Making a Dog Pregnancy Calendar Helpful Hints

Dog pregnancy can be a very exciting thing. It can be hard to estimate when a dog will give birth and even when a dog becomes pregnant, but there are many resources available on the Internet. The first step to creating a dog pregnancy calendar is to determine the estimated date that the dog will give birth. There are some great Web sites that help to determine this simply by entering the date that the dog was bred, in the format of month/day/year and than the projection will come giving you an estimate of the day that the dog is going to birth the puppies, also referred to as the whelping date. One of these Web sites is, http://www.askabreeder.com/Dog+Gestation+Calculator, it can be very handy without trying to mark the days on a calculator. It can be helpful to know what is occurring within the cycle of the developing puppies. After the breeding, conception occurs between 48 and 72 hours later. This is when fertilization takes place, and between the ovaries and uterus. Approximately ten days later these eggs will become blastocytes and become implanted in the wall of the dog's uterus. These will than grow into embryos, one of the most evident signs of the pregnant dog is the enlargement of the nipples at fourteen days into the pregnancy.
They will become darker, and the fur will become thinner on the belly and around the nipples to accommodate the puppies that are soon going to feed in that area. The dog, similar to humans may experience morning sickness or a loss in appetite from the 21st to the 28th day of the cycle. These are due to the hormonal changes that are occurring within her body. As an interesting accompaniment to the pregnancy, it could be interesting to create a journal in the way of a pregnancy calendar of the dog. This could include pictures, experiences, and expectations as well as symptoms. This is a great tool for the vet, as well as future pregnancies and is a great learning tool for the whole entire family. A great thing to keep in the calendar would be vet records, and pictures, and having a scrapbook can keep all of the information in the same place. This is one of my favorite ways to keep track of pregnancies, and it is a way to personalize the experiences. Each page of the journal could be labeled as a day in the gestation period, or a date - and than the information could be written on the page for that day. Members of the family could take turns writing entries into the journal, or onto the calendar. This is a fun way to determine the outcome of the pregnancy, and provides the family with useful information should they determine to breed the dog again. Consider decorating the front of the book with a picture of the family dog, or a picture of the entire family with the dog, and find letters at the local craft store and write "Sheba's Pregnancy Calendar" or the like. By Lori Godin