[C C Kent]

Lot's of good advice already, especially YorkieRose....here's how I make the breeding size decision to avoid the c-section.

The genetic size of these smaller males may be a significant factor in the c-section increase. If the male matures at 3.5 lbs but the average size of his siblings and parents is 6 lbs...he is an anomaly and should be treated as such. Genetically he's a 6 lb male and will likely produce offspring that are much larger than himself. If you are like many, searching for a well pedigreed smaller male you are running the risk that you will buy a nice small male that will produce larger than himself because the show line he comes from is larger. If you take this genetically larger male and breed him to a 5 lb female whose siblings and parents average 7-8 lbs she again is genetically larger than her size would indicate.

On the surface this pair would produce offspring in the 3.5-5 lb range but that's unlikely. When you average the genetic potential of the two parents and their siblings you get 6.5lb average adults. Take that to the growth chart and you find that the average puppy may be 5.5-6.0 oz at whelp. Most 5 lb females don't have any hope of free whelping a 5.5oz puppy. Some or maybe most of the puppies will be smaller...but it only takes one to merit a c-section.

With due diligence in researching the line each of the parents come from and charting the likely whelp size, it would obviously be a bad decision to breed these two.