Physical Description:
- Tan/White Beagle (often confused/referred to as a Lemon Beagle)
- white blaze on face
- app. 13 inches at withers
- average weight: 25 lbs
Temperament:
- Previous owners had never brought this dog indoors, therefore we have had some challenges in helping to socialize her to the noises of a home. She is a little skittish.
- loves other dogs (especially Tate)
- does not like cats, walks right past birds in the yard
- has never been used for hunting, but may have hunted on her own at previous 28 acre living area.
- loves the outdoors in all weather (except rain)
- doesn't lick or give kisses
- has trouble with boundaries - she gets right in your face for attention (training in progress)
- loves to be cuddled and held like a baby
- LOVES men - tolerates children of all ages, but mostly stays out of their way
- barks on occassion, but has never howled to our knowledge
- great watch dog - poor guard dog
- picky eater during pregnancies
- medium energy dog (energy in spurts - then sleeps)
- kennel trained
- still working on housebreaking
Registrations:
- currently registered through the AKC
- registration pending with the UKC
Health:
- Current on all vaccinations
- Current on rabies
- No known health issues that Beagles are prone to (epilepsy, ear infections, etc..)
- Does have one eye with a slightly weepy duct
BREEDING INFORMATION:
Spring 2009 breeding between Sulli and Little Man Tate V.
Sulli began pre-estrus on March 26, 2009. By March 29th Little Man Tate and Sulli began tying. This makes predicting her due date a little difficult because although she allowed ties, I can't imagine that she was actually in estrus yet. (shrug)
Tied March 29, 7:12 p.m.
Tied March 30, 830 a.m. and 653 p.m.
Tied March 31, twice but times not recorded
Tied April 1, twice but times not recorded
Tied April 2, twice but only 905 a.m. recorded
Tied April 3, twice but only 517 p.m. recorded
Tied April 4, twice but times not recorded
Tied April 5, twice but times not recorded
Tied April 6, twice but times not recorded
Tied April 7, twice but times not recorded
By April 8th, we began keeping the two separated. I personally think 22 times should have been sufficient to impregnate her. lol Besides Tate had a new girlfriend arriving on April 10th and we thought he should have a day in between.
Week one of pregnancy (figuring impregnation occurred on April 1st WOOPS - IT LOOKS MORE LIKE IT OCCURRED ON APRIL 6TH OR SO)No signs of pregnancy. No morning sickness noted. No changes in appetite.
Week two of pregnancy ADJUSTED PER VET VISIT - WEEK ONE:No signs of pregnancy yet.
Week three of pregnancy ADJUSTED PER VET VISIT - WEEK TWO:Teats have begun to become slightly more pronounced. I have switched Sulli over to puppy kibble. She is beginning to worry me some as she acts like she is not feeling well. She sleeps more, is a little cranky with other dogs, slow to rise in the mornings, etc...
Week four of pregnancy ADJUSTED PER VET VISIT - WEEK THREE:Teats becoming larger. Lower abdomen beginning to feel hard when pressed. Sulli is resisting the puppy kibble as if she doesn't like it. She will still eat a hard boiled egg, people food, visiting female's food, etc... but hardly eats any of her food. She does not care if water, chicken broth, cottage cheese, etc is added. She will pick out what she wants and leave food in the bowl. I've begun trying to add supplement vitamins to her meals in the hopes she is getting adequate nutrition. Still has a visible tuck up but seems to be gaining weight now. She has been out of sorts still this week with the sleepiness, crankiness, and not eating. Perhaps because her human daddy has been on a mini vacation and she misses him. Who knows?!
Week five of pregnancy ADJUSTED PER VET VISIT - WEEK FOUR:Well it is the beginning of week five and we are really starting to tell that Sulli is pregnant. Her little waist is at 20 inches now, she is still not eating too well, but does eventually eat if you leave her food down for her. I've been supplementing her food with vitamins, canned food, warm water, melted cottage cheese, pan drippings, etc... to just try to encourage her to eat more. She is such a little dog anyway that I do not want to starve her or her pups. Stay tuned...
Still in Week 5. Sulli is showing more and more signs that she will be a protective mommy. With Maya's litter here for one week now, Sulli is progressively getting more protective and more curious about Maya's pups. She wants to smell them constantly, check on them, and she barks non-stop when someone is here seeing the pups. If she is this way with Maya's pups, how will she be when her own arrive?
Teats are becoming quite large.
Still in week 5. Sulli's appetite seems to be returning slightly. She still doesn't eat her entire bowl of food when we feed her, but at least she is eating more than she was. I am continuing the vitamins, eggs and cottage cheese. I'm a little concerned about how much water she drinks as I am afraid of birthing a water puppy, but she has always been a big drinker. I may have her thyroid tested after the birth, but the only sign I see is the massive amounts of water she consumes. Everything else seems normal.
Week 6 of pregnancy ADJUSTED PER VET VISIT - WEEK 5 OF PREGNANCY:
5/12 Sulli's waist measures 21.5 inches now. She is really starting to show signs of pregnancy. Her appetite is returning. She is puppy hungry though and is watching over Maya's pups like a hawk. It is actually pretty cute to see their emotions. We believe that she has been quite hormonal lately as her moods and temperament have been going through some rapid cycles. She is sleeping a bit more than usual. Still eating puppy food, vitamins, eggs and cottage cheese.
Still in week 6. May 16 Sulli's waist measures 22.5 inches now. She is really beginning to show. There are no signs of a tuck up anymore at all. Her appetite is good now.
Week 7 of pregnancy ADJUSTED PER VET VISIT - WEEK 6:
5/20 Sulli's waist measures 24.5 inches now. She is showing more and more every day. Still significantly smaller than Maya was at this point, but then she is a smaller Beagle to begin with. We go on Friday to have her x-rayed to determine the number of pups.
5/22 We went to the vet today for x-rays to determine the number of puppies. Due to the many ties that occurred between Sulli and Tate, we were off on the calculations for a due date. It appears that Sulli will not deliver until app. June 7th, therefore it was too soon for the x-rays to show the bones of the pups and a number of puppies in the litter could not be determined. A new appt has been scheduled for June 1st.
STARTING HERE WE WILL REFER TO THE PROPER WEEK (PER VET VISIT).
5/24 Sulli's waist measures 26.5 inches. She is getting quite large. She is still acting as though none of this is bothering her with the exception of becoming very obsessed by Maya's puppies and she is very protective over them. It's like she wants hers so bad so that she too can care for some. I sure hope this is a good sign that she will be as good of a mommy as Maya.
Due to our miscalculation of the date she conceived, I will be continuing the eggs, cottage cheese, vitamins, and puppy food for another week.
My husband has to assist in taking photos of her tummy because she is just as bad as Maya about not wanting any photos to be taken of her while she feels fat! Silly Dogs!
May 27th - Sulli has slowed down on her eating again. She seems very mellow right now. She is growing larger every day and tonight I noticed she is now having a more difficult time to breathe when at rest. Her puppies have been doing gymnastics in her tummy today. It's so neat to watch them move around. No signs of the mucus plug yet and no signs of milk from her teats. It could still be a week or so before she delivers.
May 30th - Sulli is beginning the process now. She has been losing her mucus plug since May 28th and she has milk that is able to be expressed from her teats. She is still being so quiet about this pregnancy though. Maya is so obviously uncomfortable by this stage, but Sulli seems to be taking this all in stride. I don't know if it is because she has very few pups in there or if they are just different in how they handle pregnancy like humans can be. Sulli's x-rays are planned for Monday morning June 1st, but she may not make it that long. We will just have to wait and see.
6/1 IT'S CONFIRMED - Sulli will be having 6 babies. I looked at the x-ray and could count the little critters myself. I can't imagine that she is having that many as she still seems so small to me in comparison to Maya.
6/4 Pre-labor began at approximately 230 a.m. Sulli became very agitated, restless, and was shaking as though she were cold. I had let her out to go to the bathroom and realized that she had not returned 20 minutes later. I threw on a house coat some shoes and grabbed the flash light to go find her. Sure enough she had went into the den under the tree stump and would not budge. Middle of the night and I am out there laying on the ground trying to crawl far enough into this den to pull her back out. There is no way I was going to allow a delivery in dirt! Once I got her back into the whelping area, she wanted me close to her so I managed to get a big whopping 1 hour of sleep that night.
6/5 I kept thinking she would have the pups during the day today, but all day long things just kept remaining the same. Trembling, not eating, etc... Her temperature dropped to 98.0 degrees in the morning so we knew that the pups would be arriving soon. I am convinced that Sulli was holding off on the delivery so that her favorite human could be with her. (my husband)
I have taken Sulli outside on a leash all day due to the fact that she wants into the den under the tree stump so bad. I won't even take her into the dog run right now but even in the main yard she goes to the fence and whines to get into the den. Silly dogs, don't they realize how nice it is in their clean, sanitized whelping boxes? lol
After my husband arrived home and things settled down for the night, Sulli finally began to have her litter.
Pup 1: 10:14 p.m. Boy weight 9.6 oz (Mike Wazowski - aka Mikee)
Pup 2: 10:42 p.m. Girl weight 9.2 oz (Celia Mae)
Pup 3: 11:12 p.m. Girl weight 9.1 oz (Boo)
Pup 4: 11:36 p.m. Boy weight 8.4 oz (James P Sullivan - aka Sully)
Pup 5: 12:06 a.m. Boy weight 10.5 oz (Randall Boggs - aka Boggs)
Pup 6: 1:03 a.m. Girl weight 9.7 oz (Roz)
Sulli's delivery went picture perfect. She took care of every aspect of the delivery. It was the cleanest delivery I have been at as well. Very little fluid or blood to speak of.
I was quite shocked to realize that although we had purchased Sulli (tan/white) so that we could have multi-colored pups - every single one of the pups in this litter came out tri-colored. That was a little disappointing, but I am sure they will be adorable nonetheless.
The back yard play area - or as you can tell...the sleeping quarters. lol All the adult dogs love to watch over the puppies, especially Auntie Sulli who is very anxiously awaiting her own brood.
The play area in the front yard! Again you will notice quite a few have already pooped out in the fresh air and are sleeping in the shade.
Mowgli being adorable!
Copper - is this ridiculously cute or what?!
Special Delivery - Sydney!
Harley - Picture perfect!
Max - as cute as a button!
Leonidas of Sparta busy checking out his new surroundings.
Chevy busy ducking while thinking to himself... 'Flowers - really? I have an image to protect here!'
