Litter free whelped & c-section:  January 12, 2012

Number of puppies:  4 males, 2 females

Sire: GCh. BISS Alki's Robert Redwood for Landhof "Robert"

Dam:  Ch. Landhof's Holly of Brush Creek "Holly"

Breeders:  Kathleen Borgmeyer and Brigitte Rhinehart

Registered name: Landhof's T... of Brush Creek

Comment:  Holly took a short leave of absence from her foster family, the Evermans in Smithville MO, to meet the handsome Robert at the Borgmeyers farm in Martinsburg MO. This amourous encounter was successful as the sonogram on Dec. 19 confirmed the pregnancy, We'll have a better idea about the number of puppies after the prewhelp xray o/a Jan. 6. We are looking forward to puppies as sweet, healthy and pretty as their parents. Holly is an experienced mom, this is her second litter.

Update 1-11-12:  The radiograph on Jan. 4 showed 7 puppies for sure but there may be 1 or 2 more, Holly is pretty big. Sheila Everman brought her on Jan. 8 and we are now waiting for the babies, we are sure that they will arrive in the next 24 hours as all the telltale signs such as drop in body temperature, refusing to eat, moaning etc. point to whelping being close at hand.

Update 1-13-12:  Ms Holly went into labor on Jan. 12 at about 9 AM. Like during the birth of her first litter, it was pretty slow going, by 4 PM, she had delivered 5 puppies. She then simply decided that this was enough. Despite drug induced and manual stimulation, she did not produce strong and long enough contractions anymore to move the remaining puppies into the birth canal. For the sake of the mom and the unborn puppies, we opted for a c-section at 7 PM and 1 1/2 hours later, we had puppy #6, a healthy good size boy. The last puppy girl was stillborn, it appeared that it had already died some hours prior to the surgery. While it is always sad to lose a puppy, death prior, during or shortly after birth is common in dogs, that's why this species has multiple birth.
We are happy and pleased with the 6 babies, they are pleasantly marked and quite uniform in size, with an average weight of close to 20 oz. They are all vigorous and the doting mom Holly has plenty of milk to assure good health and steady growth, check the video of the new Swissy family.
As planned, mother and babies left this morning with Sheila Everman and daughter Jenna for their home in Smithville MO where the puppies will grow up in the loving care of the Everman family and from where they will leave to join their new families in about 9 weeks.

Update 1-19-12:  The babies are a week old today and are doing very well, they are all now just about in the 2 lb range, check the new video. Holly is doing well too, she has had no post whelping problems which is always of some concern when birth requires frequent manual intervention to stimulate contractions or to retrieve a stuck puppy.