Figured I'd ask...

I bred my bitch via side-by-side AI (one breeding), timed with progesterone testing. She's at 61 days, her official due date per my repro vet. The stud's sperm was very high count and he's sired successful and large litters.

My bitch had one litter three years ago at 62 days from breeding, of healthy 5 pups. She is six years old.

I've scanned this forum for information and am just hanging on to hope that she may be pregnant? I held off on ultrasound or x-ray because I just wanted to wait and see, also the risk of disease by going to the vet, and the breed usually has natural and easy whelping and pregnancy.

She's not looking "round" at all, but she's a 28 kg female, extremely athletic working dog, with a thick coat. I checked out photos from last pregnancy and she did have a round belly three days before the birth, nothing that a layperson would notice however, and looked quite normal until then. She was also active and energetic through her last pregnancy.

This "pregnancy" she never had a clear discharge that I noticed (again, she's quite furry). Her nipple/mammary tissue is a bit more developed, and right now her appetite is good, although it was poor at what would be 3 weeks to roughly 5/6 weeks of pregnancy. I've not felt any puppy movement (I felt them occasionally with her first pregnancy). I tried listening for heartbeats and borrowed a cheap stethoscope from a friend but with her coat I even have a hard time hearing her heartbeat. Right now her vulva looks as normal as I remember, but last pregnancy I remember watching for changes as her due date neared and nothing much changed in that area until the pups arrived.

Currently she's healthy and energetic and eating well.

Some minor positive signs:

Nesting- she's been investigating small caves on our daily walks and dug a small den under one over the past couple weeks. She's also shown interest in the spot under the stairs.
Attraction/smell: over the past week or two, my two males (who are intact but are not the sire) are very interested in sniffing her vulva area, and even my young female is showing interest. My female usually sits down when they sniff her. She's also shredded a bit of bedding.
Slight discharge: there is a light mucous, clear discharge from her vulva, but nothing major and could be normal because I normally wouldn't be paying attention.
Attention seeking: she's very attentive to me and loves to train and work and she's been pretty demanding about that recently.

I read stories of surprise litters, and am hanging on to hope that we might see pups, maybe a small litter, within the next 48 hours?

Is there hope or should I just resign myself? What a shame, she is a wonderful mother and carries excellent health, temperament and bloodlines.

There's always 'hope' so what I'd do is let her go 2 days over, as long as she's not in any distress/has a nasty discharge, and then take her to the vet who will probably palpate, or perhaps x-ray to see whether or not she's empty.

Good luck.

It all sounds very hopeful to me.  If it's a small litter, you might not see much abdominal enlargement at all.  Keep watching and waiting!

She may well be carrying high up under the ribcage.  If it's a small litter that would not be unusual.  Keep waiting a while longer.    Good Luck.

Thank you! I will give it 48 more hours, and then run her in to the vet for a check. Today she is full of energy and bouncing around wanting to play. Day 63 is Wednesday, so I will give her until then... still hopeful. I was planning to keep back a female pup.

I would give her till day 65 from ovulation before going to the vet (assuming you know when ovulation was, with the progesterone testing?).

Sad to report she is empty.

I've talked with the stud owner and we will try again next heat cycle. We will make sure to get the timing right.

We missed the "perfect" window last time- she ovulated on a Sunday (early morning per progesterone testing), I took her to the stud to breed on Tuesday but she they didn't tie, so we did a side by side AI that Thursday (work schedules). Ideally, per my vet we would have bred her Sunday or Monday and again on Wednesday. While Thursday was a bit late, and we only bred once, we thought she'd take most likely.

She's had one litter before, three years ago now. Only took one breeding that time.

Is there further testing I should be doing for fertility? Everything looked normal on AI and ultrasound. She's healthy and perky and cycles regularly. The only weirdness this breeding was she'd come into heat 6 weeks earlier than normal (at about 4 months after her last heat cycle) because my young female started her first heat cycle and triggered my breeding female. I thought there might be issues, but my vet wasn't worried. She'll be 6.5 years old on her next cycle. Her mother had a healthy litter at 8 but I might not try again if this next breeding doesn't take.

Could it be that the hormone levels didn't stay elevated enoufh to maintain a pregnancy due to short interval from last season.

Like us they are not machines,  and even though pregnancy results more often than not,  ut is never 100%.