very big, even if the litter is not large in number, they are usually larger puppies for her size. Her largest puppy delivered was my "keeper male", Hellboy, who weighed in at 1 lb 5 oz's.

Day 43(ish) and she has a beautiful pregnant belly!


She sleeps A LOT! And wasn't even mad that I took only the boys for a long hike yesterday. She had a mini workout session this morning vs a walk and was done after 10 minutes... well I put her away after 10 minutes, I think she would have gone longer :P

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That is really interesting. On day 37, I would not have guessed she was pregnant if I didn't know it. On day 43, she definitely looks it! Just a couple more weeks and you should get a fairly accurate count of the pups from the x-ray.

Of course, we never know what dogs are really thinking, but I would imagine that Ironhide is feeling some changes in her body and remembering what happened the last two times she was feeling this way, and so she knows she's about to become a mom again. Maybe that has something to do with her slowing down and sleeping a lot, which you said she didn't really do as much with her first two pregnancies. Maybe this time, she knows what's ahead and she's trying to conserve all the energy she can.

I hate that window between day 30 and day 40 - you know they're pregnant, because the ultrasound said so, but you can't see, or just barely see it!

I think a few factors play into her differences with this pregnancy - probably most of it is she is experienced now, but also older. I noticed when she turned 6 years old she definitely stopped needing multiple hours of exercise/training each day, and she also mastered her conditioned "off switch" - she does not have one genetically. I am not complaining though, AT ALL, it was hell trying to keep her "in check" with her pregnancies. I struggled with pushing her too hard and having her stress increase because I wasn't doing enough. This time I am enjoying letting her set the pace for a change.

Yes, I was wondering if her age was a factor, too. Although we have another thread going on right now that is discussing high-drive dogs that are not slowing down in their older years -- or at least not much! I have two dogs age nine and ten, and although they are always up for a game of ball in the yard, they do tend to chill (most of the time anyway) in the house. That makes me happy, since I am slowing down as I get older, too.

Somehow I missed your story, Niomi. So sorry you have to go through all this. It must be stressing for you and Ironhide too. I think Cheri might be right about age and previos experience of her. I'm sure you'll soon cheer up and be happy with the new litter and Ironhide without doubt too. All so difficult and full of worries, but then it will be a great joy.

By the way - she is a beautiful dog and the other ones too. Wish you all good luck and once you've made it through all this a whole lot of pleasure