Having a litter of puppies can be extremely exciting, but there’s a lot of natural anxiety too – especially if you don’t know what to expect with your first litter. In this article, we’ll walk you through the most common questions around dog pregnancy and puppy rearing to help alleviate some of that anxiety and make it that much easier to plan.
How do I know if my dog is pregnant?
Like all pregnancies, each dog may experience it differently. Some don’t show any symptoms during the first few weeks, while others do. Here are a few pregnancy symptoms that you might notice in the first month of your dog’s pregnancy:
- Tiredness or decreased physical activity
- Vomiting (or morning sickness)
- Increased appetite
- Vaginal discharge (typically around the four-week mark, and it should be clear)
- Change to nipple size or color (you may notice swelling and darkening of her nipples as the milk glands begin to develop and increased blood flow)
- Change in behavior (all dogs respond differently to pregnancy. You could see anything ranging from no change at all to increased clinginess and affection to grumpiness and wanting to be alone in the first few weeks of pregnancy.)
| Health Check for Mama | ‐/‐‐/‐‐‐‐ |
| Mating Day | ‐/‐‐/‐‐‐‐ |
| Puppies Are Due | ‐/‐‐/‐‐‐‐ |
| Puppies Are Available for Adoption | ‐/‐‐/‐‐‐‐ |
Download the full calculator here.
How long is the pregnancy of a dog?
The average length of gestation for a dog is 63 days from the last successful mating. Because sperm can remain viable for 24-48 hours, though, it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact date of conception. As a precaution, if your dog has a confirmed pregnancy and hasn’t begun the whelping process by the 64th day after your best estimate of conception, take her to the vet for a quick check-in.
When are puppies born?
Puppies develop rapidly and will be born roughly 63 days from conception, or the last successful mating.
When will puppies open their eyes?
Puppies open their eyes between 10 and 14 days old.
What other dates do I need to know?
There are dozens of milestones from the start of your dog’s heat cycle to adoption day for your puppies. Vet visits, pregnancy stages, the whelping timeline, wellness checks for newborn puppies, milk teeth growing in, eyes opening, ears opening, beginning to stand, beginning to walk, first vaccinations, deworming and more. It’s an exciting time and a lot to keep track of. To make it easier for first-time breeders, we took all of those milestones and mapped them against an automated tool that populates estimated dates for each key milestone. All you need is the first day you noticed bleeding during your dog’s heat cycle or the last successful mating.
We do everything else. Download our Breeder’s Toolkit to get the milestone tracker along with the following:
Want the full calculator? Download here.
