Confession

Well it's been a tense few weeks for me. I'm so critical of people who are careless, but I hope more accepting of people who make a mistake. After all we all make mistakes in life and I guess that he who is without sin should cast the first stone .. No I'm not turning to religion but I sure hope people will be understand I made a mistake.
I'm going back a few weeks, it was before Ross was on restricted exercise and Kaiah was in season. Ross had suddenly discovered how to open doors and I hadn't yet realised how quickly and easily he got out. The girls were out and Ross was meandering between the middle room and the kitchen .. Loki and Nico were in crates and I was cooking, Steve was in the living room with his nose in his kindle. I suddenly noticed an open door, with my mind on other things I closed it and got back to cooking with Ed Sheeran for company. Dinner was nearly ready and I wondered where Ross was .."Ross .. Ross" Where the bloody hell was he? Suddenly I panicked .. OMFG ... yes he'd opened the door and gone out ... and I'd shut him out. I repeat,  I had shut a young male dog out with a bitch in full season .. and for about 20+ mins. They both came running in full of the joys of Spring and I put both in crates, honestly I was shaking with panic. But of course with time logic takes over, they are both maiden dogs as regards to mating and in 20 mins they could never have "got it together," could they? Well Jay did, but in my experience I guess Jay was the exception to the rule.

Do you remember Jay? 

Steve and I discussed the situation and common sense prevailed, of course no mating had taken place. We've both seen dogs who have just mated, or even tried to, and in our opinion these two had just been playing. I considered the morning after injection for Kaiah, but Rogers the vets words were ringing in my ears ... "That's a nasty injection you know!" Now come on, nothing had happened, I was sure of that, at that time anyway!
As the weeks went on our attentions were on Ross and his limp .. or not .. as the case may be, and to be honest short term I forgot about the incident. But then it got to almost 5 weeks and suddenly it came to mind again .. then it was 5.5 weeks and with my stomach churning in fear I found myself checking Kaiah for signs of pregnancy. Of course there was nothing... then it was 6 weeks and I was checking again. I knew logically that nothing had happened, I knew she wasn't pregnant but at around this time fear took over from logic and I was seeing things that were simply not there. From a breeding point of view, not only was Kaiah too young to be pregnant, but Ross is not health tested and had a limp! Not an issue for unscrupulous breeders, but a disaster for me and mine!
Well the weeks have gone on  and I've calmed down,  I can now plan ahead for when I will be breeding from Kaiah,  in 2019 .. Weeks of tension and a valuable lesson learned .. with a GSD never ever think that an unlocked door is a safe door ... and breath!!!!!