I can't believe that it's been five days already that I saw the first of Dancer's puppies being born. She had only had a few light contractions that evening and I did not really anticipate much happening until at least the following morning. But things happened faster than I thought. The first puppy, a brindle and white parti-color girl, was born at 4:40 am and the last puppy, a fawn girl, was born at 8:40 in the morning. Overall Dancer had an easy whelping and all the puppies were nursing in less than an hour.
Now, after 5 days, some of the puppies have gained 50% or more of their birth weight and all are quite strong. All the instinctive movements that newborn puppies make are preparing them for life once their eyes and ears open. The pumping the teats for milk with their front feet and the pushing up of their bodies with their hind feet prepares them for walking and running. Already there is a hierarchy developing that is based mostly on body weight, but even at this early stage seems to be also based on persistence even in the face of adversity (being pushed out of the way by stronger pups).
Dancer, who started by barely leaving the pups alone the first 2 days even to go potty started taking naps by herself on the bed I put up for myself near the whelping box while the puppies were napping. She also was ready to go for a walk and chase a frisbee a few times. At the same time she has gotten more protective of the kitchen where her whelping box is and will keep other dogs from standing on the other side. We ended up putting a visual barrier to give her more privacy.
The changes for our household have been interesting as well. In spite of all the excitement and the additional work, things have quieted down a lot in our house. Usually the noise level, and sometimes the stress level with it, is fairly high. But we changed feeding procedures for the other dogs to eliminated most barking , asked our daughter to play only soft music and generally keep things relaxed and found that everyone benefited.
Having puppies has been an incredibly rewarding experience overall. In spite of some difficulties, including a still birth after two days as a result of a very large breech puppy that got stuck in the birth canal twice and the not so fun but necessary exercise of removing dew claws I experienced a totally new side of dog ownership. The responsibility I feel for these young lives is really not unlike the one I felt for my daughter every since she was born.
Since I had focused on dog rescue for many years (hounds mostly) it took me a long time to decide to breed. What contributed significantly was the fact that whippets are very rarely found for adoption at local shelters and also end up in rescue fairly rarely compared to many other breeds. There is nobody within 50 miles of our home who breeds whippets as far as I know (either show or racing). When I heard that Tony Lewis was breeding his last litter, the one that Dancer (Lyth Moon Dance) was part of, I decided I wanted a puppy that I could some day breed from this litter.
Then something interesting happened. As I looked over the pictures of the puppies that Tony had put on Facebook I saw her and knew that I wanted her immediately. As I looked at her, the name Moon Dance came to my mind. When I called Tony to find out if this puppy was available he answered yes and told me he had named her Moon Dance or Moon Dancer. The rest is history.
Dancer joined our family that at the time also included 2 other Whippets (Sky and Brio), 2 Pointer mixes, a Beagle, a Chinese Crested and a Cocker Spaniel. By now the number of adult dogs is down to 5 and we were ready to add a few family members and bring in some new life. Also, our daughter just turned 18 and graduated from High School and while she will still live at home while in college I will have far more time from to focus on my passion of raising and training animals including dogs, cats, ducks, chickens and a quarter horse. Of all these dogs have always been my first love. When I was a teenager and saw a whippet for the first time I thought this had to be the most beautiful breed of dog. I still think so!
Now, after 5 days, some of the puppies have gained 50% or more of their birth weight and all are quite strong. All the instinctive movements that newborn puppies make are preparing them for life once their eyes and ears open. The pumping the teats for milk with their front feet and the pushing up of their bodies with their hind feet prepares them for walking and running. Already there is a hierarchy developing that is based mostly on body weight, but even at this early stage seems to be also based on persistence even in the face of adversity (being pushed out of the way by stronger pups).
Dancer, who started by barely leaving the pups alone the first 2 days even to go potty started taking naps by herself on the bed I put up for myself near the whelping box while the puppies were napping. She also was ready to go for a walk and chase a frisbee a few times. At the same time she has gotten more protective of the kitchen where her whelping box is and will keep other dogs from standing on the other side. We ended up putting a visual barrier to give her more privacy.
The changes for our household have been interesting as well. In spite of all the excitement and the additional work, things have quieted down a lot in our house. Usually the noise level, and sometimes the stress level with it, is fairly high. But we changed feeding procedures for the other dogs to eliminated most barking , asked our daughter to play only soft music and generally keep things relaxed and found that everyone benefited.
Having puppies has been an incredibly rewarding experience overall. In spite of some difficulties, including a still birth after two days as a result of a very large breech puppy that got stuck in the birth canal twice and the not so fun but necessary exercise of removing dew claws I experienced a totally new side of dog ownership. The responsibility I feel for these young lives is really not unlike the one I felt for my daughter every since she was born.
Since I had focused on dog rescue for many years (hounds mostly) it took me a long time to decide to breed. What contributed significantly was the fact that whippets are very rarely found for adoption at local shelters and also end up in rescue fairly rarely compared to many other breeds. There is nobody within 50 miles of our home who breeds whippets as far as I know (either show or racing). When I heard that Tony Lewis was breeding his last litter, the one that Dancer (Lyth Moon Dance) was part of, I decided I wanted a puppy that I could some day breed from this litter.
Then something interesting happened. As I looked over the pictures of the puppies that Tony had put on Facebook I saw her and knew that I wanted her immediately. As I looked at her, the name Moon Dance came to my mind. When I called Tony to find out if this puppy was available he answered yes and told me he had named her Moon Dance or Moon Dancer. The rest is history.
Dancer joined our family that at the time also included 2 other Whippets (Sky and Brio), 2 Pointer mixes, a Beagle, a Chinese Crested and a Cocker Spaniel. By now the number of adult dogs is down to 5 and we were ready to add a few family members and bring in some new life. Also, our daughter just turned 18 and graduated from High School and while she will still live at home while in college I will have far more time from to focus on my passion of raising and training animals including dogs, cats, ducks, chickens and a quarter horse. Of all these dogs have always been my first love. When I was a teenager and saw a whippet for the first time I thought this had to be the most beautiful breed of dog. I still think so!