Today we had Tule's ultrasound we have good news to share - Tule is pregnant! And minus the debate about shaving her glorious belly hair, there was no drama with getting her prepped and finding pups. The next step is to schedule the x-ray appointment, which I'd like to have done about 5 days before her due date. I'll update once I have that set. In the meantime, we are keeping our fingers crossed for an uneventful delivery and healthy pups!

It's been one week since the mating and today I called and set up Tule's ultrasound appointment for April 29th! It would be great to get an idea on how many puppies to expect, but the ultimate goal is just to confirm pregnancy. Nothing much else to report - fertilized eggs don't even implant in the uterus until after the 2nd week of pregnancy, so there wouldn't be any noticeable changes at this point. If you are also following the Two Gun litter with Powder, her ultrasound is set for May 2nd. 

I was going to spend some time writing an article about breeding and proper timing, but Brian beat me to the punch. He wrote a nice article describing how we go about timing our breedings and the benefit of progesterone testing:

http://www.twogunkennels.com/dutch-dog-blog/timing-is-everything

On Friday, March 29th, we measured Tule's progesterone level and the result was 2.4 ng/ml. Friday was day 12 of her cycle. Since I expected her to ovulate around day 14 (based on previous cycles and the boys' reactions), this gave us a good idea of how she was progressing. I anticipated her reaching the 5+ number needed for ovulation by Sunday, but decided to do another blood draw on Monday just to confirm. That result was 12.2 ng/ml. This was an ideal result because if confirmed what we already thought. We bred Tule to Fowler on Monday morning and again on Tuesday morning.

So what happens next? Well, we wait ~30 days and do an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy. I will get that scheduled in the next week or so and update when I have an appointment. Until then, keep all your fingers crossed!