Ysabel is now over 8 weeks pregnant & is now in the area where she could pup any time. I have been taking her temperature for the last couple days & it is steadily starting to drop which is encouraging, so we might have pups from her by the weekend. She is very well in herself & a bit jealous of Dolly at the moment with her brood already here, as Ysabel loves to Mother even if they are not her pups.
Lucy this Wednesday is  4 weeks from being mated, so is booked in on Thursday for a scan in the morning. I may make a fool of myself now because at first I felt that she may not of been caught due to her early heat & only one mating but I am airing on the side of her being in pups now as sure I can feel them as at this stage they feel like a string of beads. Please though do not put any money on my diagnoses & we shall wait to see what the scanner shows.

Couple little videos of Dolly & her Cavapoo pups. All seems to be going well.I helped Dolly for the first 36 hours offering two hourly feds to a couple smaller pups who now are holding their own at the milk bar & Dolly has been doing fine & is coping with all the little mouths with milk for all. The little boy that I was worried about seems to be thriving. So fingers firmly crossed with nearly two days under our belt all seeming well.

Did not want to forget to mention in all the excitement of Dolly giving birth that I had a unexpected visitor yesterday Albie & Kim. Kim was just passing so popped in to visit with Albie who's Mum is Lucy & Dad is Rollo my sister's Miniature Poodle Rollo.
Unfortunately I was just going out with the kids with them all packed in the car but we had a quick chat & got a couple snaps of Albie who is gorgeous especially his colour which is even richer in the flesh than you see in the photo's. Albie is Kim's first dog & she has done Albie proud. He is a lovely gentle chap. Thanks Kim next time hope to have time for a cuppa & more of a chat.

Lastly tonight a photo just taken of super Mum Dolly looking very bright after the birth of her 8 pups. All seems to be going well with all pups seeming to be thriving & Dolly regaining a healthy appetite again now she has aquired some room inside so she can eat. She has muched through scrambled egg & several bowls of meat & Royal Canin Starter which is food especially for pregnant, lactating Mums & for pups from 4 weeks old to 8 weeks old.

Dolly has given birth to eight live pups which is amazing. I will not say we were unfortunate as the last was still born, so if all had lived we would have 9 pups but 8 is amazing & truly fortunate. Dolly is very tired but content. I am also exhausted as have not had any sleep since 5 am yesterday morning.
I will be short as I am busy now with such a big litter offering milk feds to the pups every couple hours to make sure that they all have enough in their tums.
So the first arrived at 1.35am & the last at 8.35am. We have 1 Golden boy, 3 Black with a little white boys, 2 Golden girls & 2 Black with a bit of white girls. All seem well maybe a little concern for one of the little black boys as he is not quite so vigours as the others but a few feds, Mum's care & kept warm hopefully all will thrive. 
Below photo of Reggie's first born pup & Dolly's first born of this litter. The other photo I caught lucky with her pups looking like a piano keyboard.lol

Dolly is in the first stage of labour which is a phase very often missed. This is about 24 hours before whelping (giving birth) the bitches temperature will drop from the normal temperature for a dog of around 38.3-39.2o Celcius to as low as 36 Celcius when it bottoms out this low as Dolly's has this morning & with her of her food & as I type this she is vigourisly digging her bed I would hope for birth between 2 to 12 hours. So fingers crossed & hope to have news soon. 

Thought the photo above was funny with Dolly sitting beside Reggie fast asleep she probably is thinking "if your this tired now what you going to be like as a birthing partner." lol

The pack chilling. Yes, yet more photo's of the pack. What did we do before digital camera's. lol. Enjoy !

Funny photo of our daughter Matilda having a strope sitting in a dog bed with dad & then noticed in the background Primrose & Reggie having a tender moment.

Quick blog to let people know that Dolly & Ysabel are doing well. My internet due to the weather at the moment keeps disconnecting so I will be quick as have tried to blog over the last 48 hours with everything going down at the wrong moment & then I have given up in frustration. The photos are of the two girls over the last couple days. Dolly is now around 8 weeks pregnant with Dolly around 6 days after her.
Tonight I will start sleeping on the sofabed in the front room as Dolly enters the time now that she could pup as a bitch can whelp around 6 days early & the pups survive. I would hope for Dolly to hold on as close to 9 weeks as possible as the pups will be just that bit further on making survival after birth that much higher.
We have had premature litters before with Ysabel having her first litter a week early one being born dead which is why we think she went into birth early as he had been dead for a little while when he was born but out of the other four born we lost one more from just being to premature to make it. The three that lived were  very small being all around 4 to 5 ounces when you would expect between 6 to 9 ounces at birth with Cavaliers. When born very early being there at the birth is paramount to their survival as Mum needs a bit of help to make sure they are breathing & to keep them very warm. Ysabel though was amazing with them & with our help & her Mothering the three that survived thrived.
When breeding dogs you should be thankful for what you have & not dwell to long on what you have lost which is easier said sometimes than done.

Quick blog tonight to share these lovely photo's of Roxy who is now ten & half months old. Tracey sent me these photo's saying that Roxy now at night has the freedom of downstairs & his not restricted to her crate. She has been good but did set of the intruder alarm at 2am one night but they have sorted out that problem now.
Roxy is from Lucy's litter with my sister's Miniature poodle Rollo being her Dad. She has featured many times on my blog since she joined Tracey's family as Tracey is very kind in sending me regular up dates on what they are getting up to. Yet again Tracey a big thankyou for sharing Roxy with us.
Our two pregnant girls Dolly & Ysabel are doing well & I set up the labour ward this weekend.lol. Which is getting out the whelping box which is were Mum's give birth & making sure I have puppy powder milk, heat lamp working etc. Dolly could whelp (give birth) any time from around the 28th October with then Ysabel whelping any time from the 2nd November, so getting to bed early at the moment in preparation for the prebirth vigile with Dolly & Ysabel.

Time has flown pass & realised I have not blogged for over a week. Lucy has been mated with Reggie & a little bit different than the first time we bred from her as we have mated her around the 12th day & by the 14th day we tried her again & she was not really interested this time unlike last time. If you had wanted to push the point you could of mated  her & some would but having been around animals many years forced matings tend to produce nothing or small litters if your lucky. The one mating she allowed was a good mating being tied for around 30 minutes & as they say once at the right time hopefully that will be enough, we will just have to wait & see.
I will never forget my first experience of a lined up mating. This is were the female is restrained in place by you holding her so she cannot move & then the dog mounts & the dogs owner basically lines him up & the bitch is mated ready or not. We had a lovely tricoloured girl called Penny & took her down to deepest Cornwall to a Show producer breeder to use a very nice blenheim dog. When we got there it was apparent to me that she was not right on but the lady insisted that as we travelled so far that she felt the bitch could take a mating & if she was right on in a couple days then his sperm would probably last long enough, so a mating now would get her in pups. What then took place can only be described as rape & I still regret the fact that I allowed this lady to let me do this to Penny. This mating produced no pups & I feel that it traumitised her so that she then would become upset if a male dog came near her on heat, so we never bred from her. I know that as a bitch mates even a bitch that has had pups can be distressed as they tie & with the fact that they are stuck together for a while but if they need to be restrained to get to this moment then they should of not been mated. I always watch over matings & as they tie I will approach to then calm by talking & only then hold the bitch to stop her from dragging the boy around. A lot of the interferring done when dogs are trying to mate is I am afraid to say human's lack of patience & as I have said before if they cannot get it together without help should they be getting it together at all.
Dolly is now just over six weeks in pup & is looking big. She is looking really well in her coat & yesterday started giving her a calcium tablet each day & she will have a calcium tablet each day until her pups are 4 weeks old.
Ysabel is also looking well being around 6 days behind Dolly. You can now see a distinct filling around her tummy. Both girls have decided to become very fussy about eating unless it is out of my hand. So mornings & evenings I can be found on the sofa with a bowl of food on my lap Dolly & Ysabel either side of me being fed from my hands. This is the only time I allow my dogs this luxury as I am then sure they are getting enough food each day.

Tonight I also have some cute photo's of Barni at around 18 months old & still looking very much like a pup. Rebecca sent me this lovely photo' of him on holiday & in their new home as they have just moved. Barni's Mum is Lucinda who we rehomed earlier this year with Sue & Jim. Lucinda will be coming to stay soon whilst Sue & Jim go to Australia for a couple months to visit family, so she will be sure to feature on my blog in the next few months.

Just some funny photos of the gang that my children have taken over the last few days. I must admit the one with Reggie made we look again as it looks like hes having a quick smoke after the news of Dolly's scan but it is a bit of lego on close inspection. lol

Tomorrow Ysabel will be scanned so we will know for sure if Reggie has worked his charm on her as well as Dolly.

Dolly is now around 5 weeks in pups & is looking really well. She already has an obvious filling around her abdomen. The photo below was taken by one of my children & on close inspection you will see a fly in flight by her mouth. At first on my computer I thought it was a fly on my computer but realised it was actually in the photo. My oldest so was so fascinated by this capture that we enlarged it up & he printed it of to show his science teacher.