Dog Pregnancy Due Date Calculator

When Can a Dog Get Pregnant?

Female dogs can get pregnant when they reach adolescence and her reproductive cycles (called estrous) begin. This can be anywhere from 6 months up to 2 years, depending on the dog's breed and or size, with smaller dogs reaching puberty earlier, and larger dogs later.

What is a Dog's Estrous Cycle?

Female dogs have estrous cycles, which typically last for six months. An estrous cycle has four phases:

It is during the estrus phase, which only lasts a few days and is also referred to as her being in heat, that a female dog ovulates multiple eggs and is receptive to mating. This is in sharp contrast to the male canine, which, after reaching puberty, is fertile and receptive to mating daily.

Is My Dog Pregnant?

Physical signs of canine pregnancy may manifest in the early weeks, including a rounder, larger stomach and enlarged nipples. Your dog may be more tired than usual, napping more often, and she may exhibit mood changes like being more affectionate with her people.

If you think your dog is pregnant, your veterinarian can detect canine pregnancy in a variety of ways, including canine blood pregnancy test, which detects the hormone relaxin, ultrasound, and x-ray. As each of these tests are performed at different stages of a dog's pregnancy, your vet is the best resource for letting you know each test's timeframe.

Can My Dog Be Pregnant By Multiple Sires?

Indeed she can, although it may be rarer today where dogs tend to live in more controlled environments, unlike in the past when many ran free.

If your dog gets pregnant in the same estrous cycle by multiples males, it's known as superfecundation, where fecund is synonymous with fertile, the ability to reproduce.

Since female dogs produce multiple eggs per cycle, some of the eggs can be fertilized by one male dog, and others by a different male. If this occurs, each set of puppies sired by one male are the half siblings to the puppies sired by another.

Sometimes it can be obvious if superfecundation has occurred, just by the difference in physical characteristics of some of the puppies. Other times, if a dog is inbred, and mates during her ovulation cycle with two different males, all the puppies will look alike, even though they have two different dog dads.

Do Female Dogs Have Equivalent of Menopause?

As a woman ages, her egg supply is exhausted, and menopause occurs, which is defined as one year without a period.

In contrast, a female dog's estrous cycles continues from puberty for the rest of her life. However, both share in common that the quality of eggs diminish with age.

For dogs, typical litter size decreases with age, and the time between estrous cycles increases. Moreover, pregnancy at an older age can be deleterious to both the female dog's health and that of her puppies.

Should Female Dogs Still Be Called Bitches?

Many of us call dogs our best friends, so it's certainly a disparaging way of referring to our loyal companions. Ironically, the bitch's male counterpart - the stud - doesn't haul with it all the negative connotations

According to Merrian-Webster Dictionary, bitch has a long history of simply meaning a female dog, from the Old English bicce and Old Norse bikkja.

Now, it's used on the daily as both a belittling noun, and demeaning verb (bitches, bitching, bitched), and rarely, vernacularly, in the context of our furry friends, except within the dog world, particularly among breeders.

Other Dog Names

A Dam is the mother of the puppies, while a Sire is the litter's father. As noted earlier, a given litter will have only one Dam, but can have multiple Sires. Damn!