Best laid plans

I remember an old TV show called the A Team. On it one of the main characters had a saying "I love it when a plan comes together." Well I am glad things always worked out on that show, but as we all know, it isn't always so in real life.

In this case, dog breeding comes to mind. As a breeder, you try to plan everything right down to the last detail. You have done your homework, done all the applicable health testing on your bitch. You have researched pedigrees and chosen the stud dog. The breeding has taken place and, if everything works out, you will have a nice litter of puppies in about 2 months, give or take.

It is all out of your control now as you wait. Wait for signs that the breeding took and your girl is pregnant. If you are like me, you might have an ultrasound done at about the halfway mark. Just to see if there are indeed puppies on board. Then about a week from the due date, an xray to see for sure just how many puppies will be arriving.

This is an exciting time as you once again make plans. You break out the whelping box or baby pool, what ever your choice. You have all the items ready, thermometer to take mom's temperature. Dental floss to tie umbilical cords. Scissors to cut cords, if necessary and of course all the different colored ric-rak to put around the puppies necks for identification purposes.

As I discussed in my previous blog, such a breeding was done with Miss Abby to Mr Oliver and we were ready for puppies. Abby's owner did not do an ultrasound as they are not always accurate and he was fairly certain that she was pregnant. So I picked her up last weekend and had scheduled an appointment for the xray. Well......no puppies, so much for planning.

As a friend of mine used to say, another well laid plan shot to heck once again! Such a disappointment. Not just to me, to the co-owner, the stud dog's owner and of course all  of the people anxiously waiting for the puppy they will hopefully add to their family.

This just goes to show that there is of course someone much more knowledgeable and powerful in charge, and it's not us. And we may never really know why the breeding did not take or if it took and puppies were reabsorbed (yes it happens) due to some abnormality.  In the end, all we can do is all we can do and we must accept that if we are to move forward. There isn't much we can do except to wait until the next heat cycle and try again. Hoping that next time things will turn out differently.

This is just the case with our Carly. Last year she was bred to CH Spotsalot Hwy Paved In Chocolate. We thought for sure she was pregnant. She even looked and acted pregnant. But when the time came, there were no puppies. So we tried again this past July and guess what? It worked and she is truly pregnant this time. Hopefully she has a good sized litter with lots of nice puppies to choose from. That just goes to show that you can make all the plans you want but often times you have to readjust or make new plans. Sometimes things work out better the second time around.