Authored by: Carol Frey

So, all during the planning and pregnancy, the questions swirled:

“How many puppies do you think Bree is having?”
“Are they all spoken for?”
“When are the puppies arriving?”

Then a visit to the vet for the final ultrasound and the news – “We only see one puppy.” After processing this, we started digging into the realities of raising a single puppy – well known as a “Singleton.” Lots of research and discussions with friends and breeders – the information seems endless and overwhelming.

How do we make sure this ONE puppy – most likely large – arrives safely especially knowing that the mom’s mom had some challenges delivering a litter of six smaller sized puppies? After two veterinarian opinions, we opted for a C Section.

Even managing the day of birth was also a bit different as with only one puppy it was critical to make sure we did not take the puppy too soon. Ultrasounds were conducted about 5-3-2 days out of a 63-day gestation to review heart, lungs, organs, and gut motility. Too soon and the gut may not be ready to process food. Yes, learning a lot and grateful for the expertise of our reproductive vet – Harmony. Their guidance up to delivery and after delivery was beyond anything we could ever ask for. So many questions and they had the answers. They really provided the calm we needed to take this journey. Every step of the way they were there and answering our phone call questions and what to do/not to do all along the way.

We went home with our mom and puppy on the day of delivery. Lots of instructions, but we understood the priorities:

Immediate Priorities:

Make sure the puppy does not eat the full milk bar: a puppy that eats too much will get so heavy that using legs and body become difficult and can result is “swimmer puppy.”
Keep mommy dog comfortable and puppy away from incision.
Monitor weight of puppy at least twice a day.
Rotate puppy onto various nipples but for short periods of time; feeding every 2 hours to assure the puppy is getting the nutrition he needs.
Keep attention on mommy for mastitis since there are not a lot of puppies to drain her supply and the one puppy is not allowed to drink “it all.” Apply moisture & heat and massage to work out excess milk.
Creating a “litter” environment. Using socks filled with soft material ( we used uncooked rice) to allow the puppy to snuggle and crawl over during feeding – creating obstacles for muscle and bone development.
Provide a lot of cuddles, music, and heartbeats to let him know he is safe and secure.

Thank goodness we are retired and were able to provide all this support to this ONE PUPPY! We had to step in where nature did not. No littermates. This felt like an endless and exhausting task – constantly worrying about how this puppy will develop physically and his temperament. Will he be sociable? Will he be good with other dogs? Will he have issues with food being plucked off his mom? Will he understand a pack? The worries were always there. The stress of overcoming one obstacle seemed to be replaced by even more concerns or questions about his development.

Time seemed to stand still those first 4 weeks. Sleeping rotations for the humans, constantly watching to make sure the puppy was not rolled over on. Making sure mommy dog was healing. Constantly monitoring weight. One worry we did NOT have – this puppy being CLEAN!! Mommy Bree was “on it” and kept this puppy snuggly warm and spit spot.

The worry slowly converted to more joy when we started to see the interaction with our other adult girl dogs. They were gentle, they were interested and they wanted to interact. One of our adult girl dogs (age 2) took a personal stake and really stepped up: role of bestie, fun aunt, part mom and puppy pin cushion. She took the pain and loved it. Puppy teeth scabs everywhere. Constantly nudging him, gently correcting him, puppy falling asleep next to her and we felt RELIEF!! At six weeks, he was getting to the vet for visits, meeting a select handful of people, and feeling the outside world in a car and experiencing the crate along with all the other Puppy Culture steps & experiences.

The story continues with this Singleton. He seems happy, healthy and enjoys people. He has learned his “place” and how to respect other dogs given our adult dogs at home. All girls. They have been excellent ambassadors to good behavior and correcting with tough love and teaching boundaries from time to time.

Singletons are certainly an experience most breeders hope to avoid for many good reasons, and we have no doubt this experience is different for every puppy and family/owner/breeder. The ability to devote all our love to one puppy has been incredibly special but we have no doubt that love would have been equal with more. When nature did not give us a litter of playmates & personalities – we had to try to manufacture it. Our other dogs played key roles all along the way.

I hear Singletons rarely leave their birth home and we are no exception. He is here to stay.