Rosie gave birth to her first pup this morning at 6.01 am and gave birth to her ninth and last pup at 10.25 am.  Five boys and four girls. Five born backwards and four born forwards. One of the Blenheim boys has rear leg dew claws on both legs. Great Great Grandmother Millie to Polly had dew claws on both back legs. Not so often seen outside the few breeds that call for hind dew claws. 
Order of birth
 6:01 Ruby boy 12 1/2 ounces born forwards
 6:45 Tri girl 13 1/4 ounces born backwards
 7:34 Blenheim boy 14 1/4 ounces born forwards
 7:40 Blenheim boy 12 7/8 ounces born forwards
 8:15 Blenheim girl 14 3/8 ounces born backwards
 8:26 Black and tan girl 12 ounces born backwards
 8:36 Black and tan boy 12 1/8 ounces born backwards
 9:37 Tri boy 123/4 ounces born backward
10:25 Tri girl 11 ounces born forwards
Photos (Below) are warts and all. Too tired to go through and edit, so I loaded up all (I believe) 117 photos of the birth. Strong pups, calm and wonderful birthing by their Mum Rosie, as she did with her first litter. Now I just have to make sure Rosie is given every chance to rear them all safely. Surprised to get so much white and shows Rosie can produce pups with tan points. Will be interesting to see how much roaning out we get on the whiter pups. Enjoy!

Got this bit of video (below) of Rosie this morning around 7 am. Her temperature has dropped this morning and has based out and is now coming back up. If she steadily goes along as she did last time, I would expect the onset of labour by tomorrow morning. Fingers tightly crossed!

In just a couple days we can see that the movement of Rosie's pups (below) in her uterus has become stronger as the pups grow and get ready for being born. Her first due date is Friday. She could go any time now and we are taking her temperature every few hours trying to catch that temperature drop. A bitch close to whelping (giving birth) undergoes considerable hormonal changes that are essential for triggering contractions and the onset of labour. Oestrogen levels increase slightly but, it is progesterone levels in the blood, that have remained high until now maintaining the pregnancy, that will drop sharply. It is this information that a vet would determine whether a bitch is full term or not, if dates are not known of mating by checking her progesterone levels. This sharp drop in progesterone around 12 to 48 hours before the onset of labour, disrupts the bitch's body temperature, causing a transient drop in her temperature. Generally the temperature drop is 1°C compared to previous days. Catch that drop and you know that things are on the move and the bitch should not be left unwatched.

I took this video (below) of Rosie's pups moving on Sunday at just over eight weeks pregnant. Filmed for ten minutes and it's been really difficult to get it loaded up on here. Finally edited it into four bits of film. Still not loading very well. I have managed to get two bits of the video loaded up. I have just taken another bit of video of her today, which I'm going to try and load up to see how much stronger in a couple days the movements has got. 

Jessica this morning secured Gold in the Three legged dog Armchair Jump Event. She will be eleven years old in October. When she lost one of her back legs at two years old, we were told not to expect her to make old bones because of  the extra pressure on the hip joint of the remaining back leg. She obviously did not get the memo!

Rosie is doing really well. Been super careful with her over the last couple days with the heatwave making sure to not let her over exert herself and not to be out in the heat for any length of time. Basically during the worst of the heat out quickly for toilet time keeping to the shade. lovely to have it cooler today.

Polly, seven and a half kilos of nuts about water

Rosie is now around seven weeks pregnant. Pups can be felt moving and Rosie is looking really well and coping well with the warm weather.

Received a 9th Birthday "Hello!" for Molly a few days after her birthday in June from the lovely Cutland family. Molly is our Treacle's litter sibling from ​Reggie and Dolly's litter of eight pups born June 2013

An update for Oscar came in the middle of June. Oscar is from ​Ernest and Rosie's amazing litter of eleven pups born April 2021 

"Hello Jane,
Really hope you are keeping well and enjoying the addition of Peaches and Brimble to your pack.
I meant to send an update for Oscar around his 1st birthday but family events took over.
What Can I say about Oscar? What a beautiful, sensitive, comical, loving little dog he has become.  Our first venture into dog ownership had been a VERY steep learning curve but we’ve certainly put as much time and effort as humanly possible into raising him. 
It’s not all been plain sailing, he has some challenging behaviours; he has a pathological fear of any harness despite us following the text book to the letter for early desensitisation and he is constantly on high alert, a real sentry dog who feels he has to let us know about ANY potential threat. He is also pretty hyper-attached to his humans which we probably should have addressed sooner so an ongoing project.
In all other aspects though, he has really settled down and is very much more of a dog than a puppy now.  His quirky personality never ceases to make us laugh and his Chit-Chat leaves us in no doubt what mood he is in.  We still get at least one attack of the Zoomies every day and he really can run like the wind (usually grunting like a deranged pig at the same time)!
We are starting to get some good off-lead walks now.  His recall and proximity are pretty good except when a squirrel or a bird present themselves and then his self-control goes out of the window.
We've decided not to castrate just yet.  There's lots of conflicting advice out there but, overall there seems to be little to gain and it could potentially dent his limited confidence.
I'd appreciate your thoughts on his weight.  He peaked at just under 10kg at about 11 months but has since gradually lost 0.5kg.   Does that seem reasonable?  
Kind Regards
Lynn"

"Hello Lynn, 
Thanks for the update. Great to here how things are going and your dedication as first time dog keepers to learn and help Oscar.
The weight thing is him most probably reaching maturity and fining out. Losing the puppy fat and with sexual maturity he will burn a few more calories. If he keeps dropping weight, it might be a good idea to adjust his food. Testicles burn calories and during puberty they will of grown and now use more calories than before. 
Hence if you remove them you would need to reduce calories. It's often why neutered dogs gain weight, if the diet is not reduced after being neutered because the sexual organs burn a significant amount of calories and also for males reduces the urge to be thinking and on the lookout for the ladies. Which also burns calories.
Hope that's of some help.
Kind regards
Jane"

Thanks Janet for this lovely photo of Tamsie and Coco. Shame I did not find it earlier, as for some reason it ended up in my spam folder, which I do not check as often as I should. Tamsie (Janet's Mum's dog) on the left is from ​Puddin' and Teagol's litter of seven pups born August 2020 and Coco on the right is from ​ ​Ernest and Blottie's second litter together of ten pups born December 2020.

Lovely update from the beginning of June for Dudley, who my niece Sophie has. Dudley is the only boy pup from ​Ernest and Blottie's amazing litter of eleven pups born February 2022

"Hi Jane,
Dudleys doing great, the only problem at the moment is he doesn’t like going to the toilet outside in the rain, but loves the sun he even fell asleep with his ear in his water bowl the other day. He's loving going to Grampy and Grandmas every now and then I think they are enjoying it too.
Hope all are well, happy belated birthday to Florrie
Sophie x"

I contacted Sam a couple months ago about "The Poundlane spaniel" facebook page and she sent me a lovely photo of Ezra on holiday in Cornwall. Ezra is from ​Toby and Treacle's litter born July 2019

"Hi Jane,
We were actually close to you this past week as we stayed near Bude for a few days. Ezra loved the beach, I'll attach a pic of him looking very cute! 
Best wishes,
Sam x"

Polly (below) enjoying the Taw river this afternoon.

Brimble (below) showing promise with retrieving after watching Polly. Although younger than Polly, she is Polly's Auntie.

Back in April 2014 at the age of two and a half years old, Jessica had an accident and it resulted in her having to have a back leg amputated. She also lost the end of her tail. She is now ten and a half years old, still going strong. She does amaze us! 

 Brimble (now 5 months old) enjoyed a walk up the woods with Lottie (4 years old) yesterday.