Last week didn’t go as planned. We expected two new litters of puppies, but we ended the week with only one puppy to show for many sleepless nights and prayers. Here’s Solo’s story:

To start, I'd like to go back to the beginning of this pregnancy journey. We had to take Lulu to to vet to be artificially inseminated because Winston was having trouble with her. The vet did a test to make sure the timing was optimal and inseminated her twice. He did say that the sperm quality wasn't very good the first day due to a heat spell we were having, but he felt good about the second time.

Thirty days into the pregnancy, we had a girl come out with her ultrasound machine to confirm her pregnancy. She was a high school student who invested in an ultrasound machine and was using it to raise money for college. She told us that it looked like Minka and Lulu had "full litters" and Nala had 2-3 puppies. I looked over her shoulder and thought I was seeing amniotic sacs with puppies, too. We celebrated the news and began spreading the word about our upcoming litters. We felt ok with taking deposits since we had a confirmation of pregnancies through the ultrasound.

I feel like it's worth taking a moment to say that I'm not mad at the girl who did the ultrasounds. Those portable farm machines are really hard to read. They aren't like the ultrasound machines used on people. I also don't think she had much experience with dogs as she specializes in sheep.

We began to have some doubts about Lulu having a "full litter" a few weeks ago when she didn't seem to have much of a belly, but in our experience, Bernese Mountain Dogs can hide their pregnancies well, especially first-time moms. Minka also didn't look very pregnant but ended up having 6 puppies.

We've had a lot of sleepless nights this week getting up to check on her and monitoring her for signs of labor. Finally, on Tuesday night she was panting and restless. We took shifts staying up with her all night. By 11:00 on Wednesday, I was beginning to worry. Her water broke and she had some green discharge (which sometimes can be a bad sign). We called the vet and he gave us some advice to speed up labor and strengthen contractions. She began pushing, but only sporadically.

By 2:30, I was sure the puppy was stuck and we'd lost it. Brian drove to the vet for a shot of oxytocin. If that didn't work, we were going to take her in for a C-section. While he was gone, I worked on helping Lulu push the puppy out. I could feel it, but it didn't seem to be making progress when she contracted. Finally, though, she seemed to rally up her strength and had a few really strong pushes. The puppy's head emerged. Its nose was bleeding and I was sure it was dead. I had to leave the room for a moment to fight the urge to cry. Lulu needed me. She had to get the puppy out if she was going to survive this. I took a deep breath and blocked all thoughts of the puppy and its lost life, focusing only on Lulu.

She continued to struggle to get the puppy out past the shoulders. I had to pull on its head to help get it out. The thought crossed my mind that if there was any chance this puppy was alive, I didn't want to pull too hard and snap its neck. Finally, with several hard pushes, the puppy's shoulders came out, and the rest with it. It was a huge puppy.

"Good job, Lulu! You did it" I praised her. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. Is it possible that the puppy is alive? My mind raced. I quickly grabbed the bulb syringe and paper towels and started rubbing it down. In my hands, I felt her twitch and saw a gasping breath. I couldn't believe it! She was alive!

Over the next few minutes, she began to breathe steadily and move as she gained strength. She came out hungry and was soon rooting around and ready to nurse.

She is doing very well this morning. She's a special puppy and is already getting lots of extra love and attention from her doting mom and our kids.

SOLO’S FUTURE

While it is true that some singleton pups can grow up to have socialization issues, we aren’t worried about that for Solo. She will be able to spend time with Minka’s puppies when she gets a little bigger and stronger which will help fill in the gaps she’s missing from not having siblings of her own.

I know that sometimes people criticize breeders like us for having multiple litters at the same time, but there are some undeniable advantages, such as in Solo’s case of not having littermates. In my opinion, as long as the puppies and moms are being cared for well and are spending lots of time with people, then it’s ok to have a few litters at a time. Our situation is unique in that we can do this full-time and have five kids to help with puppy snuggles.

We haven’t finalized the reservation for her future home, but I believe she will be placed with one of the families on our waiting list.

More pictures will be taken of Solo sometime this week.

Solo's Page