Whelping Day 59 or 61 or 63? Please share experience.

[Cunningham GSDs]

Hello,
I was wondering if you could please weigh in on this question. In your experience, do you normally see the actual day of birthing on day 59, 60, 61, 62, or 63??
Is there an average, optimal, normal, usual, etc. etc. ??

I was just wondering. My girl is due sometime this weekend or early next week. This is her 3rd litter. She has historically had her litters around day 61 but I was wondering if I should expect that again or what the norm is.

Thank you so much!

[qbchottu]

If she has whelped at day 61 in the past, she will probably do that again.

[Chris Wild]

A lot of the perceived variance is due to breeders counting days from when the female was bred, rather than ovulation. Whelping will usually happen 63 days after ovulation, but that may be a few days before the breedings and unless blood testing was done to pinpoint the actual day of ovulation there is always more guesswork involved in picking the day of whelp when going off when she was bred.

[lhczth]

Both of my girls went 63 days from last breeding in all of their litters including when we had a date of ovulation.

[Chris Wild]

I had to go look at records.. all of our females have whelped between 62 and 64 days after ovulation, which was typically 59-60 days after breeding.

[lhczth]

Friend of mine's bitch always went 59 days from last breeding.

[Cunningham GSDs]

Thank you guys for your responses. I really appreciate it. I need to keep learning and researching! I'm not sure of ovulation date, but I had been counting from the day of the first tye with the male, not the last day they mated, so again I could be days off. Saturday is 59 days from the first tye so I should probably start taking temperature tomorrow morning? And, is it accurate that the temp will drop and when it does you are 12 to 24 hours until the birthing starts? Again, thank you so much for taking the time to look at your records and educate me. :-) As always, I am grateful for all of you here.

[marbury]

Never too early to start temp records, morning and night! That way you'll have a solid field of comparison. Some bitches are lower temp in the morning and higher at night naturally, or visa versa. Knowing that upfront will really make your job easier.
I love Myra Savant Harris' "Canine Reproduction and Whelping" book, in which she tells the reader over a dozen times that your dog WILL WHELP 63 days after ovulation. She's not shy about it, haha!

[lhczth]

I usually start taking temps around day 57.

Marbury, and she is not 100% accurate. Did an AI breeding 2, 3 and 4 days after ovulation and Nike whelped 63 days after the last breeding. Did a breeding 2 days after ovulation and Vala whelped 63 days after ovulation (daughter of the other female). Also we did a breeding with Nike with no known ovulation date and she whelped 63 days from ovulation. Both of these females whelped 63 days after the last breeding even when we knew the date of ovulation. Vala's last litter she actually went over 63 days, but she had a small litter, her labor was never normal and she ended up having a section. Her second litter, though, she whelped 63 days from her last breeding which was 2 days after ovulation.

[marbury]

I wasn't addressing her degree of accuracy, merely sharing her advice/instruction.