have you ever been shocked at how many pups your girl delivered , when you thought she would only have a small litter , my friends dog thats large breed had 8 puppies without gaining any weight at all,

A most definite yes!  I have a toy breed that would normally have 1-3 puppies.  I have been working on a self whelping line for years, and mated up a bitch 18 months or so ago.

She was the smallest bitch I had ever mated, and it only happened after 3 pelvis checks from my own vet.

She had 5 pups.    And shelled them like peas!  :-)

My Inca, who we call dinky Inky, had 9 I was absolutely amazed, didn't have a clue where they were hiding!

My Kizi was the same a neat person on the lower side of the standard size and she shelled out 9 puppies in her first litter, all reared.  Have only ever had one other carry 9, with sadly one stillborn.

I'm keeping schtum......

It's amazing how large the litters in your breed can be, especially as the inbreeding levels must be quite hight and litter size is one of the main things affected.

I'm glad that mine usually only have 4 - 7, quite enough to find homes for.

My first litter was 15 - I had no idea she was carrying that many. Most of my litters have been 11/12

I remember my Uncles Rough Collie over 20 years ago looking as skinny as a rake and she ended up having 11 healthy pups.  So size really doesn't mean a thing!

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">It's amazing how large the litters in your breed can be, especially as the inbreeding levels must be quite hight and litter size is one of the main things affected.

Actually no.  The average co-efficent for the breed is 6.6% which is 0.2% lower than Flatcoats (I have a FCR puppy now). 

Sounds like your breed and mine because we are an imported low numbers breed, that breeders have been very aware of not narrowing gene pools. :)

i was thinking this too my girl is 50 days today and hasnt put much weight on at all and cant feel any movement , she was confirmed pregnant via scan at 30 days and told there was definatly 2 heart beats  i took her back  to vets today to have a xray to find out how many she was having but he wouldnt do one he said they dont practise this unless there is cause for concern so when i asked for a scan he stated he still wouldnt tell me how many she is having .. i was quite upset as was hoping doing this would put my mind at ease as i would know all was well in there and would know how many to prepare for once whelping started

>he stated he still wouldnt tell me how many she is having .. i was quite upset as was hoping doing this would put my mind at ease

It is perfectly normal for a vet to refuse to tell you.  They confirm pregnancy, not numbers.  If you want that sort of precision it would be wise to use a sheep scanner, as opposed to a vet.