5 days to go by the calendar and average pregnancy days for the breed. I’ll start a baseline of Ruby’s temperature on Saturday unless she starts showing me signs that she might be getting ready to go early. Ruby is just now starting to act like she is uncomfortable, which is remarkable considering how much she has grown. She’s an athletic girl, but it’s been below zero here for most of the day for the last few days and until the weekend, so her trips out in the big back yard have been pretty short and free of any thing more than jogging and she says no to playing around with her housemate, Marty.

She is now on free-feeding puppy food between her regular floated meals. She is drinking at least twice as much as she was prior to breeding. She comes out of her condo for treats regularly and is enjoying “Fruitables” cookies, green beans, carrots, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, and loves a frozen plain greek yogurt “pup-cup” with some peanut butter mixed in when we eat dessert at night while watching TV.

We have set up her new spacious whelping area in my home office / laundry room. I picked up dandy 3 foot tall lucite and aluminum panels with a smooth hinged gate (with more panels to add for when the pups are 4-8 weeks old and exploring) as my barrier for the whelping pen. We have a heated floor in my office and nice LifeProof waterproof flooring. I’m using large layered waterproof pads, with a thermostat controlled heating pad (all from Amazon) under them in the back of the pen to supplement an already heated floor. We will likely use a kiddy pool inside that pen once the pups are born to contain them in their infancy. Right now, it is made to be den-like and comfy for Ruby with her squishy soft bed and a king size fluffy blanket over the top. I’ve got plant lights on my desk right now, and a nice bright over head light when we need it, but for right now, its pleasantly dim in there. Ruby has only transported one of her stuffed animal “babies” down there, but one is a start, considering she loves her oversized wire kennel in our bedroom. We call it her condo. She often starts the day out on the human bed for a snuggle, but seems to enjoy sleeping in her own bed for the last 3-4 weeks. That condo has a plush cover and collection of “babies” and two of her favorite blankets and a deep soft pet mattress so I can see why she likes it in there.

I’ve got a Japanese futon mattress and a reclining zero-gravity chair for my comfort while we wait for puppies. We are not leaving her alone after today. Thankfully, I can work from home this time of the year, and Jon is just a call away.

I’m rewatching whelping videos and have reread my old notes on whelping from the Border Collie days, and the excitement is building with a few phone calls about pet home applications.

If you are interested in a puppy from the OD/Ruby litter, it seems like we will have more puppies than we previously thought, so please send a text or call if you’d like to be considered for a pet or show home. The puppy application is available on our website as well. Our deposits are refundable if the selection or timing isn’t what you’d hoped for. I’m always happy to talk to people about our good dogs, so don’t hesitate to reach out.