Categorized | Puppies/Breeding/Pregnancy

Dog Breeding: Is Your Female Dog Ready?

Posted on12 June 2010. Tags: Dog Breeders, Dog Breeding: Is Your Female Dog Ready?

There are many cases where inexperienced owners plan to start dog breeding when the female is just too young. They don't wait until she has reached her second heat cycle between one and two years of age. Dog breeders that do this are definitely in it for the money and are not a high quality breeder. They are looking at numbers only – the numbers of puppies born, the numbers of puppies sold, and the number of the amount of money coming in.

Selecting The Right Male Dog For A Female

When dog breeders are just beginning their kennels, they really don’t need to keep a male stud on the property. Many small breeders use someone else’s stud; keeping back female breeding puppies from their dam, especially if they are of outstanding quality and exceptional breeding. Not being able to breed them back to their father, it only stands to reason another stud will be needed from another kennel. So, the main focus from the small kennel should be on the right type of females to use in their dog breeding programs.

Picking the right female breeder means many things: she should be healthy with no genetic issues and she should come from a line of vigorous puppies from birth until they leave the nest. She should not come from a line where there is a struggle to keep puppies alive; and hopefully she will come from a line of easy whelpers, as compared to a line that is noted for pregnancy issues, C-sections, problems with not wanting to bear down, or problems with live births.

Often female dogs that make the best mothers are the ones who love their puppies to death, continuously loving and cleaning them and helping them to become socialized and trained. There are also females that are much less interested in maternal duties and they will often be aggressive to puppies, poor nursing mothers and will spend little time in socializing the puppies. These are not the females the dog breeders should use to develop their breeding lines.

Dog Breeding Cycles

Most female dogs come into heat cycles every six months. Some females will have their puppies exactly six months apart but it is important to rest breeding females every other litter. Large dogs may only recommended for breeding once every year or every other year, especially if there are any whelping or pregnancy problems known in the breed. During the resting year or cycle the females are around the kennel, playing and enjoying life just being a dog. Different dog breeders have various rotations to keep their females health and in good physical and mental shape.

Different breeds have varying heat cycles. Cocker Spaniels are known for being right on target, while the terrier lines sometimes vary. The breeder really needs to know his dogs, as sometimes the arriving heat cycle is recognized by playfulness that is more than usual, or attempting to breed another dog whether it is male or female.

The Advantages Of Hand Dog Breeding

Hand-breeding is when you place a female in cycle with the male at a specific time when she will breed. She does not run all the time in a pack, one male and several females, as is sometimes done in continuous dog breeding programs. The advantage of hand breeding is knowing when the female will whelp so you can begin her on a high protein diet and begin her worming and shot regime, and staying in control of the breeding of your dog. And if you have a real good breeder, you can be as accurate as the hour knowing when she will whelp for you.

Dog breeding is definitely best left to those who are experienced dog breeders, however if you have a female you can work with a breeder for the first few litters until you understand all aspects of breeding, pregnancy and whelping.