Alfie has trusted me to write some answers to all the questions we keep being asked about Mum\u2019s (Shadow) pregnancy. I\u2019ve had to sit down and ask her as to be quite honest I\u2019m a bit clueless even though I have been around for the birth of the last two litters of my brothers and sisters. Anyway, here goes and if you want me to try to answer any others then please let me know:<\/p>\n
The length of a dog\u2019s pregnancy is normally around 63 days counted from the day that the dog ovulates. Of course, you don\u2019t always know which day that is so it can be a bit difficult to work out when they will be born. Mum thinks for her it was last Sunday (26th<\/sup> July) so that is when she is counting from.<\/p>\n The best way to confirm whether she is pregnant is for her to have an ultrasound scan at 5 weeks. You can\u2019t do a urine test as you would with a human because the hormones in a dog follow the same path whether or not they are pregnant, which is why some dogs have apparently \u2018false pregnancies\u2019 where they act as though they are pregnant and think they are, even though they aren\u2019t. Megan had one of those the first time she mated. She was so disappointed at her scan and still didn\u2019t want to believe it.<\/p>\n Anyway, because of the hormones Mum is being all cute and gentle at the moment and our Mistress says \u2018long may that continue\u2019! Our Mistress will arrange the scan for either 28th<\/sup> of August or 1st<\/sup> September \u2013 the bank holiday slightly gets in the way. When she has the scan it is still not easy to see how many puppies she will have as there isn\u2019t all that much space and very often, as there are two lines of puppies, you can\u2019t see some of the ones hiding behind. First time round our Mistress could see four and Mum had eight, so it can be very imprecise but will confirm if there are at least some.<\/p>\n As long as she is pregnant, the puppies will be born around 27th<\/sup> September, which means it is unlikely our Mistress will be going on the village treasure hunt that day!<\/p>\n I\u2019ll bring you some more answers tomorrow.<\/p>\n Alfie\u2019s Diary \u2013 the Book as well as our other books are available HERE<\/a><\/p>\n You can find short stories to read at www.alfiedog.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"