I looked for more Vizsla books and my husband brought home numerous dog books (not breed specific) from the local libraries. While I have bred a dog once before (years ago I had Dobermans) and raised a litter to weaning age (when all the pups went to new homes), I am a bit more cognizant now of all that Can go wrong and I want to be prepared. I also don’t want to miss the birth!
Since I really couldn't afford to take Red to the vet just to see if she was actually pregnant, we just assumed she was and waited, and read books. She became very clingy early on. Vizslas are pretty clingy anyway (hence the nickname "velcro dog"), but she became noticeably more needy of attention (more time spent next to the couch with her head in your lap wanting to be petted, for instance). She has started following us to the bathroom (not something she did before, even though we have read that Vizslas will do that) and standing at the doorway with her head down like a vulture (very strange).
She went off her feed (never been a problem before). She is on a high-protein/high-fat food (see link on the right for Taste of the Wild) but I have to add an egg yolk to her morning bowl of food to get her to eat it, and sometimes I have to ‘doctor’ subsequent meals to entice her to eat. She has always loved Fortiflora (a probiotic powder I sprinkle on her food) and I bought another box of that from my vet, but even that doesn't always entice her to eat (whereas it used to have her gobbling up her food and licking the bowl across the floor). Sometimes I resort to a teaspoon of melted lard mixed onto her food (that one hasn't failed yet).
She still needs exercise, but we shorten up her outings to
about 15 minutes of run time.
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