The Rematch

Sorry for the delay in reporting on the events of Wednesday 24th; all this excitement is very bad for me!

Pamela and Tommy arrived at about 4.30.    He’s a smart little fellow with lovely square proportions and different ears from Nina.   As he has won at shows we must assume that his are the better ears, I’m afraid.  The questions is whether half the puppies will have Mum’s ears and half have Dad’s ears or whether the genes will average out to something in between.

We took a couple of photos before they departed as Pamela says the Monday one was terrible.   I hope these are better

Again Nina was very keen to meet him, and she set the pace with a dance of chase, jump and crouch – not noisy – they didn’t bark.   Then Nina’s mood changed and she allowed him to mount her.  At this point,  I must agree with the advice given to new breeders a to the value of having an experienced breeder on hand, as Mum and I did not have the anxieties of whether we should be doing anything.   Pamela had a firm grip of NIna’s tail at the base and poor Tommy was told to wait until everything was propitious.

He stayed on top of her for a couple of minutes but isn’t designed for balancing acts and rearranged so that the two dogs stood bottom to bottom, still connected – which is the tie that everyone talks about.   The dogs are very still and intent during the tie, and you wouldn’t know anything is happening except for Nina panting from the force of the contractions deep inside.   A very good sign of a successful mating.

After 20 minutes, Tommy was dispatched outside (he liked our garden!)  and NIna went berserk, bouncing on us and then careering to the next person.

Snooker is starting so this is my final observation of this post:  A dog by definition is domesticated and is therefore altered by mankind but that this process is so exaggerated now that something as visceral as procreation has been viewed as ethically questionable or unpleasant is to deny the real nature of a dog.  NIna and I both had an interesting afternoon, and I understand Tommy went home to sardines and pasta.

Meet Mr Tom Foolery

He is Nina’s mate.   They met today.   Nina was very keen so we must have picked the right day.   Tom’s owner (Pamela McClaren of the Deansgate Stud) said she had never seen such a flirt.   It was a good mating with prolonged tie so should be successful.   Tom is visiting us in Norfolk on Wednesday just to make sure.

2.5 nanograms per millilitre

that was the result of the progesterone tests which means that Nina is ovulating as you read and that the ova will be maturing over the weekend ready for Nina to meet Mr Deansgate on Monday and Wednesday.   She is definitely different at the moment; lethargic  and sniffing like a bisto kid – when she does it on her walks she often refuses to continue so obviously she is smelling “bad news” dogs.   Then this teatime there was the totally bizarre episode when she sat like a parrot on my shoulder for 20 minutes – either she is having an identity crisis or she is feeling very clingy.

Its nice that we now know what we are doing and can plan next week.   

Some day he’ll come along, the man I love….

I’m singing it in an effort to direct Nina’s hormones in the right direction.    Its the refrain that’s most apposite,  “Maybe I will see him Sunday, or Monday, or may be not,  Sure to see him One day, perhaps Tuesday will be my good news day”

Because until Nina’s hormones align we don’t know what we are doing next week.   The given practise (BIOLOGY ALERT) is to mate on day 11 and 13 as long as the bitch is showing signs of being receptive – it worked for Nina’s last litter..   This is because the textbooks think that a bitch is fertile  day 11-19 and, given that the sperm lives in the uterus for 5 days, mating on those days means that conception can take place on days 11 to 18ish.

For us conception this summer would be so much better than later on, so we are trying to optimise our chances of conception by using the dark arts of science.   I am putting saliva (NIna’s) on the mini-microscope every night to see if it is a distinct crystalline pattern which comes with extra salt from extra Ostrogen hormone.  And tomorrow the vet nurse will take a blood sample that we will get tested by a lab called Fit and Fertile (we post it there) for Progesterone levels.    The question is do we need to take action over the weekend and dash off after 2 services at church on Sunday or can we delay to Monday – day 12…..

Meanwhile I have bought 24 ex-hotel hand towels and started work on a website to advertise the puppies.

Watch this space