Could my yorkie be pregnant?

Question
I have an 11 month old female yorkie who went into heat in August for only a few days.  She went into heat again November 2, 2007. On November 20, my 2 year old male yorkie (not fixed) mounted her (despite her diaper) and got stuck in her.  This happened for only seconds before I realized it and started hollering and finally they got apart.  My female continued to have bleeding and only just stopped yesterday.  My question is, do you think she's pregnant? Would she still be bleeding if her eggs had been fertilized? Now that she has stopped bleeding for 2 days, is she still fertile? Should I continue to keep her away from my male? We do want to breed them together once she is old enough.  After the above incident, she has been at my mother's house so that the male can not get to her again.  Thanks for your help.

Answer
Jeanine,

What day of her cycle was your female on?  The cycle usually lasts for three weeks with the 7th through 13th being the optimal time to breed if you want them to get pregnant.  The first week the blood is red, the second week it starts to turn to a pink milky color and the last week it goes away but the pee pee is swollen.

You say they got stuck but only for a few seconds, if they had tied he would not have been able to pull out until the swelling had gone down which usually takes about ten minutes.  They do not have to tie in order for her to get pregnant but that is the desired thing when breeding if you want to insure that the female gets pregnant.

If the female was pregnant she could technically still be bleeding but by the time they are ready to breed (and can get pregnant) they are nolonger bleeding "red" blood it is the pinkish tinge I mentioned before.

As to if she could be pregnant the answer is yes.  The gestation period for a dog is nine weeks.  Think of it like a human is pregnant for nine months and each week is a month.  So if she is pregnant she would be less than a month in human terms so you would probably not be able to tell if she is pregnant.

As far as letting the male and her be together again, it would be alright as long as she is past the third week of her heat.

If she is pregnant you should notice in the next few weeks that the swelling in her pee pee will not go down but actually increase.  If you want to know for sure if she is pregnant you can take her to the vet when she is about four weeks out from the time they connected and he should be able to feel puppies if they are there.

I hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Melinda