We're Back!

For those of you who are new to the blog, Tiga is a four year old Golden Retriever. She is a breeding dog for Helping Paws, a non-profit organization in Minnesota that trains and places services dogs with individuals with physical disabilities. Tiga lives with me, Judy, my husband Steve, and our three kids, Mike, Jack and Katie. We are Tiga's caretaker home. We have volunteered to have Tiga live with us and raise her litters of puppies for Helping Paws. We started this blog last year when she had her second litter of puppies. Our last entry was about the puppies leaving our house to go live with their foster homes and start their service dog training. I am happy to say that the puppies have grown up to be beautiful dogs and that their training is going great. They are well on their way to becoming the life changing gifts they are destined to be.

Almost a year has gone by and we are getting ready to start all over again because once again – TIGA IS PREGNANT!!!!

Tiga came into season the end of January and we started the process of getting her pregnant. We began by having blood drawn to determine her progesterone levels. By monitoring this they can determine her ovulation date and from that the optimal date for breeding. During this time Eileen needed to finalize the stud choice and arrange for shipment. This shipment did not include the whole stud so once again Tiga won’t get to meet the father of her kids. She just went to sleep and woke up pregnant. It must be a little confusing to her. This year instead of fresh chilled semen we used frozen semen. The whole idea of freezing something and then having it come back to life when thawed is a little weird to me but it must have worked because she is pregnant. We went for an ultrasound on March 3rd and sure enough there were little pups in there and little beating hearts. It is impossible to tell how many from the ultrasound so we will just have to wait and be surprised. It is amazing to me that at the time of her ultrasound the puppies were about the size of my little fingernail and in just a little over one month they will be fully developed and weigh close to one pound. Tiga's due date is April 7th.




















The surgical implant.






















Tiga's ultrasound.






















Tiga's ultrasound with a measurement of the puppy - 1.59 cm.

Special thanks to Inver Grove Heights Animal Hospital for their expertise and help in getting Tiga pregnant and for providing me with these great photos.