[Candy317]

“Okay, I think I still want to breed.”

Breeding a litter of puppies is a major responsibility. You should consider whether you have the time, energy, financial and physical resources, space, facilities, and knowledge to undertake this responsibility. If you bring a litter of puppies into the world, it is your responsibility to properly care for them before and after they are born, as well as finding responsible, loving homes for them.

Breeding, done properly, requires a lot of your valuable time. There are late night and wee morning feedings, ensuring that the temperature of the room remains constant, trips to the veterinarian and to the stud dog, endless cleaning of the whelping and puppy pen, laundry, phone calls from prospective owners and the just-curious.

If you’ve ever watched the movie “The Money Pit” where a couple purchased an old home to renovate and then found they were paying endless expenses trying to renovate it, you will then understand the comparison to your cash outflow when you breed a litter. Here is a partial list of considerations: medical testing for genetic defects, prenatal veterinarian care, worming of your bitch, postnatal veterinarian check-up, inoculations and worming for the puppies, purchase of whelping box and whelping supplies (towels, scissors, hemostats, disinfectant, iodine, thermometer, etc.), heating lamp, cleaning supplies (paper towels, detergent, disinfectant, etc.), stud fee, puppy food and vitamins, advertising, lost salaries and sleep, not to mention any unplanned expenses such as birthing complications or sickly puppies or dam.

You need to decide where you are going to raise the puppies. Newly born puppies need a draft-free, temperature constant environment to thrive, just like other newborns. While it should be in a quieter part of the house, I don’t believe that puppies should be raised in isolation and strict quiet. Puppies, like babies, become well-adjusted adults when they are part of the mainstream of the household. For that reason, I make sure that the puppies could hear everyday noises, such as vacuuming, television and radio, kitchen noises, people talking, etc. I also try to provide the puppies with visual stimulation once the eyes are opened. You will need, however, to consider that six or eight growing puppies need a bit of room and can be noisy. Because they are not housebroken and the mother will quit cleaning up after them long before they go to new homes, you need a space that can be easily cleaned and disinfected to provide a sanitary and odour-inoffensive environment. If outside temperatures permit, the space ideally will be located close to where you can take the puppies out for a bit during the day once they have started exploring their inside environment. If you are going to raise the puppies in a kennel-situation, you need to insure that the kennel is well-insulated and draft-free with electricity for light (puppies should not be left in lightless places) and a heating lamp. You’ll need a space for yourself and whoever is going to help you so that you can sit by the mother and puppies during the first week of their life and spend time socializing them after that.

You need to consider whether your work schedule and lifestyle will permit you to breed a litter of puppies. Can you afford to stay home for a week or so after the puppies are born? Can you arrange your schedule quickly if your bitch goes into labour early? Do you have pressing family events planned that may conflict with that time? If so, are you prepared to stay home with your new responsibilities? What about your daughter’s recital or your favorite niece’s wedding? Is your family prepared to let you make these sacrifices? Who is going to help you when the puppies are born? Who is going to guide you through a difficult birth, teach you about tying off an umbilical cord and making sure that the placentas are completely expelled? Do you know how to supplement a sickly puppy who is not thriving?

Breeding means sacrificing a ‘normal’ life in many cases. These are things that the average person never considers when thinking about breeders. These are choices that breeders make when they decide to breed. The welfare and future of the dogs are completely in their hands.

Another consideration is whether you have the space, energy and time to keep puppies that are not sold right away. Puppy purchasers need to be carefully screened. Will you be able to turn down those people who don’t seem responsible even when the puppy is twelve or fourteen weeks old and are becoming needle-toothed, destructive, barking imps that seem to eat, sleep, potty and potty again? Are you prepared to take back a puppy after it has lost its cute-potential and the owners find out that a puppy, like a child, requires work and training to be a well-adjusted member of the family? You may also be unlucky enough to have a puppy owner call you after a year and tell you that the puppy has severe hip dysplasia or cataracts and wants you to take the dog back and refund the money. Or the dog may have started biting his or the neighbour’s children and you’re suddenly faced with a lawsuit for producing an aggressively-temperament dog (even though the person may have a new partner and children who are absolutely horrid to the dog and the biting is environmentally produced, lawsuits mean money to defend as well as time and energy).

Your dog is very important to you, are you sure that you want to risk her health or life for a litter of puppies? Complications do sometimes occur during pregnancy, birth and post-natal, and these complications can result in unfortunate consequences.

MORE...