Went for our weekly doggie playgroup session on the beach this morning and got chatting with a lady who breeds golden retrievers. All the male dogs were giving her dog Indi a good sniff and she said it was because they could smell that she was still fertile.
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| Met a lady on the beach today who cared for 17 (!) Golden Retriever pups |
Now practically every dog I’ve met so far has been desexed so this was quite interesting. She said she was planning to mate her dog when it came into season. I asked how she could tell when it was in season and she said because it bleeds, just like women have a period.
Maybe I’m just ignorant but this was news to me – about the dogs, not the women.
So once the dog stops bleeding and is thought to be ovulating (I guess) then they’re paired up with a stud. Again, I was living in ignorant bliss.
‘So how long does it take for the babies to be born?’ I asked. ‘Is it nine months, like us?’
‘Oh no,’ she said. ‘It’s only about nine weeks.’
She pointed out her other dog Shanta, an aging Golden Retriever, which has had 9, 11 and 11. At first I thought this was some oblique reference to the twin towers but then I realised she was referring to the size of Shanta’s litters.
At one point the lady had two bitches with litters and played host to 17 (!) puppies.
‘Wow!’
I was thinking of Pip and the early barking through the night episodes.
‘Did they bark all night?’
No, she said. Each one had a bit of blanket and a toy and they all slept together for company.
Taking all 17 of them out into the backyard for a run, she confessed, was rather hard work!
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