Roxy 4 months old ! Just letting of steam !

Wow ! its four days since I last blogged & we are now in April. Recieved some lovely photo's today of Roxy who's mum is Lucy & is now 4 months old in a couple days time. Roxy is going on really well being easy to train & very good indoors. This is Tracey's first family dog & they put so much work in to finding Roxy it is lovely to see that it has paid them dividends. She loved her first puppy party & is doing really well at her puppy training classes. I think from the photo's you can see that Roxy looks a very loved & chilled out lady. Thanks Tracey !

Bonnie & Millie have now both gone off heat & the next big date is scanning them around 28 days from last mating. With them being only two days apart from last mating we will scan them both at the same time making Millie being scanned at 30 days from last mating, so will scan around the 25th April. This scan will let us know that they are in pups & roughly how many pups they are carrying. If carrying a good size litter normally you can tell by just looking at them at 28 days that they are in pups but I would not put money on it, so scanning is good for us as if the bitch is not in pups you do not change their diet but if in pups you know to cater their diet for the growing pups inside her.
Most bitches after coming off heat will get a bit of filling in their teats & this is natural as the bitches body thinks it is pregnant even if it is not & starts to make changes in the body. Around 6 weeks after heat her body if not pregnant realises & stops preparing the body for birth but if your bitch carries on acting like she is in pups although not by bedding up (digging her bed more than usual), howling & her teats getting bigger & sometimes producing milk this is called a phantom pregnancy. If they have more than one of these it may be a good idea to speak to your vet as if not breeding from her it may be best to spay her.
Mothers Day this sunday in the UK but unfortunately for me no lie on as my oldest son has been selected to play for Barnstaple U11s Rugby team in the Devon Festival at sunny Exmouth which is a hour & half away & my other two sons are in Barnstaple playing rugby. I am doing the home games & husband David is covering the away games as it will take up most of the day. So up early to run out the dogs, feed all the children of to rugby & for me back at midday to hopefully get some jobs done & roast on for the evening. Nearly end of the rugby season & love the kids doing it but it is nice not to have to rush on a Sunday morning but Bert has taken a liking to cricket which is worrying me. lol
Have been grooming mad lately & if you want something to relax you grooming a dog on your lap does it for me. Only Lucy is what we call out of coat at the moment which is were the coat is starry & lacks shine but for Lucy this is because she had a litter of pups 4 months ago & with the hormonal flushes like a woman after having pups & nursing them they will moult heavily & go dull in the coat. Bitches coat condition & pigment in their eyes & nose can change during their reproduction cycle & when you notice your bitch if not spayed looking very good in her coat can be a good indicater that they are coming on heat soon & eye & nose pigment will darken when on heat in some bitches & lighten when nursing pups. After having a heat if not in pups most bitches will moult a bit more than usual & go a bit dull in the coat. This is nature making the bitch look her best at mating time so she can attract a mate as  just like humans it helps if there is a bit of mutual attraction or chemistry between the dog & bitch & this is called natural selection. On occassion you will get a bitch right on heat who will not allow a certain dog to mate her & this can happen the other way around. I have had this happen & changed the dog & had a healthy litter of pups & the dog produced healthy pups with other girls. We do not practice getting a bitch in pups at all costs or producing offspring from a dog who will not mate naturally. Believe me the dog breeding world is a very weird one with very weird practices going on in order to get two dogs to mate together when they do not want to or unnessary helping when they are novices. Dogs have been procreating for a long time with out human intervention & personally if they can not manage it as nature intended should it happen ? The Kennel Club have just opened the door for artificial insemination of bitches with certain rules which could easily be overcome by most. I understand that this in theory will allow pure breeders to use dogs further afield so hopefully widening their kennels genetics but what I see realistically happening are dogs that prolificate within pure breeds being able to sire even more pups within their breed so actually the opposite happening & in the not so distant future in some purebreeds less genetic diversity. The other effect I see happening in time are some breeds unable to concieve naturally at all & also not being able to give birth naturally at all. We are almost at this point already with some of the very small Toy breeds & breeds with very large heads or flat faces.
Breeders seriously need to step back & really ask themselves are they breeding for health, temperment & happiness or just to attain a look that has no benefit to the dog what so ever but will attain them a championship rossette or a premium price for their pup ?
Thats my rant for April out the way.lol . Have a great weekend one & all. Back on Monday hopefully !