'Mom did a fantastic job': Ontario Rottweiler gives birth to 15 puppies

A Bradford, Ont. woman believes her Rottweiler, Lucy, broke an unofficial Canadian litter record when she birthed 15 puppies earlier this week. (Supplied)

An Ontario Rottweiler recently gave birth to more than a dozen puppies and her owner believes the size of the litter may be an unofficial Canadian record.

Bradford, Ont. resident Laurie Smith said her dog, Lucy, went into labour at 4 a.m. on Dec. 22 and produced a litter of 15 by 9:30 a.m.

“Mom did a fantastic job,” Smith said in an email to CTV News Toronto.

Her first litter, Lucy’s puppies were delivered naturally, though two were stillborn and one died in the first 24 hours, Smith explained.

“The 12 remaining are doing well and mom seems to be doing well, also,” Smith said.

Of those that survived, nine of the puppies are boys and three are girls.

The large litter certainly came as a surprise to Smith and her husband, whose Rottweiler, Zidan, is the father of the pups.

“We did not have an ultrasound done so we were unsure of how many to expect, although we were told by our vet two to eight would be appropriate for her first litter,” she said.

Moreover, Smith thinks the size of the litter may be an unofficial Canadian record.

In July, an Abbotsford, B.C. resident said she believed her Boxer’s litter of 14 set a new a record.

“I believe [this litter] beats the Canadian record by one,” Smith said proudly.

The Guinness World Record for the largest dog litter is held by a mastiff in the United Kingdom that gave birth to 24 puppies in 2004.