Whelping Day - Theres more, more and then more!

On Saturday 23rd October right on the sixty third day of pregnancy and on schedule the signs were evident that whelping wasn't to far away. Hot, panting, restlessness and temperature drop. When Bramble tried to start nesting in the shed we new the first puppy was on the way.

Low and behold the first little chap popped out in the garden at around 5pm. He caught us all by surprise so we had to improvise and let Bramble do her stuff in the garden room. A healthy pup, wriggling around with Bramble doing a quick clean up straight away. (as you can see in the photo below)

Shortly after we managed to get the new born puppy and Bramble back into the whelping box number two arrived and immediately started to suckle.

Like shelling peas now, number three!

Number seven was very small and I had to help out with proceedings by holding her upside down and blowing gently into her nose.

Job done, its now 1am in the morning, nine healthy puppies, five boys and four girls. Well done Bramble.

The next day I took this short video of the puppies whilst Bramble was exercising in the garden. What a comical racket they make.

Getting Bramble Ready for Whelping Day

With a few weeks to go before whelping it was time to get the house prepared for the english springer spaniel puppies. We found a great website that included building instructions for a cosy and safe whelping box. It took myself and Dave three hours to build on a cold autumn evening. The battons you can see in the photo help keep the puppies safe from the bitch accidentally rolling on them. As you can see Bramble seems to give us a 'why have you done this' expression when she first climbed in - little did she know!

We choose a cosy spot for the whelping box, under the eaves of the stairs in the main house. This should help keep the pups nice and warm when Bramble is not around.

With only a few days to go Bramble was only to willing to show off her belly full of puppies.

Bramble & Arty Meet for the First time

After 10 days of Brambles season I travelled back to see John Cook again with my father in law Dave in order to make 'formal introductions' between Bramble and Arty. I'm glad to say that they seemed to like each other from the off... a little video below shows the moment of meeting for the first time, dont worry its not that detailed...

We left Bramble in Kennels for the weekend and John helped successfully carry out two matings. Then it was just a matter of time to see if Bramble had taken. Obvious signs are started to show after three weeks or so, she got larger, slower and her nipples became more pronounced. Exciting times lay ahead.

Choosing Brambles Sire Dog

In late September of 2010 we returned to Flintwood Gun Dogs run by John Cook in Somerset. He's an old friend of Mandies dad, and four years ago as a 12 week old we first met and then purchased Bramble from him. John Cook is well known gun dog trainer who now judges field trials and has a number of fantastic stud dogs with very good English Springer Spaniel pedigrees.

Out of five dogs that John showed us working in his purpose built field training area we choose 'Hard at Art'. A good strong dog incredibly well trained with a pedigree that included over 12 Field Trial Champions. Our hope being that the dogs bred from Bramble would carry on the tradition of being able to be used as both working dogs and family pets.

We took a small video of 'Arty' at work and also Mandie meeting Arty for the first time. This should give you an idea of the standard of the father of Brambles Bramleys / Puppies!