A little over 2 weeks ago, my dog had 11 puppies. Wow, 11! It started at about 4:30am on a Saturday and didn't stop until after 2 in the afternoon. (Seriously, I got a little frazzled and starting imaging 101 German Shepherds!)
When we realized our dog was pregnant, we thought it would be a great thing to share with our kids. Sure, our 2 year-old is too young to care what was going on. But, my 8 year-old daughter, who has been saying for the past 4 years that she wants to be a vet, was so excited! Also, I thought it would be a great time to really introduce her to childbirth. She was 6 when my 2 year-old son was born, so she was old enough to ask lots of questions, which I gladly answered. However, she was not there for the actual birth, so this was her first real experience with birth. And to be honest, I was a little disappointed. I mean, it was awesome and exciting, but if you blink, you miss it. All of a sudden there is this little whimpering ball on the floor and mama is licking at it and caring for it. Not nearly as much detail as a human birth.
Since we own both the mother and father of the litter, some of my friends had warned me that we needed to keep an eye on our male, separate them even, because sometimes they can get aggressive and even violent during and after the birth. When our female was showing signs of starting labor late that Friday night, and our male was so interested and caring, we knew there wouldn't be any problems. But, I was nearby throughout the entire 10 hour ordeal, just in case. She did beautifully; and Daddy hardly left her side. It wasn't completely without incident though. I tried to take a nap at one point, between births, and I missed the birth of #5, only by minutes probably. By the time I got there, I realized that mama had pulled the cord too much when she was severing it, and had pulled out some of the pups intestines. :( I called the vet right away. Apparently it is fairly common. We were told to bring the pup in and they would see if they could suture it. Since my dog was still in labor and I was at home alone with the kids, we couldn't get the pup to the vet until my husband was able to get home from work. My husband got home a few hours later, as early as he could, and took the little guy straight to the vet. Unfortunately, at that time, there was nothing they could do for it so they put him down. :( Sad for our family, but a lesson in life and death. Also, we were not present for the birth of puppy number 11 because it was about 2 hours after the rest had been born. We thought she was done. I went in to check on her and the pups and found a lifeless puppy near the others. I had to do a head-count to be sure she had actually had another one. And then we tried to revive it, but no luck. It was probably still-born, but we can't be sure. So, that leaves us with 9 healthy puppies, and an opportunity to explain to our daughter that that's why animals have large litters.
And now, it was time to address our biggest problem. We had 9 hungry little pups, and our female dog only had 6 teats. (Upon examining her more closely, it appears that she should have had 8 teats, but she is slightly deformed. There is one teat that is just missing, like when you are putting on a shirt and you realize the buttons haven't lined up right, and then there is one that is severely inverted.) So, 9 hungry pups, and 6 teats. Hmmmmm. I thought about getting some tiny little bottles and some puppy-formula from the pet-store. But I'm such a lactivist that the idea of supplementing even puppies bothered me! So, we decided to get a box and separate the pups into 2 groups. 1 group could be left out with mom during their feeding, and the next group could be sleeping together in their box while waiting for their turn. This way we could make sure no one got left out or forgotten and all the pups would get to feed. My husband and I went every 2 hours and put pups near the teats until they latched on and fed, then left them with mama for about 2 hours until it was time to rotate to the next group. So, each group was fed every 4 hours, and the sweet little runt of the litter was always left with mama to feed whenever she wanted. :) We did this for the first 2 days, until the pups and mama figured out their own rhythm. Also, mama would whine when we would put the pups in the box, so she felt so much better once it wasn't necessary anymore!
And this is when I noticed that my dogs were attachment parents too! :) The first week, our female only left the puppies in order to use the bathroom and then she would go straight back to the pups. I had to bring her food and water to her. (Hahaha! Doesn't that remind you of how you felt during the first week too?) Now that the pups are a bit older, she will leave their side for a couple hours at a time, but go straight back to the "nursery" to check on them when they wake up and start to whine for mama. It's also so great to see our male in "daddy-mode". He goes in there fairly regularly too, and licks the puppies and cleans up after them. Hahaha - Diaper Duty! After all those warnings I got about males getting aggressive and trying to hurt or kill the pups, it was so great to see him being so compassionate!
I'm very educated about attachment parenting, so I'm not surprised to see it like this in nature, but it is just so reassuring and exciting to see! When nature is telling my dogs to be attachment parents, it is amazing to me that it doesn't tell every human parent the same thing. Or maybe it does, and some people just can't be bothered enough to listen...
