My personal preference is to breed a bitch for the first time at 2.5- 3 years old, because then they have had time to finish their breed championship before their first litter. I have one very nice bitch who has never gotten her coat back post-puppies because even her adult daughter still chews on her tail and culottes (these are papillons, not yorkies). If I had decided to breed her before she was finished she would not be a CH without having to be isolated from the other dogs to grow coat, something I am not interested in doing.
Personally I prefer to wait on a male dog until he is 3 or 4 or even older. Many genetic disorders so not surface until the dog is middle aged even. I would rather breed my girls to a 6 or 7 year old dog that is healthy than to a 1 or 2 year old dog that is healthly. The only one of my dogs that I have used to sire litters was 6 yrs at his first litter and 8 yrs at his second and third. He is now 9 and has had a long agility career with no injuries, and is healthy (knock on wood). Toy breeders are fortunate in that their dogs can live long, active lives and I personally would like to keep it that way. I have a 2.5 yr old finished CH male that I intend to use with one of my girls but that will probably be 1.5 to 2 years from now. Dogs can sire litters for a very, very long time so IMHO there is no reason to rush to use them. |