Birth order & weights

Forgive the absence of posts about our puppies for the past couple of days.

• A.  I'm still recovering from sleep deprivation since May 30.
• B.  Our Internet has died & been resuscitated several times. We've been granted a temporary reprieve- don't know for how long. But it still crawls at times.

Birth order doesn't matter in dogs. On the other hand, birth weight may  matter but usually only if a puppy is born with an extremely or very low birth weight and is exceedingly small. One Vizsla breeder I know told me about a puppy of his being the size of his thumb when born., Now that IS tiny and certainly would legitimately be labeled  "runt". When people ask me about getting a runt (hoping they pay less perhaps??), I always express surprise. I guess there is a general expectation by many that all litters have at least one runt.  Not so - fortunately - in any of our litters. That's a good thing, especially if one considers that runts can often face rejection from the mother and increased rivalry for food - it gets very crowded at the milk bar! And this litter is no exception - no "runt" and no small or underdeveloped whelps. Here are the birth weights and birth order. (Individual pics will be coming soon.)  So for those who will get a puppy from me, don't be fooled by the low or high ends of these birth weights.  They mean nothing. All puppies are eating well and gaining weight which is far more important.

Time	Sex	Ribbon Colour	OZ
1:50 AM	M	Green	10.6
3:00 AM	F	Red	9.8
3:15 AM	M	Blue	10.6
4:00 AM	F	Yellow	12.0
4:37 AM	M	Black	10.8
4:58 AM	M	Med Blue	11.2

Does birth weight correlate positively with final size?  Based on my experience, no - unless there is a runt or extremely small whelp and even then, it doesn't always result in a small size. When fed appropriately and not neutered at an early age (this can prevent the growth plates from closing resulting in a taller than usual specimen), a dog will grow as tall as its genetic map says it will. Since our breeding dogs have been within the written CKC Vizsla standard, we expect that the offspring produced will also be within the standard.  However, I will admit that exceptions can and do occur but knock on wood, this has been extremely rare for us.