Sad stuff

The breeding of dogs involves many things, hard work, joy, perseverance, frustration, excitement, anticipation, stress and sometimes sadness.  This week we have been working our way through stress, frustration and now sadness.  Our seemingly charmed breeding of Hazel to Cutter, we thought his stud dog days were done, it had been a couple of years since Cutter had successfully sired a litter and several years since we had Cutter pups due to arrive at Dinsdale, ended in sadness.  Hazel encountered complications with the birth that resulted in an emergency C-section and the loss of all the pups.  This is a first for me and one I could of done without experiencing.
The first evening was difficult, Hazel was confused and cried most of the night, figuring it was post surgery pain I gave her some meds and hoped she would settle...she didn't.  Then is dawned on me, even though this was her first litter, she obviously knew she was missing pups.  I gave her a stuffed tug toy and she rushed into her kennel with it, laid down curling her body maternally around her 'puppy' and quietly went to sleep.

Hazel and beloved puppy-toy

Hazel is slowly on the mend, my biggest worry right now is trying to dry up her milk production and avoid mastitis,  although mentally the stuffed toy has settled her, stuffed animals don't nurse and Hazel has huge milk production.  If anyone has any suggestions on how to dry her up, please pass it along.
The other issue, she is very protective of her 'puppy' my other dogs are not allowed to look in Hazel's crate without maternal growls and insults being thrown at them.  Fiddle is not amused.  I'm hoping her hormones will subside more quickly then if she actually had pups to raise.  On the plus side, keeping this puppy clean should be a lot easier then what I am use to with a new litter.