Pregnancy Calendar

I just thought I would include a little more information about how this all works and the timing. First the Dam goes into heat. This is the bleeding stage. The amount of blood depends on the size of the Dam. If you have a very large breed you can expect a great deal more blood than if you have a small breed. This is just like a woman having her period. However a good breeder usually knows that she is coming into heat before this even happens. The Dams vulva will swell a day or two before the bleeding actually starts.



When the bleeding starts I like to put a diaper on. This keeps the house much nicer. ;-) If your girl likes to take this off I have found that a baby onesie works great. Callie would not be allowed on the furniture without hers.


A Dam should never be bred on her first heat cycle. This usually happens at about 6 months of age and she is still a puppy herself. She still needs to develop and does not have what it takes to develop herself and a litter of puppies. Either the Dam or the pups will suffer for this. It is best to wait until the third heat cycle. This way your Dam is 1 ½ to 2 years old and is mature enough herself to handle the developing puppies.
So your Dam is old enough but when is she fertile and ready to breed? It is about 12 days from when the bleeding started. The blood will not be a bright red anymore and more like a pinkish discharge. The Dam will mount the male or other females or puppies. She is also willing to stand still and will move her tail out of the way making it easier for him to penetrate. She will back her butt up to the male. If you have the Stud with you he will know when it is right. If you do not have the Stud and you are doing artificial insemination it is best to use a Vet. They have tests that can tell you exactly when is the best time. It is really important if you are doing artificial because the sperm will not live as long in the female as with fresh. Fresh sperm can live in the female up to 5 days. Where chilled sperm only lives 1 day and frozen sperm only lives a few hours. Eggs can live for five days as well.
So your Dam goes into heat and she will remain in heat for up to 21 days. By day 12 the Dams blood is more pinkish and by day 16 they have usually stopped bleeding. It is important to note that just because her bleeding has stopped does not mean she is out of heat. All it means is that she has ovulated. Her eggs can live for 5 days. So even though she is not bleeding she can still get pregnant. After the bleeding stops you still need to be careful for about a week.
So your Dam was in heat and you had a few Ties. When are the puppies due? It takes 63 days from ovulation not from when they were bred. As I said the sperm and the eggs live for several days. Also if you have the Stud with you then most likely you had more than one Tie. So how do you figure when the 63 days is. Well you really don’t know for sure. You can however narrow it down to within a week. You would take the first time they were bred and count 56 days ahead. It is best to keep a calendar of this. You will want to start taking your Dams temperature at least 3 times a day at that time. When the temperature drops whelping should begin in the next 24 hours.
So to sum up, your dogs breed, then wait 57 to 65 days.
Callie and Tux were first bred on 3/26/2010. So she would be due 5/21~5/30. I would expect puppies to arrive sometime during that week.