Just curious how long have your girl's pregnancy actually lasted when you have tested for ovulation and first mating has been on day of ovulation....

Be interested to know how much this varies from the text book "63"

How long is a piece of string?  :-)  :-)

Breeds do vary.  I have a breed that quite often only goes 8 weeks.  Perfectly viable puppies.  I do think that bitches from early whelpers tend to do the same.  I've only ever had a bitch go one day over in 30+ years.

Before I started to progesterone test I would have said it can vary as I'd had what I believed to be early litter's, from one bitch in particular & I'd had one later litter.  Now I'd definitely say that it lasts 63 day's from ovulation.

As an example, on my last litter, after 7 day's of being in season my stud dog started going absolutely bonkers, day 8 he was the same so I took her to the Vet's for a blood sample on the morning of day 9 to be sent off to Keele & got a real shock when the results came in in the afternoon that she'd indeed ovulated on day 7.  It was day 10 before her first mating as I had to very quickly juggle everything around & get a dog sitter in so that I could get upto the Scottish Highlands to use my chosen stud dog.  She was mated again on day's 11 & 12 but still whelped exactly 63 day's from ovulation.

HTH :)

My bitch ovulated on day 19, and we mated her on day 18 and 20 and she whelped 63 days after the 2nd mating :)

All very interesting stuff....

I can't wait to find out when Mya whelps...if we go from day of ovulation it should be 5th July....4th July sounds good though ha!

lol my girl is due on the 5th july also

That makes it the 22nd June for us - I'll be interested to see! My breed is often early, last time she was 5 days early (if going 63 days from mating).

mines due the 12th june so like u luckydogs be interesting to see  and she was early on her first litter

sorry that was supposed to say lucydogs

Sophie has just whelped on day 60 mated day 20 somthing. Does it not depend on the size of the litter so a larger litter tends to come earlier as there is less room for them inside.

> Does it not depend on the size of the litter so a larger litter tends to come earlier as there is less room for them inside. <IMG class=qButton title="Quote selected text" alt="Quote selected text" src="/images/mi_quote.gif">

Nope!

I was just going to ask that. I often wonder if large litters have a greater incidence of going before day 63

Mya is huge already (5 weeks today) and I could tell at 3 weeks she had taken,plus scan showed 10 pups which is about double for breed average eeep

We shall see...will prob start taking her temp a week earlier than I normally would just in case.

> I was just going to ask that. I often wonder if large litters have a greater incidence of going before day 63
>

Not in my experience, but not sure if it depends on the breed.

I have a line known for early whelpings, regularly whelping on day 56.  Average litter size 1-3 pups.  Carrying high up, and often not looking pregnant until the very end.

Yet one of my small girls, tummy dropped at week 5 - unheard of for mine.  I was waiting for her to go into labour early.  She is the only bitch that surprised me by going full term.  And having a litter of 5.  So bang goes the theory of large litters coming early!

my breed tend to have large litters and can go afew days early ,well my girl went 5days early and only had 3 pups!

Looks like I am just going to have to wait and see...oh the excitement. I'm off work anyways for 3 weeks so sorted for keeping an eye on her.