10 Things I Learned About A Litter of Puppies

It's not easy to see, but at least parts of all eight puppies are there!

1. It didn't matter one bit that I knew nothing about birthin' puppies. Thanks to the power of Mother Nature, Vega birthed the litter of eight all by herself. I was more than happy to be her biggest cheerleader.

2. Putting Vega in the blue kiddie pool to birth those pups was a great idea. It was portable, easy to clean and just the right size.  Moving the pool into my bedroom when it all began at 2AM was an infinitely better solution for me than a sleeping bag in the garage.

3. Diarrhea after birthing eight puppies is to be expected from a mother dog beginning a day or two after the litter is born. I'm sure it's not a pleasant experience for the canine. And it's definitely not pleasant for the human doing the clean-up.

4. The weight gained during pregnancy practically falls off a mother dog. Just days after giving birth Vega was thinner than she was prior to becoming pregnant. From a human mother's point of view that just doesn't seem fair. But I guess nursing eight puppies will do that to a mom.

5. It's true. For the first few weeks after having the puppies, the mama dog does everything - feeding, cleaning, comforting -  so there's not much to do but enjoy those babies.

6. That clean-up I mentioned above, doesn't last. As the puppies grew Vega did a good job of cleaning the pool, but definitely not the stellar job she did at the beginning. I had to step in and clean up behind her (and the puppies) at least once a day. 

7. For Vega, nursing eight babies began to loose its allure starting when the puppies were about three weeks of age. I had to actively encourage her to stick with it. But I could feel her pain - literally. As the days went by, nursing time could best be described as a feeding frenzy similar to what's shown on Shark Week, complete with razor sharp puppy teeth. Ouch!

8. Puppies take to puppy food like ducks to water. They even dive right in, just like ducks do. And because the puppy chow should be blended into a gruel at the beginning, meal time is quite a messy operation.

9. To go along with the mess that puppy food on the paws, legs and belly creates, there's the mess that comes after since the mother dog no longer cleans the pool or whelping box once the puppies stop nursing. Eight puppies, eating three times a day .... well, you do the messy math.

10. All the reading about breeding, canine pregnancy, whelping and caring for a litter of puppies was nothing compared to going through it myself. The advice of friends is no preparation either. But I managed to learn as I went along. Bottom line, it's like the Nike slogan says, Just Do It.