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So you think you want to breed a litter of puppies. There are some important questions to ask before you take that first big step. The first, and perhaps most important, question is “Why?”. The answers will be as varied as the people who own dogs. Do you want to have a puppy “just like” your dog? Do you want to breed your dog because people have told you how they would love to have one of the puppies? Did you pay a substantial amount of money for your dog and believe that you can recoup some of that money? Do you want to make some money? Do you want your children to experience the wonders of birth and nature? Do you believe that breeding your dog will make a significant contribution to the breed? These are some of the reasons given for breeding.

“I want to breed so that I can have another dog just like this one!” Chances are you will not get a puppy “just like” yours. Remember that your dog is only one-half of the genetic make-up of the puppies. Your dog is the result of genes from both his/her dam and sire and the possibility that the puppies will turn out just like yours is remote unless you have carefully researched the parentage lines behind your dog and the proposed stud and understand the probabilities of what type of offspring should be produced from them.

“Everyone tells me how much they like my dog and would love to have a puppy from her/him!” Most people will change their minds when actually confronted with that furry bundle of energy and the promises to buy one will evaporate. Try taking deposits before you breed and see what type of response you have. As a first-time breeder, you will not have established a reputation and will not have referrals or references for your puppies. That little four-legged bundle of fur is not “just like” your dog. The puppy will not be housebroken, obedient, come when called, and, most likely, will keep the new owners up at night for the first week or so. Your friend then returns the puppy, saying they just don’t have time for a dog and you now have a four-month old puppy that is chewing everything in sight, not quite as cuddly as it was, and needing all its vaccinations that you have to try to re-home.

“You can always sell purebred puppies and make some money.” You’ve paid £250 for your dog and got him at quite a bargain because lots of those breeders with established kennel names were asking £400 for their puppies, so you just know that you’ll be able to breed your dog and sell the puppies for £300 each and make a substantial amount of money. So, with money racing around in your head, you set out to breed your dog. Let’s not even consider the substantial medical testing that one should do prior to breeding to make sure that no genetic tragedies are passed along, we’ll just consider the bare minimum of expenditures. First, there is the stud fee. If your dog is worth £250 and you’re going to make all this money selling puppies, it’s fair to say that the owner of the stud dog will probably consider him to be worth at least £250 or more for his services. Now, we’ve paid out the stud fee and it’s getting close to the time that the puppies are due. Your expectant female has been eating a lot more lately (normally about 30% more from about the fourth week of pregnancy and about three times the normal amount after the puppies are born until they are about four weeks old). There’s the blankets and towels that the puppies lay on; all the food that they eat after they are weaned and before they are sold; advertising to sell the puppies; and that is not taking into consideration any problems that might arise requiring veterinarian attention during the whelping or for any problems with the mother or sickly puppies after the puppies are born. All these things are expenditures before even the first puppy is sold. For a very realistic look at the various costs of raising puppies, you should take a good look at the charts.

“I want my children to see the miracle of birth.” This can be a very expensive and traumatic lesson for the children. Remember that birth can also be very tragic. Your children may be seeing the joy of new life at 4 o’clock in the morning while their precious pet is on the surgery table cut open and haemorrhaging. Or they may be listening to her scream as she tries to give birth to a puppy that is too large and is turning to snap at the puppy and you in her pain. Then there are the still-born puppies, mummified puppies (something went awry in development and instead of the puppy being aborted naturally, it shrivelled up and dried, being born black and ready to rot; these puppies can be the result of poor prenatal nutrition and quite often the bitch will then have uterine infections after giving birth), “water puppies” (these are puppies that seemingly have no skeletal development and seem to be gel-filled; these may be linked to a viral infection that the bitch had during pregnancy – remember that medical care before birth is another expense); puppies with birth defects that either die soon after birth or must be humanely destroyed. Or the birth may have gone great and the mother suddenly develops eclampsia (a calcium deficiency linked to the demands of lactation and can be severely predisposed by prior calcium supplementation), running a high fever with muscle spasms, unable to stand and eventually having seizures. While planning for the children to witness the miracle of birth, be sure to take them to the local shelter on euthanasia day so that they can witness the reality of death for the scores of dogs who have no homes.

“I believe that the puppies resulting from the breeding will be an asset to the development of the breed.” This is, in my opinion, the only reason that any one should consider breeding a litter and even then there are serious questions to consider. You should have spent at least two to three years of serious interest in the breed, including belonging to various breed and working clubs, completed in shows (in conformation, obedience and/or agility) or performance events to demonstrate your dog’s worthiness to be bred, have a substantial knowledge of the history of your breed and its standard, have looked at as many different lines and specimens of your breed as possible (you will learn as much looking at poor specimens as you do with outstanding specimens, provided there is a balance between the two), and talked extensively with the old-timers of the breed about their experiences and where they see the breed going (even if you don’t necessarily agree on all issues, these people still have a wealth of information). Your dog should closely match the breed standard and free of any temperament problems or serious health or genetic defects. Look at your dog with critical eyes, seeing all the faults as well as all the good aspects; a critical eye is mandatory if you seriously want to breed better dogs. And, after taking all this into consideration, you need to ask yourself if you can ensure that the puppies produced go to the types of homes that you would want to live in.

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