A question about breeding/mating dogs

Our little lucy is in season (started yesterday) and we are planning on letting her have pups this time. She is 3.

After reading and reading and some more reading ..... A question for anyone who has knowledge of breeding dogs.

Whelping box/Birthing box - did you buy one pre-made ? or use something else ?

Have seen them for sale online but dont know how useful they are, so was wondering if anyone has any life experiences of this they could pass on ? Or any other recommendation ?

Just trying to make sure I am well prepared before we even let the stud dog anywhere near her

 

Hi Sam, first of all, have the bitch properly vetted and ask the vet for advice on that particular breed. If it's a pedigree breed then you will find a breed site on the net where you can get advice. A good stud dog is important of the right size and free of any genetic defects. Many breeders believe also that temperement can be passed on via breeding. Let the vet know when the puppies are due just in case you need help in a hurry as first litters can sometimes be a problem.
Whatever method you use to contain the whelping bitch, make sure you have full and easy access, our first big mistake was to leave the bitch in a (large) cage which proved very difficult.
Purpose made 'whelping' boxes often have 'pig bars' to stop a puppy being suffocated by the mother lying on it, again, maiden bitches sometimes panic and get confused. We prefer to use a low sided container, giving the bitch plenty of room to move about, with lots of very soft bedding, purpose made 'Vetbed' is ideal, this keeps the pupies away from any tight corners where they may get crushed.

 

In the past several of our dogs had pups. We didn't breed them intentionally, they just escaped when in season

In my experience when the time comes the dog will find its own den regardless of what preparations you make. We built one of ours her own nice den with lots of old blankets and sheets and things in it, and then one day I'd been out for a few hours and came home to find my bedroom wardrobe full of tiny puppies and a very exhausted mother dog. We did relocate them afterwards to the den we'd prepared, then I had to boil wash various items of clothing and chuck a load out. Somehow I don't think afterbirth stained clothes would ever make a positive fashion statement.

 

My dog strayed from the path of virtuousness once aswell-she ran off with a huge boxer for a couple of days-the hussy.


Anyway she gave birth ( unfortunately to dead pups so I am not sure how much value this is sorry) under the stairs. She spent two or three days dragging coats and cushions under there with her.

The pups died because of problems she had with being abused in a past life, her pelvis was deformed from injuries sustained poor lamb.


I would say make sure she has somewhere quiet and dark so she can escape from you all to give birth.



Please think carefully about breeding off her, there are plenty of dogs needing homes in rescue centres.

 

Thanks for the replies

Terrier - Our lucy is a Jack Russell and yes we have had her vet checked and the stud dog has already been picked (out of a long shortlist!). He is the same small size as her and very same temperement ...... lies in bed all day and the ultimate lap dog!

Yes the whelping boxs that I have been looking at have the 'pig bars' in which is why I was interested in maybe buying one of these. God forbid she rolled over and killed one of the puppies. I would be devestated! Although she is a small Jack Russell, we were thinking of buying at least the medium size so that she has plenty of room. They also sell nice soft fleecy washable pads to go in them also .... will have a look at the 'vetbed' stuff also, as I am sure I seen a huge roll of this on ebay last night - thanks

Clueless - yes thats what we were afraid of. We go out and spent a fortune buying a wonderful whelping box and then she has the pups in our bed (where she usually spends most of her time!). Afterbirth stained clothes huh .... nice lol

 

Claire - thats such a sad story :(

We have already arrange that our older dog will go and stay at my mums for a week when Lucy is due so as to not cause any problems with them. We have also warned the kids that they will not be allowed anywhere near Lucy from pretty much the time she gets pregnant until the pups are at least a few weeks old ..... so think that part is all sorted.

We have thought long and hard re the whole breeding issue and are not just doing it on a whim. Its probably an issue that would turn into a very long debate as different people have different views on it, so probably best for a whole nother thread! I will though just say that our older dog was never allowed to have pups because she is a cross breed herself and our vets advised us against it, so we didnt.

We have homes for the pups already, to family. We probably wouldnt let her breed at all had we got to go down the route of selling them and finding homes etc. We would both be terrible at letting them go to strangers for the fear of them not being loved! ...... We are not in it for the money at all. They will go to family for free because we know they will be well looked after and we are planning on keeping at least one, possibly two ourselves

 

Just wondering why you wish to breed her. Heard this years ago, that the only reason to breed a dog is to better the breed. And not to offend you, truly, there are so many dogs out there who need homes, just making more is perplexing. And again, it is my opinion, so take that for what its worth. Truly the female dog does not sit around and say "oh my gosh I want children or I will not be whole, or I will not full fill my destiny." Female dogs really don't miss not having puppies, its a human thing. Yes, I know having puppies is so cute and a wonderful experience for children etc. Then you have to place them in good homes. Meanwhile there are dogs in shelters waiting and waiting.

 

Our family has always had Jack Russells so from the day we got her, it was presummed by the family that we would let her breed (as had all the families Jack Russells in the past).

As said above, family members have been waiting on her having pups since we got her and had we got to go through with finding homes and selling them then we probably wouldnt let her have pups as neither of us would be able to let them go to strangers.

From our own side, she is such a lovely and affectionate dog and we are wanting to keep one or two pups ourselves. Our vet has already said that because she is so small she will probably only have a couple of pups anyway, so if thats the case then no one else will be getting one as they will remain here

Our children are not remotely interested really in whether she has pups or not, so thats certainly not the reason. We have though waited until now so the children are older (4 of them aging from 18 - 14).

Like I said before .... I know and appreciate people do have very strong views on whether its right or wrong. For me its right in these circumstances. For me it would be wrong to do it purely to sell on and make a profit.

 

So they row during their seasons then-well that sounds like our house lol.

I am glad you have homes for any of the cute little blighters-although if you are thinking of keeping two I would suggest you find a bigger house, and a maid-you have enough on your plate lol-crikey MORE mouths to feed and mess to clean up after, you must be bonkers ( as I have secretly suspected).


You are of course absolutely correct, t'is for another thread, but berhaps, if your family members really want a dog and not just a puppy, and for your own peace of mind in making sure they aren'[t just getting swept up in the cuteness of it all, it would be worth asking them to have a look round some rescue centres-maybe their reactions would give you some insight into how much they may genuinely want a dog and not a puppy.

 

Quite possibly bonkers ! The eldest will be moving out soon - 18 and spends most of her time at the boyfriends anyway. The 17 year old is looking at uni so that will be her gone next summer.

If I am incredibly mean to the two boys they might leave early too :wink: :hehe:

Plus, its my secret mission to give up work really :D

 

While I agree with the argument that there are many dogs in rescue centres that need good homes, there is another side to that one. A rescue dog is not the right solution for everyone. They are in rescue centres for a good reason, often because they've had a horrendous time. This sometimes means they have psychological problems that make them unsuitable for less experienced would be owners, or even experienced owners may have good cause to think twice if for example they already have other pets, or young kids.

A dog can't tell us what is on their mind, and this can make for unpredictable behaviour that might take lots of guess work to build up a theory about what's happened to them in the past. One example from my experience is when my sister got a really nice greyhound cross from a rescue place. The dog, Tara, is such a timid and well natured creature it is difficult to understand how she ended up in the centre. She met my sister, her friend, my mum, my other sister and all was well. Then the first time I met her she took one look at me and bolted as fast as lightning. Everyone was stunned because she'd been fine with everyone else, and I've always been good with animals. We can only assume that something about my appearance must have reminded her of some nasty character that was the behind the reason she ended up in the rescue centre in the first place. She is fine with me now but it took several hours of me having to sit on the hard floor ignoring her to demonstrate that I was not a threat before she finally started to trust me.

In a more extreme case, my first dog of my own (as opposed to my parent's) was a lovely border collie who was meant to be a sheep dog but hadn't cut the mustard. Her owner had been horrendous to her and a local animal lover had liberated her from the farm without going through proper channels after hearing threats that the dog was to go for a swim with bricks tied to her feet. She was a lovely dog but didn't trust anyone. After a while I got her to the point where she was fine with anyone as long as she could see them. If you walked up behind her and startled her she would leap in to action with her teeth and genuinely ward you off. I was able to deal with that through my experience with animals, letting her learn that just because someone is coming up behind her doesn't mean she is about to get kicked into the middle of next week, but some people might have trouble dealing with that kind of thing and may compound matters my responding with discipline, fear, or simply abandoning the poor animal.

 

It is utterly dreadful the way people can treat animals-it always makes me very angry rather than upset and tearful, because I disagree with you about a fundamental issue. Dogs are not unpredictable, they are extremely predictable, it is often (scratch that) invariably the owners fault when things go wrong.

The more puppies that are available for inadequate owners to screw up the fuller the rescue centres are-unless of course they exercise euthanasia-the only way to keep the numbers down.

 

Or a previous owner's fault, or nobody's fault just lack of experience and understanding.

If I was the gaffer of Britain, I would make it law that you had to have a licence and agree to (and pay for) random inspections before you could have an animal. Nothing to invasive, just maybe two spot checks per year. The license would require a brief interview perhaps and a couple of references. If you were adopting a child you couldn't just breeze along and pick one then never been seen again, yet exactly that is what we do when we take an animal on.

 

Completely agree Clueless, if only you were the gaffer. To only a limited extent do I agree about an abused dog requiring additional help. There is something to be said about a clean slate-although I concede that an experienced dog handler , those circumstances, is required.

That lack of understanding could easily be rectified the lack of experience is a bit more difficult.

They sell dogs on the internet-breeds at at least £400 a chuck, whilst that goes on we will get nowhere, I would table a motion to forbid absolutely the breeding of dogs for financial reward of any kind, and whilst there are dogs in rescue centres-mandatory spaying of bitches until the total amount in centres is absolutely zero. ( To follow on from your adoption of children comments-why not for humans too?-just for controversy's sake)

 

I don't think commercial breeding is in its self a bad thing, but it should be tightly monitored and regulated. Breeders should submit to (and pay for) regular inspections, and their should be laws governing how many times a dog should be mated. I've heard tales of poor bitches with all manner of health problems having been mated at every opportunity. The dogs should also be treat as pets rather than simply as stock, and should be treat with all the love and affection a normal dog owner would treat their pet(s) with. In short it should be done in a way that allows the dogs to have a happy, healthy and normal life.

I didn't realise you could buy dogs over the internet (although I should have realised that, you can buy everything else that way). That is one thing I'd put an immediate stop to if I was in charge. I think the person that supplies a dog to a new owner, be it for sale or as a gift or even in re-homing, should have some legal accountability. For example there should be a set of guidelines that must be followed when vetting a potential new owner. Obviously a half hour chat over a cup of tea won't reveal everything, but simply letting an animal go to the highest bidder or the first person to come along should be outlawed. Perhaps if some agency was set up to oversee this kind of thing, then breeders, sellers, giver awayers could be made to check IDs of new owners and submit their names and addresses so that someone always knows where the animal went. DEFRA has a tracking scheme for farm beasts as far as I'm aware, yet domestic pets are not afforded any such safeguards.

I'm also inclined to wonder what happens to the revenue raised by fining bad owners. If I had my way any such revenue would go straight into a pot managed by volunteers who would allocate it straight back on to the various animal charities, though I'm not sure how that could work in practice as they are all telling us that they all need more funds, so which one do you choose to give it to? Its a tricky one, and sadly its an issue that nobody in power seems to be interested in.