My sisters dog is a little bigger than a manchester terrier and shes a GSD cross. She is a year and 3 months old and was in heat for the second time. My sister was careful not to bring her for walks but to play fetch with her in the garden for hours so she would get enough exercise. Anyway, builders were at the house putting floor down and my sister gave them strict instruction not to leave the door open and explained why. Anyway, they did of course and she got loose and met a whippet on the street, my sister found them locked together a few minutes later after chasing her and now the dog is pregnant. M sisters really worried because she's not sure about breeding and her dogs been pregant for 5 weeks now. She wants to knowif there are any dangers she could be in and wants to know how many pupys will be likely to be stillborn.

Each pregnancy is different, i think your sister should have taken her bitch to the vet for the injections.

Advise her to buy "The Book of the Bitch" by Jim White and Kay Evans asap. Everything she needs to know is in this book. She should take the bitch to the vet for a thorough check up and follow his/her advice - as long as it doesn't vary from the book above!! She will need to buy a heat lamp or heated pad, veterinary bedding ( at least 3 peices to fit her whelping box). She can either make one out of plywood/mdf or buy a really big oval plastic type bed. You can buy ready made heavy duty cardboard whelping boxes that you use once and then burn. She should start sleeping in her whelping bed/area soon to get her used to it. It should be somewhere quiet, without lots of "traffic" but in hearing of the family - dining room?

Also its a good idea to decide now, about what to do with the puppies - whether to let her rear them all or just a couple, presumng they are born ok. Once they have arrived its very hard to make a decision like this. It can be very hard to find good homes for cross bred puppies and she must be responsible about it. You/she will get lots of help and advice here, if the right things are done for this bitch. Accidents do happen - I dont condemn - too late now anyway. It might be a good idea to have her spayed afterwards so this cant ever happen again.

She could consider donating the pups to Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. They are always on the look out for smallish dogs to train.

Jesse