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Originally Posted by amcgriff88  Thank you for clarifying this. A lot of people believe, and I know I had been told by a past mentor, that a female should be bred with a smaller male to ensure that the puppies in utero are not too big for you female. I have always questioned this with Vets and mentors and I have been told the same as you have just said by most. Again, this comes down to the reasoning for most breeders line-breeding, correct? The only reason to be concerned about a male being larger than your female is that he could hurt the female during the mating, but this also comes down to the importance of holding the dogs until they are untied to prevent this.
Please correct me if I am wrong. |
I have had bad experiences with a little male, that probably had a "horse" sized relative on his background and even some of my free whelpers had c-sections with him... also the final size of the litter... some ended up perfect at 4- 5 pounds fully grown and another almost 10 pounds. This is a champion blooded from a very reputable breeder ... obviously did not make a good match to my females. I did not even kept a female from him.
Somewhat it is true... if you know your female is 5 pounds why would you breed her to a 7 pound male? makes not much sense as it is clear he has the genes for bigger. But no doubt you need to know the lines very very well ! I learned my lesson. And so did many other breeders. I know a few people that got disappointed with the lines of the breeders that championed this male i am talking about. Apparently they have some bigger and heavier traits on their lines. It may work well for their females but i know at least another 4 good breeders that encountered the same i did.
We are holding back a male from our family and he is not going to be a tiny boy, but we know very well all of his generations, health, size, temperament and traits. Although he is not the smallest male, he has nice lines. And to be honest a nice sized male breeds so much easier than a very little one.
I would say.... do not breed a 7 pound male to a 5 pound female... but also do not trust a 3.5 /4 pound male as it can just be the runt ! Also it is 50 % 50% ... get to know your females well too.... and specially the family whelping history ... does she come from free whelpers??? I read a post from mardelin about it a long time ago and she mentioned that. Again, i am learning a lot, and my family breeds dogs for soooo long... my Great grandma was a breeder already and she did not have the studies and resources we have today, but the word of wisdom was always passed down and todays researches are only confirming what they had found out through experience years ago.
XOXO