Hi all.  My bitch is showing absolutely no signs of "getting ready" and she was due to ovulation yesterday.  My breed are usually early.  We are guessing at ovulation based on behaviour to be honest, not blood tests.  She stood for 5 days and then stopped so we counted back 4 days from when she stopped standing. She was mated days 2 and 4 from estimated ovulation. Also, she was scanned and the pups measured to be due yesterday which also tied in with our ovulation estimate.  How reliable are scans for due dates or is it a case of depends on the operator?  She is booked into see the vet tomorrow just to check everything seems ok but I will admit to it being a little unusual.  My experience with inertia has always been that they go into first stage labour but then don't progress to contractions, this girl is happily eating, sleeping and lying around, not a hint of anything!

I have allowed up to 4 days from due date to first mating where we have had multiple matings. 

In these cases I have suspected the bitch to have stood early as had a litter before.

Mine also normally whelp on or before due date occasionally a day over.

63 days +/- a day from ovulation is the average.

Thanks Barbara. This is a maiden bitch and she stood for 5 days only.  She stopped standing the day after the 2nd mating and only for 5 days in total so I thought her timings would be pretty clear.  So when you say you allow 4 days from due date you would take that in this case from my estimated ovulation day which is Tuesday and would only worry if you got to Saturday with nothing?

Again I let mine go for 2 days over, counting from the first mating (and we usually only took 2, 48 hours apart) provided there's nothing to suggest there's a problem going on.   I would just say with small litters the puppies can 'sit', growing bigger by the day and so making a C.Section more likely to be needed, perhaps.   I don't do just sitting and waiting I'm afraid.  Mine is a breed that can have inertia.   In general, bearing in mind every pregnancy and whelping is an individual event, I didn't let mine go over by 2 days.   And at the end of a pregnancy, I'd go for x-ray rather than scanning because it is more accurate.

hello,
im new to the group so feel free to correct if i dont do this right...
i raise chihuahuas and i have one that has me totally confused for a couple of days. her due date from first breeding was the 20th, so from first breeding she is 3 days over due. her temp has been going up and down like crazy, this is not normal to me. her temp seems to go low around 97.8 to 98.9 at night and 99.5 during the day...she is not stressed, she has been resting, she is still eating and drinking(not as much as usual but still eating), she rests alot too which i think is good in the last stage...temp has been doing this for 3 days. babies are active...thanks in advance!!

Although I don't set that much score by temperature taking, during the final week or so, it will fluctuate.   It's when it goes down and stays down however, that you should be able to expect whelping to begin within 24 - 48 hours.   And from my first litter when this caused me a ton of alarm, I noticed that my puppies would all 'go quiet' immediately before whelping.   I think this is because they are then all moving to the birth canal ready to come into the world.   But as said, not seeing all the kicking going on, worried me no end, with my first experience of this.   If at any time the b itch is over, it doesn't hurt to call your vet although the stress from being checked may not be worth it.    And be aware, sometimes a car ride will get things moving!!   As said, she may well be fine, but for every day over the anticipated date means the puppies will continue to grow, perhaps making a C.Section more needed.

I always count from the 1st mating, as I don't progesterone test, but where possible do mate until the bitch/dog signals she has gone over, which does allow you to count back as ovulation is likely to have been up to 5 days earlier..

jinn7623
I have many years experience breeding Chihuahuas.  Usual whelping date for mine has been day 56, not day 63.  If I had a bitch as late as yours I would have a seizure.  Although I would have been at the veterinary hospital long before now.

Another one here who doesn't set much store by temperature taking. In 45+ years I've tried everything, believe me.

Thank you everyone for your replies.  I just wanted to update this thread for anyone searching in future.  Well we got to this morning with the bitch showing a slight increase in "getting ready", nothing major, just a bit more nest making and some low key panting.  She is overdue by 1 day since first mating and overdue by 3 days since estimated ovulation (going by bitch's behaviour and the scan).  As my girls always go early I must admit to getting quite worried so we went off to vets this morning and she had a blood test which indicated she wasn't quite low enough level yet and to wait another 24 hours especially as the bitch was not frantic or stressed in any way.  An hour or so of arriving home, waters broke, a few contractions and we started....8 puppies later (and not quite sure she has finished).  So a big lesson for me this time, don't panic when they don't run to our timescale, bitch's behaviour every time, she certainly knew what she was doing despite being a maiden bitch.

> a blood test which indicated she wasn't quite low enough level yet

Glad to see Vets are going with reverse progesterone more now to determine if litter overdue.

Congratulations  

See - take an overdue bitch out for a car ride and voila, puppies start coming

Well done!