Bow, wow! A pooch from upstate New York gave birth to 16 living puppies, tying the record for the second-largest dog litter in history.
King Triton’s Ariel, a 2 1/2-year-old, full-blooded St. Bernard, gave birth to 17 puppies over 12 hours last Friday. One died shortly after birth.
“She’s doing really well, and all of the puppies are doing great,” said Ariel’s owner and breeder Rene Wendover, 30.
“We expected maybe eight to 10 pups, so we were just floored,” Wendover, a waitress, said yesterday from her home in Philmont, just south of Albany.
“It’s unbelievable. She is such a great mother, and the puppies are so adorable.”
The sweet 16 — 10 males and six females — are second to only the 23 American foxhounds born in Ambler, Pa., in 1944. In 1987, 16 living Great Danes were born in England.