piper

Sending good whelping vibes your way Sparky Tansy and looking forward to piccies soon.

Ok, we have a belly pic worthy of sharing now! 7 weeks today: Every Sunday I have taken a side profile shot of her standing on the grooming table. It doesn't show as much change as I expected it to (even though I cann feel and see the changes) however the big difference today was she could not even get on the grooming table. I lifted her up - man is she heavy!! Next week will be on the ground I think.

Oh my goodness, she is looking big!! Seems like we have a few big litters due in here. What is her due date?

Getting good shots of Jazz is not esy right now. Still has 2 weeks to go, is starting to look like she swalled a basketball and is pretty much over it already: Week 18/52

LOL - Piper is my other girl so I knew what you meant She is 10 and desexed though so definitely not her!! LOL I am sure with a large litter that extra weight will fall away while feeding pups but I figure it is better for her for whelping if she does not have excess weight and still has good muscle tone. Ari is looking great!

Sounding good! Thanks for reminding me to keep an eye out for beef liver. I might have to shop at Woolworths, hate our local but they often have beef when my normal place only has lamb. Jazz seems to be swelling daily, I can't imagine how big she will be in 2 weeks. I have put her onto puppy food now and 3 to 4 meals a day. Everyone tells me she still looks to be in great condition. I'm worried about over feeding though as I don't want excess weight but on the other hand with 8 or 9 pups in there I don't want her losing too much condition either. I'm lucky I don't need to get too much as the friend who lent me the whelping box gave me her whelping kit as well. I do want to get calcium sandoz though.

And are you all organised? I put the pig rails in the whelping box today and the vet bed and set up the heat lamp so we are all good to go. I do need to put away the clothes that have been dropped on the spare mattress though and make that up so I have somewhere to sleep.

Murmarstaff - they look like fat, healthy little bubbas!! BB, LOTG & ST - yes it is amazing what a difference 1 week makes. Does scare me as to how much more growth there is to go. And adoublej's pic of a bitch with 9 kind of drums it in!!

Great job Cole!! Sounds like the rest of it was near faultless We had a great day. I am exhausted. I will probably forget a breed or 2 but we had: Aussies, Beardies, Belgians (groens - I was in love with 1 of those, awesome girl!) Borders, Briards (and I loved the young boy that I worked with of these as well!), Corgis (both varieties), Collie (smooth and rough), Finnish Lapphunds, Rottweilers, Shelties. The majority of the dogs were ANKC main register although we also had a couple of working line BCs out too. I think there are a few more people now bitten by the herding bug.

WOO HOO Murmarstaffs!! But with my excitement comes holy crap - not long to go Ok, this week Jazz went from she felt pregnant to she looks pregnant. Here is a comparison of her side on, week by week. And a belly shot - the hair is thinning fairly rapidly down there now.

Loved both of your shots this week Clicking Mad - you wonder what gets in their heads when they just sit there like that when there are so many fun things they could be doing. LOL Helen - looks like you had similar weather. Mins is BORING. I had a few ideas for shots and was out at a herding training day instructing in rain and mud for over 6 hours today so when I got home all enthusiasm had gone and then my camera battery went flat. I have been taking a boring old side shot every week of Jazz's pregnancy, so here is a side on comparison of the 6 weeks so far. She definitely shows now.

Varda cracked me up - he had 20 or 30 amazing seconds when the switch went on in his brain. His eyes showed it so clearly and I thought here we go he is on now and I was ready to really start working with him. Then it went off again. Don't give in - some dogs take a few goes for that to become sustained interest. Also the smells in there today were apparently awesome - lots of dogs doing heaps of sniffing and boys trying to out pee each other. The fence near the pens stunk when we were packing up.

My girl is expecting 9 and I looked at it with terror! LOL. We were out and about today and a few people said "oh she isn't that big" then I pointed out the 3 weeks to go. Others looked and went OH MY GOD. LOL I have found she is slowing down though, there have been definite changes this week - her belly dropped, her appetite went up. I just hope we get through the next 3 weeks. I swear she gets bigger every day. I normally do a Sunday photo but haven't managed to do 1 today, will try for it tomorrow instead.

cloverthistle - as long as it has the screws it should be fine. I think the issue is just when they have plastic clips to hold them together and no screws. I have used a cratethat had both clips and screws and not hand any problems. Vari kennels are good if you can find them but often quite pricey. And I remember a thread on here earlier this year about pp50s being introduced - basically the next size up from the pp40. Maybe do a search of DOL?

Just some other things to consider: If you book VirginBlue, you have to ring up if booking a pet as well. You can't book online. However if you look up the online price and tell them that on the phone as you book and that you are only ringing as you need to book a pet on they will usually match the online price and not charge the extra fee. If flying ona Sunday - ring and speak to the freight place. We recently had a situation where QANTAS had said it was fine to book a dog on accompanied for a Sunday evening flight only to find out the day before that AAE closes early in Adelaide on a Sunday!! Get a quote from an animal transport company - sometimes it works out cheaper.

Oh good some more may babies . Three weeks to go here and Jazz's shape changed so much during the week. She also seems to be slowing down and is constantly hungry. I am finding it a hard balancing act between giving her enough and not over feeding her. She is now on more than double her usual food in three meals a day and I can still easily feel ribs. I have ordered the vet bed for the whelping box and bought some toys suitable for puppies. The friend that lent me the whelping box also lent me her kit of whelping stuff so I only have a few small things to get for that. Currently I am trying to find cheap carpet or Lino to go over the normal carpet in the room.

Ok, here we go. I have included some earlier 1s for comparison. I too her for a visit to agility tonight and everyone there commented how wide she looks, she normally is very lean and has quite a big abdominal tuck for a BC and now there is none! March 26: April 24 April 10 April 24

Love the belly shots! I am still taking weekly side on, over head and belly shots but with a coated breed you still can't tell in the photos:( She feels huge though.

You are more than welcome!! It seems the least I can do. With a pregnant dog, I can't take a dog on, I don't have many spare dollars and with work donation of time is not easy. So giving the use of a crate is nothing really compared to what others are doing. I would love to do more to help if I could. Awesome effort everyone involved!!

I'm another who likes a bigger gap for a variety of reasons. We had 2 boys 11 months apart. That means 2 old dogs at once - lots of vet bills and an awful lot of heartache. I loved the boys dearly and would not change having the 2 of them for anything but I would not do it again. Ricky's training got neglected as we had Reagan to worry about. In the end they both suffered with training. I was still a novice trainer and hadnt really worked it out so managed to stuff up 2 dogs instead of 1. By the time I got it worked out the damage to both was done. But the worst thing of all was having 2 dogs entering teen years and watching 2 dogs go downhill, we were barely over Ricky when it was time to say goodbye to Reagan.

I have been waiting for your brag Xena - what an awesome brag it is!! A huge achievement for such a young dog and for you to have 3 dual titled ObCh and AgCh dogs, well done!!!!!

Amazing photos but I just showed my husband and his response was the same as Paula's, lol.

I picked up the borrowed whelping box and heat lamp today. After much hassle, I managed to get it in. It is a JUST fit. So I squished it in, puffed and panted trying to push it past the mattress and got it in position. Then I looked at it and realied the pig rails are in the family room. They are scremed in from the outside, so it will need to be moved again to put them on!! Yesterday I attacked the bouganvillea that were over running the rest of the area outside. What I had originally planned on doing and what I am now doing are 2 different things - the difference between a summer and winter litter. The other area has lots of lawn and some nice big trees for good shaded areas, however it was oging to be a battle to get an area protected from the weather. The carport area I am going to use doesn't have a lot of lawn but is mostly covered and I worked out what I am going to do for a wind and rain break yesterday so they will be able to be outside more and be dry and out of the wind. I just wish there was less hard surface and more grass from a house training point of view. I am wondering if it is worth getting a couple of trailer loads of mulch/bark or something else to go over part of the area? Murmarstaff - how is you girl today? Fingers crossed everything is ok.

Yep, I know where Vic lives. When is good to go get them? I need to line up mum to look after the kids. Ker, it sounds like you aren't far from me. I can drop the bigger crate off tomorrow if you want. Will be a nice size for mum and pup. I have to go out at some stage during the day. Just not sure what time but I can do it before or after as I have no other plans.

I have a litter due and the pregnant 1 is a cranky cow so I can't help take a dog but I have a couple of wire crates in the shed Ker if you need to borrow them. Or same offer if the dogs go to someone else. I am about 40 mins North of the city. ETA: Send me a PM if the crates are needed. They are BC size so should suit an elkie. The bigger 1 could probably manage 2 for short stints.