[NAGDU] Pregnant service dog/puppies

Tue May 29 23:37:35 UTC 2018

I’ve watched this thread go by for a while, and gave it little thought.  Until, Tami, your comment.  It was thoughtful and I appreciated that it stimulated my thoughts as well.  

I believe that this all boils down centrally to comments that I have made:  To me everything is about professional team behavior. I think that it is always equally about the dog - and training, tasking and most of all the responsible ethics if the handler.   We who are responsible handlers will not experience mishaps with our dogs, other than the little stuff in life that can’t be avoided.

But a service dog that is having puppies?  And in public?  The only service dog that I could ever imagine working would only have become pregnant from an accident.  Strange, but possible?  A service dog, at full term, still working?  Flying?  I mean, if puppies, time off from work! 

We learned a fair amount about breeding, having gotten our dogs from breeders who seem take themselves seriously.  They don’t let you have a puppy without being inspected at home by them, and signing a scary contract that lets them have the dog back if you aren’t a satisfactory enough environment for them.  Breeding for the purpose of breeding…is breeding.  I would never breed.  That’s not the job of a service dog as I would ever consider it. 

About spaying:  There is more outspoken veterinary commentary that a female may be healthier for the long term if not spayed.  It has been surfacing for years.  Perhaps even more loudly now as a dialog in the vet community than the older opinion to spay.  A predominant commentary shows spaying specifically around health, as an older habit for “order”, and “convenience”, much like it is also standard operating procedure for astronauts to submit to an appendectomy while perfectly intact and healthy prior to a first space launch to prevent “inconvenience”.  Big vet discussions there.  A good place to go for a quick public read is Dr. Becker, who presents a lot of current issues and debates.  She’s a little over the top, but isn’t afraid to present different views.  Getting fat, having personality changes, and cancers among other things are now being attributed to spaying.  But uh-oh, not spaying means the owner/handler must be more attentive, work more with the dog, and taking care of boundaries and not to leave their dog exposed in a more awake manner than if spayed.  

This is an issue that we were forced to deal with seven years ago.  Metukah, as a puppy, broke a foreleg at six months.  It required a big surgery.  Then astonishingly, she broke the other leg six months later.  She had to have metal plates and screws in the forelegs in both cases, and removal surgery later.  That, plus two additional surgeries, and my requests to spay were met with advice for no further surgeries, due to repeated surgical anesthetic risk.  

I had begun pushing for it prior to six months. I had researched the opinions and/or requirements of service dog providers.  They were strongly for spaying, or simply did it.  But our vets strongly advised not to, to get clear of prior surgical anesthetics.  They said that in itself would be too risky, that we had to wait a couple or few years first.  But by then, it would become not just spaying a young dog, but major surgery in an adult; a whole other thing.  I pushed more, but they essentially told me that I would be something between cruel to nuts and to forget it, leave her intact.  So against my wishes, we did not spay.  

Metukah turns 8 in a few weeks.  Actually, we have found that it has only introduced a mild inconvenience.  For one, we don’t expose her then, we keep her close.  But that’s how we work normally.  Here’s the common sense obvious for us.  She has a moon cycle, which, although slowing somewhat now, has come about every 9 months.  When she does, we know to anticipate a very slight change in her responsiveness, and adjust - us - accordingly in how I work with her.  When she relieves, we accompany her; we do not let her go alone and come back in to avoid “suitors”.  I simply have to pay closer attention to her than I normally do.  Big deal, we are practically one person anyway.  But we also stay alert in the ways we work in public. And work, we do.   

Here’s the good news.  Almost all males in our world are neutered.  There are of course some bleeding days.  We simply have her wear an unobtrusive diaper out of courtesy to her and others.  Surprisingly, rarely ever does someone notice it, probably because of the attention that the patches on her cape draw the eye.  (Most people read them out loud, saying, Working, do not distract…and they scratch their head trying to figure it out, out loud…then we’re already gone.  It works fine.  If there is ever a circumstance that it is not appropriate to work in public together, it becomes a human issue really, not a dog issue.  I chose to train this puppy, signed on her dotted line to support her through her trials from early life onward.  I committed to her.  So in actuality, if there are ever a few days that are inconvenient to me, frankly I must remind myself to suck it up.  I keep her home on the occasional day, go drive cane myself, and live with it.  But I must say, that has been rare.  She’s a sight hound, and isn’t built in the stamina department like a more battle ax kind of breed.  Some days, she’s just really tired.  That occasional day is a day for me to respect her and develop my cane skills forward.  After a heat, there will inevitably be a couple of those days.  She just needs the rest.  That’s ok.  To expect differently would be spoiled, to think the world revolves around me and my oh-so-sacred disabilities.   

Otherwise, we notice no other issues.  It all boils down to being attentive and responsible, know what to expect, adjust self to dog knowing she has needs too, and protect her in a circumstance with a little more mutual vulnerability.  

So there we go again.  It boils down to the owner, needing to find right judgement and proper behavior to circumstance, no matter what or where so that the work is good, and the representation of it in public is proper as professional teamwork in all circumstances.  

My best,
Peter 

On May 28, 2018, at 5:00 AM, nagdu-request at nfbnet.org wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
> 
>   1. Re: Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport, while dad
>      service dog looks on (Tracy Carcione)
>   2. Re: Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport, while dad
>      service dog looks on (Tami Jarvis)
>   3. Re: Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport, while dad
>      service dog looks on (Tracy Carcione)
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 27 May 2018 10:14:26 -0400
> From: "Tracy Carcione" <carcione at access.net>
> To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,	the National Association of Guide Dog
> 	Users'" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [NAGDU] Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport,
> 	while dad service dog looks on
> Message-ID: <00b701d3f5c5$05996de0$10cc49a0$@access.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
> 
> It seems quite inconvenient to have an unspayed female.  She'd have to take
> off work when she was in heat, because I wouldn't care to be pursued by
> every intact male in town.  I wonder if it's a dog who does most of her work
> in the house, like the work Rox's old gal Mil'e did for her.
> Tracy
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Deb and the girls
> via NAGDU
> Sent: Friday, May 25, 2018 8:59 PM
> To: 'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
> Cc: Deb and the girls
> Subject: Re: [NAGDU] Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport, while dad
> service dog looks on
> 
> Don't other service dog organizations know they are supposed to spay the
> females before they go out with the handler?  I can see we will have more of
> this kind of thing happening. Lord help us.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ginger Kutsch via
> NAGDU
> Sent: Friday, May 25, 2018 7:23 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Ginger Kutsch <Ginger at ky2d.com>
> Subject: [NAGDU] Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport, while dad
> service dog looks on
> 
> Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport, while dad service dog looks on
> 
> By Cristopher Spata May 25, 2018
> 
> http://www.tampabay.com/news/Mom-service-dog-has-puppies-in-Tampa-airport-wh
> ile-dad-service-dog-looks-on_168575820
> 
> 
> 
> TAMPA - Travelers killing time at Tampa International Airport's Gasparilla
> Bar got an unexpected show Friday when a dog gave birth to eight puppies
> near Gate F81.
> 
> 
> 
> The 2-year-old golden retriever, Eleanor Rigby, owner Diane Van Atter, and
> the puppies' father, Golden Nugget, were waiting to board an afternoon
> flight home to Philadelphia when the dog went into labor.
> 
> 
> 
> They missed the flight, and for the next three hours created a fuzzy
> spectacle as crowds gathered with phones trying to capture the scene.
> 
> 
> 
> The puppies were delivered with assistance from Tampa Fire Rescue paramedics
> stationed at the airport, as well as a nurse who had to leave halfway though
> the delivery to catch her own flight.
> 
> 
> 
> Other passengers came and went, casually sipping their coffees and charging
> their phones as they watched puppy after puppy delivered on the carpet,
> airport spokeswoman Emily Nipps said.
> 
> 
> 
> "I've never seen anything like this in an airport, or otherwise," she said.
> 
> 
> 
> Van Atter said she has mobility and pain issues, Nipps said, and the dogs
> were service dogs, though Eleanor Rigby was still in training.
> 
> 
> 
> Van Atter's stepmother, Karen James, of Bradenton, was also set to fly to
> Philadelphia. She said they knew Eleanor Rigby was pregnant, but believed
> the excitement of being in the airport around so many new people may have
> triggered the early birth.
> 
> 
> 
> James was talking to the Tampa Bay Times by phone from the airport when
> people started cheering in the background.
> 
> 
> 
> "Another one just came out!," she said.
> 
> 
> 
> She was holding Golden Nugget on a leash.
> 
> 
> 
> "I have to go, the father is getting excited," she said. "Every time she's
> ready to deliver another one he starts jumping around."
> 
> 
> 
> James said the plan was to find a dolly somewhere in the airport to carry
> the pups and mother out. Then they'd go back to Bradenton where everyone
> would get some rest before figuring out how to drive to Philadelphia with a
> new litter.
> 
> 
> 
> No planes were delayed and all the puppies were successfully delivered.
> Seven males, and one female.
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 27 May 2018 09:31:12 -0700
> From: Tami Jarvis <tami at poodlemutt.com>
> To: Cindy Ray via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [NAGDU] Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport,
> 	while dad service dog looks on
> Message-ID: <6a8a6e17-5fcf-14c8-d4b1-8a82edb3be05 at poodlemutt.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
> 
> That's true. They did just have to work the service dog angle. So I 
> guess the question is how many random service dog users will read it and 
> think that working a pregnant female service dog is the thing to do. Who 
> knows? Will others who are considering working a pregnant female decide 
> to give it a miss because they don't want to have the same experience? 
> Or, will folks decide if the husband in this piece can work an intact 
> male dog, maybe that's an okay thing to do? Again, who knows? What 
> percentage of people make life decisions based on puff pieces in local 
> papers?
> 
> These aren't the first people to work intact dogs or to breed their 
> service dogs. I don't know of a lot of cases, and some may be 
> apocryphal, but it's not a new thing, just a very rare one. Changes in 
> knowledge about the risk vs. benefit of spaying/neutering and all of the 
> opinion pieces based thereon is much more likely to influence the 
> decisions of service dog users who own their dogs. When I was updating 
> my own research to decide when was best to neuter Loki, I did wonder 
> vaguely what influence it all would have on programs, guide-dog specific 
> or otherwise. It's not something I've bothered to wonder about since. I 
> was more interested in getting through the flood of information and 
> trying to evaluate how long to wait with my own dog. In the end, it was 
> his size that decided the matter. I needed to be taking him out for 
> training, and I wasn't sure I could keep him safe if true love passed 
> down the other side of the street. So snip, snip. If he'd been a smaller 
> dog, I would have waited a few more months.
> 
> I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't foresee a new wave of 
> pregnant service dogs dropping puppies everywhere based on this article. 
> I have been foreseeing an increase in the number of intact service dogs 
> for some years. What impact this will have, I can't really begin to 
> guess. In individual cases, it will depend on the dog and depend on the 
> handler. I would also wager a couple of toothpicks that a number of 
> folks who decide to forego spay/neuter will change their minds once 
> they've had some time to actually work the intact dog. Who needs all 
> those extra hassles? So there may be some problems because of an 
> increase in intact service dogs, but the general problem may be 
> self-limiting.
> 
> Tami
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 05/26/2018 11:08 AM, Cindy Ray via NAGDU wrote:
>> Tami, it was about cute Golden Retriever puppies being born to a service
>> animal in the airport, and the service animal part added strength to it. And
>> daddy dog was there, too and is also a service animal. Oh, I can't wait
>> until this new wave gets going.
>> Cindy Lou Ray
>> cindyray at gmail.com
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: NAGDU <nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Tami Jarvis via NAGDU
>> Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2018 12:15 PM
>> To: Deb and the girls via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: Tami Jarvis <tami at poodlemutt.com>
>> Subject: Re: [NAGDU] Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport, while dad
>> service dog looks on
>> 
>> The dogs may not have been from an organization. The lack of availability
>> and the expense of obtaining many other types of service dogs means the
>> percentage of dogs that are owner-trained or trained by a private trainer is
>> much higher than with guide dogs.
>> 
>> There's a lot of debate these days about spaying and neutering, the possible
>> health risks, etc. The debate has been going on for a few years at least, so
>> it now involves a lot of etc. A lot of people now firmly believe that
>> spaying/neutering is bad for the dog, so I suppose that includes some
>> service dog users. Which is to say that, yeah, we just might see more of
>> that sort of thing.
>> 
>> The article didn't mention whether the pregnancy of the mother dog was
>> intentional on the part of the owners or not, but that's not what the
>> article was about. Cute golden retriever puppies in an airport! /lol/ My
>> opinion of the whole affair is not high, but I don't know enough to form an
>> intelligent opinion, so I'll have to wonder until something else comes up in
>> my day.
>> 
>> Tami
>> 
>> On 05/25/2018 05:58 PM, Deb and the girls via NAGDU wrote:
>>> Don't other service dog organizations know they are supposed to spay the
>>> females before they go out with the handler?  I can see we will have more
>> of
>>> this kind of thing happening. Lord help us.
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ginger Kutsch
>> via
>>> NAGDU
>>> Sent: Friday, May 25, 2018 7:23 PM
>>> To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
>>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>>> Cc: Ginger Kutsch <Ginger at ky2d.com>
>>> Subject: [NAGDU] Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport, while dad
>>> service dog looks on
>>> 
>>> Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport, while dad service dog looks
>> on
>>> 
>>> By Cristopher Spata May 25, 2018
>>> 
>>> 
>> http://www.tampabay.com/news/Mom-service-dog-has-puppies-in-Tampa-airport-wh
>>> ile-dad-service-dog-looks-on_168575820
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> TAMPA - Travelers killing time at Tampa International Airport's Gasparilla
>>> Bar got an unexpected show Friday when a dog gave birth to eight puppies
>>> near Gate F81.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> The 2-year-old golden retriever, Eleanor Rigby, owner Diane Van Atter, and
>>> the puppies' father, Golden Nugget, were waiting to board an afternoon
>>> flight home to Philadelphia when the dog went into labor.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> They missed the flight, and for the next three hours created a fuzzy
>>> spectacle as crowds gathered with phones trying to capture the scene.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> The puppies were delivered with assistance from Tampa Fire Rescue
>> paramedics
>>> stationed at the airport, as well as a nurse who had to leave halfway
>> though
>>> the delivery to catch her own flight.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Other passengers came and went, casually sipping their coffees and
>> charging
>>> their phones as they watched puppy after puppy delivered on the carpet,
>>> airport spokeswoman Emily Nipps said.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> "I've never seen anything like this in an airport, or otherwise," she
>> said.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Van Atter said she has mobility and pain issues, Nipps said, and the dogs
>>> were service dogs, though Eleanor Rigby was still in training.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Van Atter's stepmother, Karen James, of Bradenton, was also set to fly to
>>> Philadelphia. She said they knew Eleanor Rigby was pregnant, but believed
>>> the excitement of being in the airport around so many new people may have
>>> triggered the early birth.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> James was talking to the Tampa Bay Times by phone from the airport when
>>> people started cheering in the background.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> "Another one just came out!," she said.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> She was holding Golden Nugget on a leash.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> "I have to go, the father is getting excited," she said. "Every time she's
>>> ready to deliver another one he starts jumping around."
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> James said the plan was to find a dolly somewhere in the airport to carry
>>> the pups and mother out. Then they'd go back to Bradenton where everyone
>>> would get some rest before figuring out how to drive to Philadelphia with
>> a
>>> new litter.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> No planes were delayed and all the puppies were successfully delivered.
>>> Seven males, and one female.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> NAGDU mailing list
>>> NAGDU at nfbnet.org
>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> NAGDU:
>>> 
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>>> 
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>>> 
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>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> NAGDU mailing list
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>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
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>> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Sun, 27 May 2018 12:43:32 -0400
> From: "Tracy Carcione" <carcione at access.net>
> To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,	the National Association of Guide Dog
> 	Users'" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [NAGDU] Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport,
> 	while dad service dog looks on
> Message-ID: <00d301d3f5d9$d9331bb0$8b995310$@access.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
> 
> I have heard that, back when guide dogs were a new thing, that many were
> intact, at least the males.  I'd be curious if anyone could confirm or deny
> this theory.  It seems to me that neutering males has been a common practice
> in farm stock for a long time, so shouldn't have been unusual in dogs, but
> maybe that wasn't the case.  Male humans do get a bit weird about it.
> Tracy
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tami Jarvis via
> NAGDU
> Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2018 12:31 PM
> To: Cindy Ray via NAGDU
> Cc: Tami Jarvis
> Subject: Re: [NAGDU] Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport, while dad
> service dog looks on
> 
> That's true. They did just have to work the service dog angle. So I 
> guess the question is how many random service dog users will read it and 
> think that working a pregnant female service dog is the thing to do. Who 
> knows? Will others who are considering working a pregnant female decide 
> to give it a miss because they don't want to have the same experience? 
> Or, will folks decide if the husband in this piece can work an intact 
> male dog, maybe that's an okay thing to do? Again, who knows? What 
> percentage of people make life decisions based on puff pieces in local 
> papers?
> 
> These aren't the first people to work intact dogs or to breed their 
> service dogs. I don't know of a lot of cases, and some may be 
> apocryphal, but it's not a new thing, just a very rare one. Changes in 
> knowledge about the risk vs. benefit of spaying/neutering and all of the 
> opinion pieces based thereon is much more likely to influence the 
> decisions of service dog users who own their dogs. When I was updating 
> my own research to decide when was best to neuter Loki, I did wonder 
> vaguely what influence it all would have on programs, guide-dog specific 
> or otherwise. It's not something I've bothered to wonder about since. I 
> was more interested in getting through the flood of information and 
> trying to evaluate how long to wait with my own dog. In the end, it was 
> his size that decided the matter. I needed to be taking him out for 
> training, and I wasn't sure I could keep him safe if true love passed 
> down the other side of the street. So snip, snip. If he'd been a smaller 
> dog, I would have waited a few more months.
> 
> I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't foresee a new wave of 
> pregnant service dogs dropping puppies everywhere based on this article. 
> I have been foreseeing an increase in the number of intact service dogs 
> for some years. What impact this will have, I can't really begin to 
> guess. In individual cases, it will depend on the dog and depend on the 
> handler. I would also wager a couple of toothpicks that a number of 
> folks who decide to forego spay/neuter will change their minds once 
> they've had some time to actually work the intact dog. Who needs all 
> those extra hassles? So there may be some problems because of an 
> increase in intact service dogs, but the general problem may be 
> self-limiting.
> 
> Tami
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 05/26/2018 11:08 AM, Cindy Ray via NAGDU wrote:
>> Tami, it was about cute Golden Retriever puppies being born to a service
>> animal in the airport, and the service animal part added strength to it.
> And
>> daddy dog was there, too and is also a service animal. Oh, I can't wait
>> until this new wave gets going.
>> Cindy Lou Ray
>> cindyray at gmail.com
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: NAGDU <nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Tami Jarvis via NAGDU
>> Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2018 12:15 PM
>> To: Deb and the girls via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: Tami Jarvis <tami at poodlemutt.com>
>> Subject: Re: [NAGDU] Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport, while
> dad
>> service dog looks on
>> 
>> The dogs may not have been from an organization. The lack of availability
>> and the expense of obtaining many other types of service dogs means the
>> percentage of dogs that are owner-trained or trained by a private trainer
> is
>> much higher than with guide dogs.
>> 
>> There's a lot of debate these days about spaying and neutering, the
> possible
>> health risks, etc. The debate has been going on for a few years at least,
> so
>> it now involves a lot of etc. A lot of people now firmly believe that
>> spaying/neutering is bad for the dog, so I suppose that includes some
>> service dog users. Which is to say that, yeah, we just might see more of
>> that sort of thing.
>> 
>> The article didn't mention whether the pregnancy of the mother dog was
>> intentional on the part of the owners or not, but that's not what the
>> article was about. Cute golden retriever puppies in an airport! /lol/ My
>> opinion of the whole affair is not high, but I don't know enough to form
> an
>> intelligent opinion, so I'll have to wonder until something else comes up
> in
>> my day.
>> 
>> Tami
>> 
>> On 05/25/2018 05:58 PM, Deb and the girls via NAGDU wrote:
>>> Don't other service dog organizations know they are supposed to spay the
>>> females before they go out with the handler?  I can see we will have more
>> of
>>> this kind of thing happening. Lord help us.
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ginger Kutsch
>> via
>>> NAGDU
>>> Sent: Friday, May 25, 2018 7:23 PM
>>> To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
>>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>>> Cc: Ginger Kutsch <Ginger at ky2d.com>
>>> Subject: [NAGDU] Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport, while dad
>>> service dog looks on
>>> 
>>> Mom service dog has puppies in Tampa airport, while dad service dog looks
>> on
>>> 
>>> By Cristopher Spata May 25, 2018
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
> http://www.tampabay.com/news/Mom-service-dog-has-puppies-in-Tampa-airport-wh
>>> ile-dad-service-dog-looks-on_168575820
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> TAMPA - Travelers killing time at Tampa International Airport's
> Gasparilla
>>> Bar got an unexpected show Friday when a dog gave birth to eight puppies
>>> near Gate F81.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> The 2-year-old golden retriever, Eleanor Rigby, owner Diane Van Atter,
> and
>>> the puppies' father, Golden Nugget, were waiting to board an afternoon
>>> flight home to Philadelphia when the dog went into labor.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> They missed the flight, and for the next three hours created a fuzzy
>>> spectacle as crowds gathered with phones trying to capture the scene.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> The puppies were delivered with assistance from Tampa Fire Rescue
>> paramedics
>>> stationed at the airport, as well as a nurse who had to leave halfway
>> though
>>> the delivery to catch her own flight.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Other passengers came and went, casually sipping their coffees and
>> charging
>>> their phones as they watched puppy after puppy delivered on the carpet,
>>> airport spokeswoman Emily Nipps said.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> "I've never seen anything like this in an airport, or otherwise," she
>> said.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Van Atter said she has mobility and pain issues, Nipps said, and the dogs
>>> were service dogs, though Eleanor Rigby was still in training.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Van Atter's stepmother, Karen James, of Bradenton, was also set to fly to
>>> Philadelphia. She said they knew Eleanor Rigby was pregnant, but believed
>>> the excitement of being in the airport around so many new people may have
>>> triggered the early birth.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> James was talking to the Tampa Bay Times by phone from the airport when
>>> people started cheering in the background.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> "Another one just came out!," she said.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> She was holding Golden Nugget on a leash.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> "I have to go, the father is getting excited," she said. "Every time
> she's
>>> ready to deliver another one he starts jumping around."
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> James said the plan was to find a dolly somewhere in the airport to carry
>>> the pups and mother out. Then they'd go back to Bradenton where everyone
>>> would get some rest before figuring out how to drive to Philadelphia with
>> a
>>> new litter.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> No planes were delayed and all the puppies were successfully delivered.
>>> Seven males, and one female.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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