[txshopper73]

Originally Posted by Hickey007

Well, I haven't asked my vet's opinion of this topic and won't, so I didn't answer the poll. I don't plan on breeding but if I did I know my opinion therefore I have no need to ask, I don't think its good. Plain and simple. First off I could jump off a 3 story building and come out alive, heck I could come out with very few injuries, but do you think I'm going to risk it because it "could/may" be ok? Heck no. I also would not "throw my tiny female (if I had one) off a 3 story building" either. I don't think I could breed a tiny female knowing that there "may" be complications, that I might be responsible for the death of my dog as well as her puppies. I can't even imagine considering to put my Reagan's life as risk because of my own selfish reasons of wanting to breed her. She's not tiny and like I said I'm not breeding her so I don't have to worry about it.

To address the issue of where the cutoff of a tiny should be and the fact that a female under a certain limit may be ok. You know I think its just better to say 5 lb. is the limit (it seems to be a nice round number that most have agreed upon). Responsible breeders know if a female is ok to breed or not based on whatever they base it on not just weight alone. I however don't, therefore if there are inexperienced breeders out there (which we all know there are) and they are in the same boat as me and can't tell if a 4 lb. female is ok to breed and we all say no to under 5 lbs then maybe just maybe they will take that advise and not risk breeding a 4 lb female. I realize that those who don't know these types of things shouldn't be breeding but they are, and hopefully we can educate them but until we (or rather you) do maybe we can save that 4 lb female's life.

Also I would like to commend minniemn on not giving out the vet's info. Yes, it may be public but if its public then go find it yourself. As a matter of fact she took it a step further than I would've because there's no way I would've even called to ask if I could have given it out for these purposes. If someone around me is interested in going to see my wonderful vet then I would give them all his info along with wonderful praises about him. Honestly I don't think my vet, or many vets for that matter, is up for just answering questions to fill someone's curiosity. I know I wouldn't be. Also I don't think her vet/specialist is the only one out there and I'm pretty sure if there's more then they pretty much all have an opinion on this subject, I honestly can't imagine anyone having anything to do with breeding or the birth of small dogs not having one. Heck how many of us on here have an opinion and don't breed, we are only connected to breeding mainly by things we read on here, as well as possibly other internet findings.

I haven't been around for a while and I have to say I've missed all you guys...I've got a lot to catch up on I guess, but after reading all 10 pages of this one, I think I'm going to save the rest for another day.

Courtney, excellent post!