tdierikx

For dog's sake Pearl... hurry up and pop those babies out! It can't be comfortable having them all inside now... Tummy rubs from me too... nice two handed round motion ones... hopefully to stimulate them puppies into wanting to be born... *grin* T.

That is going to be an amazingly scary bruise tomorrow... get some photos of it in the morning and print them... then if you can go to the council admin section on monday, take the photos down there and ask to lodge a formal complaint about an aggressive dog that is constantly let to run in the park with no owner control or care. The dog should not be allowed to run with other dogs if it's uncontrollable and aggressive - and the owner needs a good slap upside the head also! I have been known to swing the boot into a dog that was attacking one of mine - and I didn't care if it got hurt... by the way it winced off afterwards I think I might have cracked one of it's ribs... errr! T.

Oh Pearl... sweetie... you really need to get down to business soon... we are all waiting to meet your babies! ... and the waiting is driving your mummy nuts too... hehe! T.

Hahaha! I can just see that... and have seen the exact same look myself... I wouldn't leave Pearl alone, but I'd definitely not be hovering over her either - just go about your normal habits and just keep an eye out for anything she does that is out of the ordinary. You will know when she's about to do the actual deed - don't worry about that! Trouble didn't like the whelping box we'd made for her - she decided that the floor in the computer room was where she was having them - so we had to accommodate... we drank half a bottle of Baileys and let her do her thing, only opening the bags for her as the pups arrived. Zeddy decided that next to my bed was where she'd do her thing - she didn't like the whelping box either. Blossom, my Rottie girl, was happy to deliver in her whelping box - thank dog! T.

Any news?? T.

I hear you loud and clear Aussie3! I have 3 wild tails here - ever seen the tail on a Ridgey/Dane? Very long and high enough to almost sweep the kitchen benches... when he's not got his paws up there trying to "help" with whatever you are doing... *grin* Rotti/Pitty tails leave bruises on yer knees, and damage fibro walls... Labrador tails are good for dusting the coffee table... hehe! The 3 little dogs' tails just wag and don't mess stuff up... they are OK... T.

Can you tell young Pearl that she is keeping us all on the edge of our seats with this waiting game... T.

Awww... such a sweet name for a gormless boofy Labrador... My girl is named Trouble... for a reason... she can be a total shocker when she's in crazy zoomie mode - but that's OK, because she does the zoomie thing with my foster pups and keeps them entertained for me... hehe! Give Pearl a cuddle from me, and tell her Trouble says that it's all quite easy if you just go with the flow and let mummy help when it gets a little confusing... I'm off to go get me some dinner now, then watch some TV to unwind before bed... hope to hear that Pearl has made us all aunties and uncles - and didn't make it too ungodly an hour for her mummy... I'll be dreaming of fat little healthy Labrador puppies and Pearl doing a fantastic job of it, OK? T.

I'll second Okami's suggestion... T.

In all of this excitement about becoming an "auntie" (*grin*), we have overlooked one very important question about your poor pregnant baby.... ... what is her name??? T.

That is totally awesome news k9angel... another brilliant job you and your family have done! T.

Ummm... Lab puppies actually come in one "flavour"... GORGEOUS... hehe! I have no real clue when it comes to colour genetics, but my yellow Lab girl had 10 black puppies - the dog that sired them was black, as were his parents, and the bitch's mother was black, her father yellow... it can be a lottery sometimes I think... *grin* However, if your bitch and dog came from solidly chocolate producing lines, then maybe you will get a higher percentage of that colour? I'm going to put dibs on 6 chocolate, 2 yellow, and 2 black... 6 girls and 4 boys... Anyone else care to lay their bets? *giggle* T.

Timewasting is also the bane of rescue... we get heaps of emails just asking what pups we might have available - many ask for photos of every pup we may have, without giving any indication as to what they are looking for - we usually respond by asking what they are looking for before we will send any photos of any available dogs/pups. Funnily enough we never seem to hear back from those ones... Then there are the phonecalls after they have seen the Petrescue listings or the rescue website listings about the available dogs we have at the moment - and they want something else... huh? We advertise the dogs we have AVAILABLE... that's what we have, OK? Please don't ask us for a purple spotted yellow Lab if all we have advertised are green Maltese types... *grin* T.

I foster large breed puppies (mostly) and they can be rambunctious little terrors at times. I and my older dogs tech them what "gentle" and "uuhhh" means... My current large breed pup is actually larger than my 2 older large breed girls and he does like to play rough sometimes - but when I say "gentle" he backs off the hard play and settles to some softer play instead. If I see that the older dog isn't really happy about entertaining him, then I say "uuuhhhh", and he leaves the older dog alone and will find some other thing to play with, usually a teddy or something he can chew on with impugnity... *grin* It's not all that hard to teach a young dog what is acceptable and what isn't - it just takes a little bit of time, and a whole lot of patience... T.

Sorry for the post and run this morning... the pitfalls of having to work for a living... grrr! And my work has blocked access to DOL... baskets! In position and dilated would certainly indicate something will happen sooner rather than later... *grin* I'm with Bilbo Baggins in putting my bets on a late night whelping... they do it just to be difficult you know... hahaha! My Labrador girl actually ate a full meal about 2 hours before she actually started presenting me with my "grandkids" - she had been nesty and slightly confused since about 3am that morning and finally presented the first pup at 7:30pm - the panting and really weird behaviour so common in a bitch in labour only commenced 1 hour before whelping. I had my vets on notice that she was going to do the deed from the time they opened that morning, and had checked who was on call that night if we needed any help... the whole staff gave me their numbers to call if we needed them... lol! My girl had 9 beautiful big fat healthy babies (all in the 500g range) between 7:30pm and 12:15am. At 2am I took her outside for a piddle, and then she settled down and decided to go to sleep - as did I on the floor next to the whelping area - woke up at 3am to the noise of the babies complaining that the buffet had moved, and found another (sadly deceased) wet pup had arrived while I napped... all pups were born with sacs intact and I had to open them as my girl had little clue as to that part of the procedure. Oh - and before I go - just a reminder that were are all going to want birth times, sex, colour details for each pup - and, of course, photos... *grin* T.

I'm tipping that she's going to do the deed within the next 12 to 24 hours... all of my girls have gotten the mad nesting behaviour within that timeframe before whelping... Is your pregnant girl comfortable with your daughter and hubby? I've known some dogs to hold off until their fave person is there to assist and give reassurance. If you can get the day off work, then it might be a good idea... If she successfully mated on 28 Feb, then she is due today (if she has a normal 63 day gestation). T.

My current dogs will take a pill from your hand as though it's a treat... except worming tablets... T.

Gently feel up the area of the "tummy" that is near the exit passage. Does it feel more distended than usual... like there may be a puppy or two getting ready to make it's last leg of the journey? I haven't seen many first time whelping bitches NOT make some sort of confused fuss over the labour part of the deal. My Rottie bitch panted up a storm for about 12 hours before giving birth, and just looked at me as if to say "what the hell have you gotten me into here" - my Labrador bitch just decided that she'd rather try to find the wettest and muddiest patch of dirt and dig herself a ditch (at 3 in the morning no less), meanwhile looking rather uncomfortable but hardly panting at all. In all honesty - trust us - you WILL know when the real deal is happening... then you have to wait for the puppies to start arriving... and all the fun that entails... *grin*... your girl will show you a side of her that you've never seen when she has her babies in front of her... you will be a very proud Grandma(?) before you know it, OK? Hope you have a good small towel supply for rubbing down babies - tea towels will do in a pinch... T.

Congratulations Mya... you did good girl!! T.

Another vote for Airedale - my neighbour has one just like it... *grin* T.

Hmmm... as an owner of large breed dogs, it is my habit to just open the mouth, shove the pills in, then close the mouth and blow in it's nose (makes it swallow)... ... also works successfully on cats if you are quick about it - poor things don't know what hit them... *giggle* Personally, as someone who is quite allergic to cats, I go for the quickest way to deal with them and get myself away from them... nothing worse than spending an evening up to yer neck in a Radox bath when you have other things to do... T.

Petfood Plus in Roselands is sort of like a PetBarn - but both stock plenty of animal accessories... T.

Since becoming involved with rescue, I'm definitely becoming a fan of a nicely marked brindle... but I really don't have too much preference for colour. Temperament and health would be my main choosing factors... T.

My vet doesn't charge a separate fee - must just add it into the overall charge for the medication... That said - the same pills that used to cost $5.50 each a couple of years ago (10kg worming tabs) are now $9.00... errr! Wouldn't want to be worming a lot of large dogs at that cost... T.

Ooops - double