It's one of the most exciting days in any breeding program: X-ray day.
Etta — formally known as Three Dove's At Last — has been growing rounder by the day, and at Day 55 of her pregnancy we packed her up and headed to the vet for the official puppy count. She's been bred to BlazE (CH Vinewood Three Doves Plays With Fire) and this litter has a name already: the Game On Litter. Whelping is expected around May 27, and trust us — we are ready.
At Day 55, puppy skeletons are calcified enough to show clearly on X-ray, which makes it the sweet spot for getting an accurate count before mom gets too close to the finish line. Etta was a champ — as she always is — and we came home with two beautiful views: a lateral (side) view and a VD (ventrodorsal, or top-down) view.
Now here's where it gets fun.
Looking at those X-rays, we did what any modern kennel does — we put them in front of some AI. ChatGPT got a look at the images and came back with a count of 8 to 9 puppies, noting that the lateral view suggested 9 while the VD view showed 8 clearly traceable skeletons. We also noticed that image quality matters a lot — higher resolution DICOM-style exports made individual spines and skulls much easier to separate than compressed JPEGs.
Our vet, working with her trained eyes and the actual films, landed on 7 clearly confirmed puppies with a strong possibility of an 8th tucked up in there.
So where does that leave us? We're calling it 8 puppies, with a possible 9th hiding behind a sibling. If you've ever tried to count overlapping puppy skeletons in a lateral X-ray, you know that even vets will tell you the true number sometimes doesn't reveal itself until whelping night.
Etta herself has been telling us something big was coming. She started this pregnancy at 37 pounds. By X-ray day she was sitting at 49 pounds — a 12-pound gain that makes a whole lot of sense when you're carrying 8 or 9 pups!
She's comfortable, she's healthy, and she is absolutely glowing. Both Etta and BlazE are OFA CHIC certified (Hip, Elbow, Eyes, PRA, and DNA Repository), and this litter represents everything we love about breeding bench-type English Springer Spaniels that are genuinely guns and game ready.
May 27 can't come soon enough. Keep your notifications on — we'll be posting whelping updates in real time. 🐾
Interested in the Game On Litter? Visit https://bit.ly/4t5LCH4 for full litter information.
