Goldendoodle Puppies: The Tale of Two Ultrasounds

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

This past week, we brought Honey and Luna into our vet to get ultrasounds in order to confirm their pregnancies. Honey and Luna came into heat within each other in middle-late December, so we made arrangements. Honey traveled to Eugene to meet up with Wonderland’s stud Griffin. Luna didn’t need to travel though, because Mango was staying with us for a week over Christmas. We took all of the experience, research, and coaching we received, and jumped through a number of doodle hoops with the hopes of seeing our first Goldendoodle litters arrive at the beginning of March.

We were hopeful after both of the breedings, because both Honey and Luna acted quite different throughout January. Their energy level and appetites were down. They were quite irritable and grouchy. They also wanted to be close to us much more than normal.

We’ve been traveling on this road towards our first litters for a while. We’ve had numerous ups and downs along the way. We’ve had to make some difficult decisions to release a dog from our breeding program due to physiological concerns. We have invested a lot of time and resources in making sure our Poodles, Goldendoodles, Bernedoodles, and Golden Retrievers are healthy enough to be breeding dogs for us. We’ve spent long evenings and extended weekends doing research, development, and training so that we are equipped for this road ahead. We deeply care to see our Doodle Mommas, Papas, and goldendoodle puppies thrive, so we have been doing all that we can to insure that happens.

An Ultrasound for Goldendoodle puppies

So as we into the ultrasound with Honey and Luna, we were both excited, while also nervous. Both of our girls were excited to see the veterinary staff since they are familiar faces to each other. They could see Honey’s “baby bump” real quickly, and said that cheered for her. Luna seemed a little more sleek compared to Honey, and although it did seem like she too was showing, it appeared a little more slight.

Honey was the first ultrasound, and right away we saw that she was pregnant with a litter of Goldendoodles!

it was very quickly evident that she had some Goldendoodle “buns in the oven”. In the middle of squeals of glee, our vet took a good look at the group of pouches. Each one had a Goldendoodle puppy inside of it. You could easily see the puppy form taking shape on many of them. We were able to see some puppy heads and paws, as Honey seemed to be really soaking in the moment. We were excited to think and pray over these tiny puppies as they are growing in their mom’s womb. The miracle of life doesn’t get old!

Luna was next up, and the room was full of excitement, anticipating the hopeful second pregnancy confirmation.

She patiently waited and relaxed as the staff preformed the ultrasound to see similar little bundles of Goldendoodle joy. However, as we watched on the monitor, it became increasingly clear that sadly Luna was not pregnant.

There weren’t any of the tell-tale signs of placentas and puppies; instead we saw the grainy white noise of a puppy-less ultrasound. We took a considerable amount of time to investigate, because we were not wanting to take the chance of missing a singleton. However, no Goldendoodle puppies ended up showing up.

Honestly, it kind of took the air out of the room. It was a room full of individuals who have been striving to help these ladies flourish - along with out other Goldendoodle and Bernedoodle ladies and studs - so there was bit of a let-down in the room. Erin and myself were somewhat deflated as well, as we were really hopeful and excited about this litter.

The Doodle Puppy Road Ahead

At the end of the day though, Erin and I trusted - and continue to trust - that it wasn’t Luna and Mango’s time yet.

Perhaps Mango wasn’t mature enough.

Perhaps the timing was off.

Perhaps the AI just didn’t work.

While we have some theories and are hoping to learn from them next time, we trust that Luna’s litter wasn’t meant to be right now.

Plus, this allows us to focus both of our minds and hearts on Honey’s litter as they are quickly approaching their due date, March 1! We are excited for this opportunity to have a singular litter focus, and the learning that can come with some undivided attention.

As Dickens said, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Well, it’s a little more complex for us than that. While we’d love to be meeting two litters here in a few weeks, we believe that God’s hand is in the midst of this. So we trust in this timing, and won’t “lean on our own understanding.”

We are overjoyed that both Honey and Luna are healthy, and look forward to what we have in store in the coming weeks.

If you want to come along with us on our journey, check out our voyage with Bernedoodles and Goldendoodles. We are looking forward to Honey’s litter and will have updates on our Goldendoodle Puppy page whenever we know more about her litter.

Warmly,

Erin and Jay