Know The Facts Before Breeding
Your Dog
Quality:
AKC registration is
NOT an indication of quality. Most dogs, even purebred, should not be bred.
Breeding animals should be proven free from defects BEFORE starting on a
reproductive career. Breeding should only be done with the goal of IMPROVEMENT
an honest attempt to create puppies better then their parents. Ignorance is no
excuse once you have created a life you can't take it back: even if blind,
crippled or a canine psychopath!
Cost:
Dog breeding is NOT a
money making proposition, if done correctly. Health care and shots, diagnosis
and proof of quality, extra food, facilities, stud fee, advertising, ect are all
costly and must be paid BEFORE the pups can be sold. An unexpected cesarean, or
emergency intensive care for a sick pup will make a break even litter become a
big liability. And this is IF you can sell the pups.
Sales:
First time breeders
have no reputation and no referrals to help them find buyers. Consider the time
and expense of caring for pups that may not sell until four months, eight months
or more! What would you do if your pups did not sell? Take them to the pound?
Dump them in the country? Sell them cheap to a dog broker who may sell them to
labs or other unsavory buyers? Verteran breeders with a good reputation often
don't consider a breeding unless they have cash deposits in advance for an
average size litter.
Joy of Birth:
If you are doing it
for the children's education, remember the whelping may be at 3 a.m or at the
vets on the surgery table. Even if the kiddies are present, they may get to see
the birth of a monster or a mummy, or watch the bitch scream and bite you as you
attempt to deliver a pup that is half out and to large. Some bitches are not
natural mothers and either ignore or savage their whelps. Bitches can have
severe delivery problems or even die in whelp-pups can be born dead or with
gross deformities that require euthanasia. Of course there can be joy,but if you
can't deal with the possibility of tragedy, don't start
Time:
Veteran breeders of
quality dogs state they spend well over 130 hours of labor in raising an average
litter. That is over two hours a day, every day! The
BITCH
cannot be left alone while
whelping, and only for short periods for the first few days after. Be prepared
for days off work and sleepless nights. Even after delivery, mom needs care and
feeding, puppies need daily checking, weighing, and socialization. Later,
grooming and training, and the whelping box needs
LOTS
of cleaning. More hours are spent doing paper work, pedigrees, and interviewing
buyers.If you have abnormal conditions, such as sick puppies or a bitch who
can't or won't care for her puppies, count on triple time. If you can't provide
the time you will either have dead pups or poor ones that are bad tempered,
antisocial, and/or sickly-hardly a buyers delight.
Humane Responsibilities: It's midnight do you know where your puppies are? There are THREE AND A HALF MILLION of unwanted dogs put to death in pounds in this country each year, with millions more dying homeless and unwanted through starvation, disease, hit by cars, abuse,ect. The breeder who creates a life is responsible for that life.