My neighbours dog is a bit more restless than usual today but her temp is still 37.5,does it always drop?She is on day 63 and her owner is all in a flap so i thought id ask on here,thanks

I've had plenty of bitches that showed no difference in temperature.

It's why I never bother any more.  Finding my answers by just looking in their eyes.  Never fails for me.

Ive had girls on the first litter have a temp drop then on 2nd litter nothing and vice versa, ive had girls who have shown sign of labour (panting, going off food ect) and ive had girl show no signs at all (that girl jumped up on the sofa and just started to strain and was 4 days early) sometimes they just dont read the book and like to keep us guessing but i still take temps about 10 days before due date just in case and for at least 7 days before they are due they are never left alone. If they are worried first call would be a vet, are they sure on dates? If it was my girl they would be booked in first thing in the morning at vets but also have a emergency number to hand.

I don't know whether temperature always drops, from what Jean says probably not, but it is something I use as an indicator of whelping and it is a very good indicator with my girls, and those of my breeder friend/mentor (who bred one of my girlies). So, whilst not working for some it does work for us ... breed thing, line thing, no idea!

But, the temperature doesn't stay dropped. The temperature will naturally fluctuate, this also depends on time of day, etc. I'm looking for a dip into 36Cs ... and then the rise again, so if you are only temp taking once a day you may well miss it. Just to give you an example, here's my record for this year's litter

Day 56 - morning and evening temps 37.7C
Day 57 - morning and evening temps 37.8
       58 - morning 37.8, evening 37.5 (dropping so decided to take again 4 hrs later) 37.3
       59 - morning 37.7, midday 37.3, evening 37.1 (so now I'm looking for the drop into the magical 36C - bearing in mind I don't expect my girls to go a full 63 days from mating)
       60 - morning (0300!!) 36.7, midday 36.9, 1500 37.0 ... I'm now looking at pups arriving by early hours following morning.

So you can see from this, the temp drop was in the early hours of the morning. I don't have a great deal of faith in my own intuition, I am a scientist, I do like hard evidence, trends, patterns, whatever ;-)

This is pretty much what happened with last year's litter (different girl), and what I'd expect of my breeder's dogs. Once the temperature drops into the 36s (for us) then I reckon on 12-24 before the first arrivals. In this case, my girl whelped at 2326 that evening (day 60) :-D

But, I think to be temperature monitoring 2-3 times a day you have to have a bitch that is quite happy with this. Not all girls like a thermometer shoved up their rear (can't say I blame them), my firls are quite happy :-)

I strongly suspect something has probably happened with your neighbour's dog by now - hope you're going to let us know? Hope all went/goes well :-D

I've tried the temp thing a few times and it's never been reliable for me, my vet even said it was a waste of time.  I can normally tell just by looking at my girls and the changes in their behaviour when whelping is close.

sorry i havent replied sooner but hadnt seen her to find out if the pups had arrived or not and i also got the dates wrong,goodness knows how i did that.I have just seen her and i am told she is on day 64 and no pups!! She went to the vets last night and all is well but this morning there was still no temp change but not eating and she says she has been losing a lot of clearish stringy mucus for a few days,i cant wait to meet them.

Hopefully now her plug is coming away things will get started, how many matings were there and over how many days, it may be that she didn't conceive till the last one and then it could have been a few days later.

Primary inertia is always a worry when due date arrives and there are no pups, is she having a very large litter which can overstretch the uterus and stop it contracting properly/at all or a singleton which doesn't trigger enough hormones to start labour.

There is a blood test for hormone levels which will give some indication as to when labour is likely to start or if they are abnormal levels.

I thought id let you know( cos i only found out myself) that she had the pups on the day i left my last message,day 64 and her temp dropped that day too,8 healthy pups,they are beautiful! Thanks for all the advice.

Thanks for the update.

Don't you love it when folk keep you informed.

Always great to hear good news!

Well done to next door's girly :-D

I'll also add a thanks for letting us know what happened. Sooooooo frustrating when people ask for advice then never let us know what went on ;-)