Immaculate conception?

The puppies are a week old today. When I came home last night, I thought that they had doubled in size since I saw them in the morning. I haven't weighed them, but I'll bet they've doubled in size since their birth. After doing their neurological stimulation (which they don't like); I held them each individually on my lap while I watched TV. What was fascinating is how well developed their sense of smell is already. Whenever Midge came over to sit next to me, the puppy immediately started crawling toward her.

Decided to work on my clicker training techniques and clicker train Midge. It will be interesting to see how operant she is. Remember, Midge was a kennel dog before I got her. She received a lot more socialization than most kennel dogs receive, but she did not get the upbringing that Gel had. Given that she's as pleasant to live with and tolerant of things that she's likely never seen or heard before (like the vacuum cleaner); I know she has a very stable temperament. This morning I "loaded" the clicker. Tonight, when she's hungry, I'll mess around with her to see what behaviors she'll offer. She's a bright dog, I think she'll pick it up quickly.

I'm on a couple of natural rearing dog mailing lists now. Yesterday, one proved to be quite entertaining. A breeder posted about people she knew who were trying to get two dogs to mate. My memory of the e-mail was that they put the two dogs in the basement and went upstairs to visit while the dogs did the wild thing, which never happened because no puppies were conceived. The breeder then told the people what was involved in achieving a proper dog mating. According to the breeder, it takes two people, one to hold the female in place and the other to guide the male's apparatus to where it needed to be. Once the tie took place, the person holding the female had to make sure that the female didn't sit down and risk breaking the male's organ. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Wonder how canines survived as a species without humans to assist their sexual act. Wonder how Gel (who was a virgin) managed to impregnate Midge (also a virgin). Immaculate conception? I made some comments, they were not well received by this breeder and a few others who believe that they must assist their dogs while mating. I've heard of this type of situation. Sometimes a bitch won't accept the dog or visa versa. In my opinion, if the bitch doesn't accept the dog or the other way around, then maybe the breeding shouldn't take place. There may be something the dogs know that we do not. Keep in mind, I was not adverse to the cross between Midge and Gel. If Gel had managed to breed Kessie (a Border Collie puppy I bought in December and then placed with a friend of mine) I would have aborted the litter without a second thought. The primary reason why I placed Kessie was because I did not feel she was a healthy (mentally or physically) dog.

Everything happens for a reason. I'll keep telling myself that when I'm going crazy taking care of puppies.