How to Calculate Your Dog's Due Date

Video Transcript

"Let's talk about calculating your dogs due date. Now, copulation and fertilization are two different things. Fertilization is when the sperm actually fertilizes, and the beginnings of, of life occur out of the egg. From that date, it's about sixty-three days in dogs, that is the gestation period from when fertilization occurs to when birth is given. And so, with copulation, that can vary a little bit and can be difficult to tell. Generally, it's about fifty-six to seventy-two days, some where in that average of when copulation occurred, that is when the female was with the male. And so, it can be very difficult to calculate one hundred percent when that's going to occur, and even if you know the fertilization date, sixty-three days may be a plus or minus. The way to kind of know with these dogs is with in a couple weeks before giving birth, their mammary tissue should swell, their abdomen should have already been swelling and they're already going to be gaining some weight. And right before, generally with in twenty-four hours of when a dog is going to give birth, they are going to go off of their food. Their, their body temperature drops just a little bit, and they usually refuse food and will start to nest, or want to look for a place where they can go and be quiet. That's with in twenty-four hours. So, with copulation, generally averages is fifty-six to seventy-two days, with the point being sixty-three is right where that should occur."