Hayden with a 135 pounder
Almost two months ago a had a young hunter, Hayden Manson come in for some training with a new dog that he had just brought. Ruby was a greyhound/ Lab / Cattle dog. I was impressed with her at first she was a bit hard, trying to go in on the pigs but with the muzzle on she could not hold and she soon learnt to stand back and bail. A couple of weeks after Hayden had been in he rang me to ask if I would put Fog over Ruby. This was an easy decision for me to make as I knew that it would be good for both dog and bitch.
Years ago when Leroy was about two we put him across Sam and Leroy’s hunting stepped up over night as he felt like he had gone from being a boy to becoming a man. This same thing can happen for a bitch as they now know that they have to provide for their young so they work even harder.
When Hayden brought Ruby up we put the two dogs together and Fog did not really know what he was doing for a start as he tried to ride her on her head, there was a lot of movement but nothing was happening. After ten minutes of trying to help them out we left them to on there own and started talking without showing any interest in them. As the two moved in under one of the fruit trees things started happening as Fog was starting to get the hang of things. Hayden had not seen dogs mating before and did not realise that they become knotted. For those people that think a dog has sex like people it is as wee bit different. When the dog enters the bitch they become locked together and the dog turns away from the bitch but are still joined.
They stay this way until the dog finally goes soft and the deed is done. We only mated them the once about seven weeks ago on the 23 of November. Now Ruby definitely looks to be pregnant and should be due on the 25th of January. Form the time of conception to the time of birth for dogs is nine weeks or 63 days.
Hayden came up with ruby when she was seven weeks pregnant to give me a hand to build a new set of dog motels ready for my new arrival as long as Ruby has a male pup.
While he was here we went out for a quick morning hunt and caught a 135 pound pig. Fog found and bailed this pig well and Lightning joined in but when Ruby arrived she grabbed the pig. Because it was right beside the track we stuck it rather than getting the dogs to step off and bail.