Can A Dog Be Pregnant For Three Months?
A healthy pregnancy in dogs ranges from 58 to 68 days with an average of 63 days. So if everything is as it should be, your dog will give birth to puppies within the first week of the third month. If you want to know your dog’s expected due date, you should record the exact day of the mating and get ready to welcome the new litter.
What are the first signs of a dog’s pregnancy?
Here are some signs that your dog may be pregnant:
1 Mating
Mating between dogs is often preceded by a courting phase during which they play. Penetration can occur rapidly though, sometimes in under a minute. There may be a number of attempts, particularly if the partners are lacking in experience.
The male mounts the bitch and penetrates her, prompting a vaginal reflex that traps the male until the act of mating is complete. This lock phenomenon can keep the two dogs together for 15 to 30 minutes and may look odd to us, especially if the male does a 180 degree turn! It is important not to try separating them at this point by any means, as this could cause damage.
The mating process does not necessarily mean that fertilisation was successful; it may have taken place at a time when the bitch’s fertility had not yet reached its peak. Equally, the sperm can survive in the uterus for up to seven days, so fertilisation may take place several days after mating. To increase the chances of a pregnancy occurring, mating is often carried out twice, with a two day interval between the attempts. Some breeders also use a series of progesterone blood tests for their bitch, (which are available at most veterinary surgeries), to identify the optimum window of fertility for their bitch before taking her for mating.
Fertilisation
Gestation begins when the female’s ova (eggs) are fertilised by the male spermatozoa (sperm). The fertilised egg is the first component of a new living being!
The embryos start off very high up in the uterus, but towards the end of the first week they migrate down towards the uterine horns. Here they float around within the uterine liquid.