In This Chapter
- Considering what breeding dogs means
- Preparing for birthing emergencies
- Raising puppies to be good pets
- Finding proper homes for puppies and dogs
- Getting started with the bitches
- Making partnerships
- Understanding inbreeding, linebreeding, and outcrossing
Unfortunately, these breeders are
the minority. All is not right in the dog world, and it hasn’t been for a long,
long time. Consider these problems:
- Too many dogs are dying for want of a home — and not just mixed breeds, either. Shelters and rescue groups deal with plenty of purebreds.
- Too many dogs have health problems that can be eliminated through conscientious breeding.
- Too many dogs have inherited personality problems, such as aggression or shyness or even yapping.
- Too many dogs have personality problems caused by improper handling in the first weeks of their lives.
People who shouldn’t be breeding
dogs cause these problems. If you feel drawn to breeding and care about dogs —
your dog and all dogs — consider breeding very carefully. Educate yourself
about your breed and the congenital health and temperament problems within the
breed. Develop a plan for breeding and a plan — as well as a fund — for dealing
with emergencies. Think about the time you need to devote to helping the
puppies be born,
Warning!
Be prepared to deal with the puppies you can’t sell and the puppies that may be returned to you. They are your responsibility, too. If you can’t say that you will do everything that a reputable breeder does, then you need to spay or neuter your dog.
Neutering, or at least making a
decision not to breed your pet, is in the best interest of your dog and all
dogs. It also makes your life easier. Spaying and neutering are
the everyday terms for the surgical sterilization of a pet — spaying for the
female, neutering for the male. The term neutering — or altering —
is also used to describe both procedures. See Chapter Preventing
and Treating Diseases: Working with Your Vet for more on
these procedures.
Tip
What if you meant to spay your dog and you come home to find her mating with the dog from three doors down? She doesn’t have to carry the litter to term. Spaying can be done on a pregnant dog, and the sooner the better.
The point here is that you need a
deep understanding of both dogs and the responsibilities of breeding them
before you even consider getting into breeding. Pilots don’t jump into the
cockpit and fly off into the wild blue yonder before they’ve completed the
requisite courses and passed all the tests. Nor does the surgeon learn what’s
required by hacking away at a patient’s liver. No one is allowed to assume
those responsible positions without the extensive study that prepares them to
do so.
Unfortunately, no courses of
study or tests of knowledge are required of people who breed dogs. They just
buy a female and, bang, they’re out of the starting gate. Uneducated and
irresponsible breeders sell, give away, or simply abandon their mistakes with
no thought given to what the result of their carelessness will be. Unsuspecting
dog lovers are saddled with thousands of dollars in veterinary bills and
chronically ill dogs because the people who bred the dog had absolutely no idea
what they were doing. Nor, obviously, did they care.
If an investigation were done,
probably very few instances of dogs maliciously attacking children could be
attributed to dogs coming from responsible breeders. Some dogs have a more
aggressive nature than others, and breeders who own and appreciate these dogs
go to great lengths to make sure that their dogs go only to homes where they
will be properly trained and supervised.
Bottom line: You won’t be able to
produce worthy dogs of any breed unless you know what constitutes a top
specimen. Even when you’ve mastered that part of your education, it’s only the
beginning. This chapter is intended to give you an overview of how dog breeding
works, but reading it does not qualify you to breed dogs. If you’re really
intent on breeding dogs, you need
But even if you becomes a master
of the reading material on dog breeding, is mastering the tried-and-true
methods a guarantee of any kind? Not at all. They are only the best-known methods,
and they seem to work when intelligently applied. The only guarantee involved
is that a person who embarks on a breeding program without sound knowledge is
bound to meet with more failure than success. And if failure were the worst of
it, these people would only have themselves to blame. In breeding dogs
irresponsibly, you perpetrate your mistakes on an unknowing and unsuspecting
public.
Breeders can increase their
chances of producing dogs that live up to the standard of their breed in
certain ways, and they can follow certain methods to avoid the pitfalls nearly
every breed is susceptible to. This chapter gives you an introduction on how to
take advantage of them.
What to Expect If You Decide to Breed
Breeding a dog takes time and
money, especially for the owner of the female. Your dog and the dog you breed
her to need to be certified clear of inherited problems such as hip dysplasia,
deafness, and inherited eye diseases. Both dogs need to be tested for venereal
diseases, be current on their vaccinations, be free of parasites, and be taking
an heartworm-preventive medication. This clean bill of health costs money —
easily into the hundreds of dollars.
When the male dog has all his
health clearances, his job is easy. He gets to the party early and leaves the
scene early. But after the coupling, the female’s job has just started. Her
owner bears most of the costs, starting with the stud fee. But even before you
can pay that, you have to find a stud dog. You’re not likely to find a suitable
mate around the corner, or even in your town, which means you have to spend
more money on transporting a dog.
Your dog will need high-quality
food in significantly larger amounts than usual and possibly supplements, if
your veterinarian recommends them, for the last few weeks of her pregnancy and
the entire time she’s nursing. If the litter is too much for her, you’ll be
hand-raising at least some of the puppies, and maybe all of them if she becomes
unable to nurse. Above all, you have to be prepared to deal with a long list of
medical emergencies that can threaten the life of both mother and puppies and
can result in very large veterinary bills.
If your breed requires tail
docking (trimming the length) or dewclaw removal (surgical removal of the
vestigial “thumb”), you’ll need to pay for that, along with vaccinations and
other health needs. And you’ll be paying for puppy food for the last three or
four weeks you have the puppies (after they’ve been weaned). That’s assuming
you can sell the puppies promptly — sometimes you can’t.
You’ll have to take time off work
when your dog’s whelping, or giving birth, and you should take still more time
off to socialize your pups to ensure that they become good pets for the people
you sell them to. You need to expose your puppies to children, men, women,
cats, and the normal noises of a human household. A litter of puppies is a
constant mess-making machine: Your washing machine will be going around the
clock, and you’ll be begging your neighbors for their old newspapers and towels
within a week.
You’ll need a whelping box and
hot-water bottles or a special heating element or lamp to keep puppies warm
when they’re young, because they can’t regulate their own temperature well.
When they’re up on those pudgy little legs, you’ll need an exercise pen to keep
them safe and away from the many, many things those puppy teeth can decimate.
What if you can’t get the price
you want for your puppies? The popularity of fad breeds means that, before
long, too many puppies are around and prices fall accordingly. You may be
playing Let’s Make a Deal with the last ones, or even giving them away. It’s
not unheard of for desperate first-time breeders to drop off the remains of a
litter at a shelter.
Ask a reputable breeder to help
you determine what producing a high-quality litter costs. Chances are, you’ll
find even more things in the expense column than are listed here — things such
as ultrasounds to verify pregnancies or the cesarean deliveries that are common
in some breeds. Litter announcements and advertising cost money, too, and
hardly a breeder alive hasn’t dealt with a disaster that has wiped out an
entire litter of dreams and left nothing behind but huge veterinary expenses.
Are you still interesting
in breeding dogs? If so, read on.
A Dog-Breeding Primer
The business of dog breeding
hasn’t changed much over the years: You breed the best to the best, and hope
for the best. The ways of determining quality have changed a great deal,
though, and will change even more as health screenings move to the chromosome
level in the future.
Such progress would likely make
the traditional owner of a working sheep or hunting dog shake his head. In the
old days, if a dog didn’t earn its keep, it didn’t live long enough to breed.
In some circles today, that’s still the bottom line, although more — but not
all — of the less-gifted career dogs today find homes as pets, be they
Greyhounds, Beagles, or Border Collies.
The importance of quality
Because few breeders work their
dogs as a shepherd does his, they rely on other factors to determine which
animals they should breed. They show dogs to have judges evaluate their conformation
— a measure of how closely they conform to the blueprint for the breed,
called the standard. Breeders may test their dogs’ working or hunting
instincts in competitions that re-create the conditions of the real thing. They
certainly have them tested for hereditary defects and consider temperament
before breeding. High-quality dogs are produced through this selective process.
For more on canine competitions, see Chapter Best
in Show: Showing Your Dog.
You want to breed your dog to the
best stud dog you can find, and that means the best stud dog for your particular
dog — one who is a good match for her pedigree, her conformation, and her
temperament. The person who can best help you find such a dog is an
experienced, reputable breeder with knowledge of your dog’s breed in general
and her pedigree lines in particular. A better deal still is if you can
convince this experienced breeder to mentor you through the mating, pregnancy,
delivery, raising, and placing of the puppies. Everyone has to start somewhere,
and good breeders know this.
If your dog is not of reasonable
conformation, such a person may not want to work with you or allow a stud dog
to breed with your female. It doesn’t hurt to ask, though, because breeding
your dog to a quality stud dog is a much better way to go than breeding her to
one that your neighbor, cousin, or co-worker owns. The latter may be your only
option, however, if your dog is not of a quality that should be bred. This
verdict means, of course, that you shouldn’t breed her.
Heat, mating, and gestation
Your dog should be at least two
years old before you consider breeding her, because she needs to be more than a
puppy herself to be a good mother to her babies. She should be in good health
to withstand the rigors of pregnancy, whelping, and nursing. Her vaccinations
should be current, and she should be clear of parasites and should be taking
heartworm-preventive medicine. Tests for genetic defects in her breed should
have come back clear, as should a test for brucellosis, a disease passed
through mating that causes sterility in dogs. In other words, you need to be
see your veterinarian.
The stud dog, too, must meet
these criteria, and you should already have chosen him before your dog is ready
for breeding. Females are usually sent to the stud for breeding. Some are
shipped thousands of miles for just the right match.
Tip
Some breedings take place without the dogs ever so much as sniffing each other, thanks to frozen semen and artificial insemination. Some stud dogs have even sired litters after their demise! If the stud dog that suits your dog is too far away, discuss this option with the owner of the dog and with your veterinarian. This procedure is increasingly common, and the puppies are eligible for full registration with the American Kennel Club (AKC) and other organizations.
A female comes into season (or
heat) for approximately 21 to 30 days every 5 to 7 months. Her heat begins at
the first sign of bleeding and ends when she loses interest in breeding. The
female does not become interested in breeding until a week or so after her
season begins. Although your veterinarian can pinpoint when she is most likely
to be successfully bred, the dog has a pretty good idea herself, flirting with
the males and standing with her tail up in her best canine come-hither gesture.
The males don’t need that much
encouragement. Her smell from the first day of her season has been driving them
wild, and the only thing that has kept them from mating with her sooner has
been her refusal to allow it.
As soon as the first signs of
season appear, you should finalize arrangements with the stud dog’s owner and
send your dog to the stud so she can be there when she’s ready to breed.
An experienced breeder can best
handle your dog at this point. She allows the dogs to become comfortable with
one another and, when the female is interested, does what it takes to get the
job done, including holding the female for the male and even inserting the
male’s penis into the female if the stud is inexperienced. Far from being embarrassed
about such things, the experienced breeder considers it just another job that
must be done to produce puppies.
The male starts to ejaculate soon
after he starts thrusting, but the most sperm-rich semen is released after the
action appears to have stopped and the so-called tie begins. The base of
the canine penis swells while inside the female, locking the dogs together to
give the sperm a chance to impregnate — and keeping competitors at bay. After
the tie begins, the male turns away from the female so that the two are
positioned rump to rump. This stage can last for more than a half hour before
the swelling goes down and the dogs break apart.
Warning!
If it lasts for more than two hours, call your veterinarian.
Whelping
Pregnancy ranges from 58 to 70
days, during which you should follow your veterinarian’s instructions on
prenatal care. A couple of weeks before her due date, you should prepare a
whelping box — a place for her to have her puppies, placed in an out-of-the-way
corner of your home. For large breeds, a plastic kiddy pool lined with layers
and layers of newsprint works well; smaller breeds may use the bottom half of a
shipping crate. The most important characteristic in a whelping box is that it
can be easily cleaned.
Tip
Printed newspapers are messy, so try to get unprinted newsprint. Your local newspaper may sell — or give away — the ends of the giant newsprint rolls that go onto the presses.
Final preparations for
long-coated breeds include clipping the hair on her hind end very short, to
keep puppies from getting caught, and on her belly to make the nipple area
neater. (Don’t worry about how awful she looks; she’ll lose even more fur on
her own before it’s all over and look even more dreadful.)
Talk to your veterinarian one last
time about what to expect. Ideally, if you’ve been working with an experienced
breeder, he’ll be there to help you as your dog starts labor. He may suggest an
ultrasound or X-ray to aid in predicting the size of the litter and identifying
any potential problems with the delivery.
A day before the big date, your
dog will probably lose her appetite and become more restless. She may dig in
laundry piles; show her to her whelping box instead — you may need to be
persistent, but she should have her litter where you can care for them best.
Take her temperature: A dip to 99 degrees shows that labor is near. Make sure
that you know where your veterinarian — or the closest emergency clinic — is
and cancel all your plans, because the time is near.
Take the puppies and their mother
to the veterinarian within the first day after the birth to make sure that
everything’s okay with them all. If dewclaws are to be removed and tails
docked, discuss these procedures with your veterinarian right away — these
minor surgeries need to be done before the age of 3 days. While experienced
breeders often complete these procedures themselves, a novice breeder should
not even attempt it — have your veterinarian take care of it.
Remember
Another job in those first few days: paperwork. Send in litter registration so that you get individual registration forms back in plenty of time to provide to puppy buyers. Contact the registry for more information on what’s required.
The Principles of Breeding Dogs
Every foundation animal you buy,
whether male or female, toy breed or giant, is the result of some kind of a
breeding program. Breeding programs run the gamut from intelligent and
conscientious to haphazard and irresponsible. Your stock should be a result of
the former, and by this time you should understand why stock from a quality
program is so important.
Every good breeder approaches her
mission in a slightly different manner. You’ll find that, more often than not,
experienced and successful breeders are adamantly dedicated to their own
method. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that their dedication to a particular
approach is a result of that approach having worked for them over the years.
Interestingly, all the various
theories and breeding strategies can be categorized into three basic controlled
breeding programs, which derive their names from the degree of relationship
between the two dogs mated:
- Inbreeding: Breeding within the immediate family
- Linebreeding: Breeding among more-remotely-related family members
- Outcrossing: Breeding from the same breed but with no common ancestors within five generations
Inbreeding
Inbreeding is, as many
geneticists have proclaimed, a powerful two-edged sword.
Warning!
Don’t attempt inbreeding if you don’t have in-depth knowledge of all the good and bad points of the individuals who stand behind the two animals being mated. Inbreeding can intensify desirable characteristics to the degree that the resulting offspring are highly dependable for producing the desirable qualities. However, inbreeding can also call forth catastrophic consequences.
Inbreeding increases the chance that a gene obtained from the one parent will duplicate (match) one obtained from the other. This is the case for everything — both what is desirable and what is undesirable. Often, harmful and sometimes lethal genes float around in the pedigrees of dogs within a breed.
Knowledgeable breeders are apt to
know if and where these genes exist. They use the utmost care in bringing
together animals in any mating that may reproduce these abnormalities. In some
circumstances, experienced breeders intentionally make breedings that risk such
results, but they always have specific reasons for doing so. Only carefully
selected individuals from those matings are retained for breeding; all others
are neutered and eliminated from the gene pool.
Technical Stuff
Inbreeding can be scientifically defined as the mating of individuals more closely related than the average of the population that they come from. In other words, what may be considered inbreeding in a new breed with a small gene pool may not be considered inbreeding in a long-established breed that has hundreds, if not thousands, of dogs in the gene pool to draw upon.
In layman’s terms, and for our
purposes here, inbreeding is best explained as the mating of two directly related
animals. Most dog breeders consider the following as inbreeding:
- Father bred to daughter
- Son bred to mother
- Full brother bred to full sister
Remember
One frequently hears people who are not familiar with intelligent breeding practices blame inbreeding for producing the health or temperament problems that exist in popular breeds. This assertion is seldom, if ever, true. Inbreeding isn’t the main cause of a preponderance of health problems in a breed. People who lack knowledge of a breed’s background do, however, create problems of this nature. If two dogs, closely related or not, who have a debilitating problem are mated, the chances of all the offspring having the problem obviously will be very high. Moreover, if the two animals who are mated are themselves free of the problem, but the problem runs rampant in the genetic makeup of their immediate ancestors, the chances of their passing it along are, for all intents and purposes, just as high as if they were afflicted themselves.
Linebreeding
Scientifically speaking,
linebreeding and inbreeding are the same. The intensity is all that differs. In
other words, if inbreeding increases the chance that a gene obtained from the
one parent will duplicate (match) one obtained from the other, linebreeding
reduces but does not eliminate those chances.
Although inexperienced breeders
should not attempt inbreeding, intelligent breeders are also aware that a
pedigree made up of dogs who are related only by breed won’t ever provide any
consistency or lock in any of the good traits that are necessary to maintain.
Furthermore, it’s doubtful that even the accidental outstanding individuals can
be relied upon to reproduce themselves.
Linebreeding, then, is the best
way to concentrate the qualities possessed by certain outstanding animals in
the pedigree without running the risks of inbreeding. The certainty of getting
what is desired is not as great through linebreeding as it is through
inbreeding, but neither is the risk of intensifying highly undesirable traits.
Outcrossing
When no common ancestors appear
within five generations of the two individuals being mated, the breeding is
generally considered an outcross. True outcrosses are somewhat unlikely if
breeders are working within popular bloodlines — popular meaning the
bloodlines that are producing the kinds of dogs who are winning at the dog
shows.
Outcrossing is the opposite of
inbreeding. This method of breeding mates individuals of the same breed who,
for all intents and purposes, are not related. This approach is less likely to
fix faults in the offspring, but neither can it concentrate specific qualities
with any certainty.
A certain look or style within a
breed will become popular because it does well at the shows. Usually this style
will emanate from a successful breeder’s line or be stamped by an especially
dominant stud dog. Other breeders will invariably attempt to incorporate that
winning look into their own line. They do so either by dipping lightly into the
winning line by making a single breeding to it, or by heavily reshaping their
breeding program around the line that is producing the winning look. As a
consequence, the breed as it is popularly seen becomes influenced to a greater
or lesser degree by a few dogs from the source that began the trend.
Eventually, hardly a dog in sight doesn’t have at least a touch of the popular
line somewhere, thereby making a true outcross breeding very rare.
Choosing Your Own Style
So which is the best way to go:
linebreeding, inbreeding, or outcrossing? The following sections offer some
thoughts.
The conservative breeder
Some breeders have a very
clear-cut interpretation of the standard and stay within the lines that will
produce that look and temperament, regardless of trends. Fads come and go, but
these breeders stand by their linebreeding program that produces what they
believe is correct and refuse to change hats even when that refusal slows the
accumulation of those coveted blue ribbons.
Sticking by your line isn’t
always an easy thing to do. The trends can become so all encompassing that your
dog becomes what you may call odd man out — the only dog in the lineup
that looks different. It takes the knowledgeable judge who has the courage of
his own convictions to decide which style is really right for the breed and to
reward it accordingly. These diehard breeders often weather the storms of
unpopularity and are there waiting when the winds of change calm down. In a
good many cases, these kennels prove to be where newer breeders find the
foundation stock that sets them in the right direction.
Keeping an eye on the prize
Other breeders keep abreast of
trends within a breed and adapt their lines to keep pace. They are attracted to
the qualities of the dog of the hour and use him, or the bloodline that
produced him, in their own breeding program. These same individuals often have
an eye for those winning qualities and are able to pick the dog most likely to
succeed from their own litters. Soon they are out and winning with dogs
sporting the new look.
Usually a significant amount of
outcrossing is involved in breeding programs of this kind. Reliability is not
the long suit of the line. Outcrossing can be a hit-and-miss affair, but
breeders who subscribe to this approach seem entirely satisfied with those
occasional hits that come along, because often they’re big hits and account for
highly successful win records.
Outcrossing for elusive qualities
Outcross breeding isn’t done only
to follow a fad or trend. When properly employed, outcrosses can bring
qualities to a breeder’s line that she sorely needs. Many intelligent breeders
resort to occasional outcross breedings for very sound reasons. At times, a
breeder’s line will generally satisfy the breed standard in all respects but
one or two — say, for example, pigment and eye color. The breeder finds that,
try as she might, those qualities remain elusive within the line.
The logical thing to do, then, is
to seek out another line (one known to consistently produce good pigment and
eye color) and make a breeding, or sometimes two, into that line. Often this
breeding requires outcrossing into another line that doesn’t bear a close
relationship to one’s own. The method is more apt to succeed if the outcross
line is closely linebred, because the chances of its being dominant for the
desired qualities are higher. The dog whose appearance (also called phenotype)
is not backed up by a concentration of the genes for that quality (genotype)
may not be strong enough to pass along that quality to another, stronger line.
Sex-linked characteristics: Finding the formula
In addition to inbreeding,
linebreeding, and outcrossing, breeders have to factor in another approach. In
some cases, the sexes of the individual dogs who are used have a great bearing
on which characteristics are passed along. These traits are called sex-linked
characteristics.
In some cases, for example, the
male is best at bringing in the quality you need from another line. In other
instances, the female is more apt to give you what you want. It’s almost as if
Mother Nature is taunting you by giving you part but not all of the equation.
Then it’s up to you to find the missing piece and come up with the right
answers.
Breeders who set out to improve
their line or correct faults, instead of simply accepting them as part of the
territory, may need generations of dogs to do so. In the end, however, the
persevering breeder usually accomplishes this goal.
Getting an animal good enough to
show is one thing. Getting one good enough to carry on your breeding program or
to take the breed one step farther along the line of progress takes time and
perseverance, and often leads to great disappointment. However, the dogs who
carry breeds to greater heights in the show ring, in competitive events, and as
producers are usually the result of someone’s willingness to deal with all
these setbacks.
Start with the Bitches
Absolutely nothing is more
important to your breeding program than starting with a well-bred female of
representative quality.
And now is as good a time as any
to start using the term bitch rather than female. Everyone you
deal with in the dog world refers to the two canine sexes as dogs (males) and
bitches (females). If you want to work your way
Why you don’t need to keep males
Remember
The hobby breeder who’s interested only in establishing a breeding program and setting a distinctive, yet representative, style needs to house only bitches. It’s absolutely pointless — in fact, counterproductive — for any beginning breeder to house males.
The male will seldom, if ever, be
used on the mother who produced him or on his sisters or his daughters. (As
already mentioned, on a rare occasion a very experienced breeder will resort to
this kind of inbreeding, but only in special, well-thought-out circumstances.)
If you can’t use him on any of the dogs in your own breeding program, what
would be the reason for keeping him there?
If it’s for those thousands of
dollars you think you’ll make on stud services, think again. Breeding dogs for
profitable stud purposes is a highly specialized activity, best pursued after
many years of successful dog breeding. To properly use a male, you have to go
out and purchase the right female to breed to him. Doing so puts you right back
at square one, with nothing to do but repeat the breeding over and over again.
You’ll have lots of offspring, but nothing to help you carry on a breeding
program. All the dogs will be bred exactly the same — too closely to breed to
each other.
Remember
The pointlessness of keeping a male becomes even more obvious when you stop to realize that you have access to any top-producing male in the country. And you can use a different male with each breeding.
The importance of foundation bitches
Successful breeders around the
world agree on two things: First, beginners must go to a successful breeder for
their foundation stock. Second, it’s critical for the beginning breeder to buy
the best possible daughter they can afford from the breed’s best-producing dam
(the term for a bitch used in breeding).
You may ask why these
knowledgeable people have advised buying a daughter of a top-producing
dam rather than the dam herself. To quote Norma Hamilton, a world-renowned
breeder of the Quailmoor Irish Setters of Australia: “Only the person who has
taken total leave of their senses would ever part with the great producing
bitch herself. It would be like giving away your sails and then showing up to
compete in the America’s Cup.”
Remember
Without a doubt, your bitch is the cornerstone — the very foundation — of everything you will do as a breeder. Don’t even think of economizing in this respect.
Successful breeders also seem to
agree that the foundation bitch doesn’t have to be what could be described as a
“glamour girl” — one who has won yards of blue ribbons. Records seem to
indicate that as long as her bloodline credentials are impeccable, and she’s
well made and sound in all respects, her chances of being a noteworthy producer
are very good.
Tip
If you can possibly arrange to do so, purchase two daughters of the producing bitch. They could be litter sisters or even half-sisters with different sires. There’s no better way to assure yourself of establishing a tidy little producing nucleus than through obtaining high-quality sisters. The possibilities of breeding them out and then returning to your own line with the offspring are endless.
Having both quality male and
female offspring emerge from even your earliest breedings isn’t entirely
unusual. But again, it’s not necessary or advisable to keep any of the males
in-house, no matter how good they are.
When you breed a fine male
When and if you do breed that
great male, have no fear — you’ll be able to make all sorts of breeding arrangements
so that you will have access to him down the line when and if you have a bitch
who’s appropriate to breed to him. Don’t sit up nights worrying about what to
do if that one-in-a-million male comes along. And that’s what the chances are
of your producing him in your first litters — one in a million, if that high.
You’ll have a line from here to
Timbuktu waiting at your door if you have a top, show-quality male to place,
with top meaning the very best. Trying to place the average,
just-good-enough-to-become-a-champion male is not so easy. Average is easy to
come by; tops is not. Furthermore, a male of only average quality is not one
that others will seek out for breeding, nor should he be. The bull’s-eye is the
only thing you’re aiming for.
Moving Outward: Making Partnerships
Working with bloodlines that seem
to click, after a time you may find that you are coming up with a considerable
percentage of high-quality, intelligently linebred bitches. In fact, you may be
coming up with a few more than you can house properly but are afraid to let go
entirely.
Breeding partnerships in Russia
No greater proof exists of the value of breeding
partnerships than the breeders in Russia. Restricted by 70 years of communist
domination, purebred dog breeders networked their breeding programs between
partnerships of sometimes five, six, and seven breeders, many of them living
in apartment complexes. All of them were severely handicapped by the lack of
funds and the lack of nutritional supplements for their dogs. Even so, when
the Iron Curtain was lifted, quality sprang forth as if from an underground
stream.
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You now face the small-breeder’s
dilemma: deciding which to keep — the females who have proven they can produce
for you or the females who have been produced and are one step farther along in
your quest for improvement?
One solution is partnership.
Working closely with a partner, even the most limited breeder can create
miracles. Naturally, the partners must have basically similar goals in mind and
agree on what constitutes the essence of the breed. Both partners must also be
dedicated to setting type and maintaining it. And neither should be unduly
influenced by win records or fads and fancies. The partnership is a marriage of
sorts. Be sure to pick someone with whom you’re compatible.
A good many, if not most of
Great Britain’s great show-winning dog exports to America were dogs whelped in
the most modest of homes — in the kitchen behind the stove, so to speak. The
dogs shared living quarters with their owners, and their exercise came from
being put out in the garden several times a day and from taking walks around
the block with dad or the kids.
Remember
It’s not how elaborately the dogs are kept — it’s how good they are that counts.
Establishing and maintaining type
in this day and age isn’t easy. But then, it never really was, except perhaps
for the few breeders blessed with the means to maintain those super kennels of
the past. Can it be done today? Of course it can.
Small hobby breeders all over the
world limit themselves to one litter a year or less. These small but important
breeders are counted among the most influential in their respective breeds.
Their influence didn’t come about in a day, a week, or a year. It took time.
So You Have Puppies: Now What?
Puppy
If you want to increase the chances of raising your puppies right — and be reassured that your puppies are “normal” — knowing how puppies mature is helpful. As with children, growth stages each have their wonders and their challenges. The stages pass too quickly, so to get the most out of the puppy experience, clear your calendar of nondog activities and keep your eyes open.
All puppies look much the same
when they’re born. You find size and marking differences, but they each come
into this world looking something like a sausage, with tiny ears, tiny legs,
and tightly closed eyes. Things start to change before long.
Technical Stuff
Although people have raised puppies for thousands of years, most of what we know about how people can influence a puppy’s development — and about developmental stages in puppies — goes back only around 50 years, starting with the work of John Paul Scott and John L. Fuller in the 1950s. From their “school for dogs” in Bar Harbor, Maine, came the basis of what trainers and breeders have been using to get the most out of dogs ever since. Animal Behavior (John Paul Scott, University of Chicago Press) is a fascinating, if dated, place to start a study of dog behavior. Fuller and Scott teamed up with Genetics and the Social Behavior of Dogs, also from the University of Chicago Press. Although they’re out of print, many libraries have these books, and a good secondhand bookseller should be able to find copies without too much trouble.
You can find more recent — and
less academic — treatment of the subject in many subsequent books. Examples
include Carol Lea Benjamin’s Mother Knows Best: The Natural Way To Train
Your Dog (Howell Book House); How To Raise a Puppy You Can Live With, by
Clarice Rutherford and veterinarian David H. Neil (Alpine Press); and The
Art of Raising a Puppy, by the Monks of the New Skete Monastery (Little,
Brown).
Whelping and emergencies
Most dogs are natural whelpers
and may not need your help at all. Many a dog owner has fallen asleep waiting
for the big event only to wake up to a box full of puppies born, cleaned up,
and nursing. If your dog isn’t quite so efficient, you have to release the
puppies from their amniotic sacs within 30 seconds or so and help them to
breathe on their own. Clean the fluid from their mouths and noses by supporting
their heads and swinging them between your legs, stopping sharply. You can also
remove fluid with a bulb syringe. Rub the puppy with a clean towel and put her
on a nipple. Above all, keep the puppies warm.
If the mother doesn’t sever the
umbilical cord, you may need to do that, too: Tie it off about an inch from the
puppy with a thread soaked in alcohol and then snip with clean scissors. Dab
the ends with Betadine to combat infection.
While many experienced breeders
are sometimes as capable as any veterinarian when it comes to saving puppies,
the novice breeder should not hesitate to get veterinary help quickly. You must
take your dam to the veterinarian when any of the following occurs:
- She fails to enter labor 24 to 36 hours after her temperature dips to 99 degrees.
- She’s in labor, and more than four hours lapse with no puppy being born, especially if a dark green fluid passes.
- She seems very uncomfortable and is panting heavily.
- A puppy gets stuck while being delivered.
- She has a puppy, and 30 minutes pass without another puppy being born, yet she’s having strong contractions.
- If she doesn’t expel an afterbirth, or placenta, for each puppy. Retained afterbirths can trigger infections.
Warning!
If in doubt about anything, call your vet. Your dam may need more help than you can give her, including a cesarean section. If everything goes well, clean the mother with Betadine while she cleans up the nest — eating the afterbirths is a normal part of the process.
Warning!
An important after-birth problem to look out for: If your nursing mom becomes restless, agitated, and trembling, call the veterinarian and say you’re on the way. She may need calcium treatments for a condition called eclampsia.
Birth to 3 weeks
Puppies are pretty helpless at
birth. They can’t see or hear and need their mother for everything. She is
their source for food, warmth, and protection; they cannot even eliminate waste
without her gentle licking to stimulate the process.
Newborn pups can crawl and right
themselves when turned over, and they can seek out food by smell. They can also
seek out the warmth of their littermates — they are unable at this stage to
regulate their own body temperature. On the outside, this time seems quiet —
puppies at this age sleep almost constantly — but a lot of development is going
on inside their brains and central nervous systems.
Tip
Leave them alone, except for one thing: Handle them briefly and gently on a daily basis and subject them to the tiniest amount of stress in the process. Puppy-raising experts believe this little bit of stress — such as placing them on a scale — is as important as handling in the development of a confident dog.
Even this early in a puppy’s
life, some temperament patterns are set. If you watch, you can already see
which puppies will later become dominant with their siblings. These pups are
the ones who push others out of the way at nursing time —frequent weighings
will prove that the pushier pups will grow faster. Other pups are more wiggly,
act nervous, or cry during handling. Be sure to note all these things.
Toward the end of the second
week, the puppies start to open their eyes, although they see little more than
light at this point. In the third week, the first teeth appear, and puppies
start to hear. By the end of the third week, the sausages look like puppies,
and they’re ready to start exploring the world.
Tip
What if you have a litter of black Labrador puppies? How can you possibly tell one from another enough to follow and record changes in the early weeks when personalities are not so obvious? Use this trick: Make little collars of rickrack, a decorative zigzag trim material available in fabric stores, using a different color for each puppy. You won’t have to resort to this tactic, of course, if you can note the puppies’ markings to keep things straight.
3 to 5 weeks
During this stage, puppies start
relying less on their mother and begin to learn from each other. They learn to
play and to eat solid food.
Even as all this activity is
happening — a wealth of new experiences, overwhelming their new senses of
vision and hearing — the puppies are learning the rudiments of canine
communication and social structure. Puppies start to learn when to use their
sharp little teeth and, more important, when they cannot use them. Their mother
teaches them some of this behavior, using her teeth to correct but not hurt
them. In play with each other, an observer hears plenty of cries and squeals as
bites are delivered just a little too hard, and puppies learn to inhibit their
bites, delivering them with a force that matches the situation. (When puppies
don’t learn to inhibit biting from their mother and littermates, problems are
bound to occur when they’re in their new homes.)
Although puppies are most
interested in each other at this stage, you should be busy reminding them that
there are people in the world, too. Make sure that their environment is always
changing and continue to handle the puppies, making sure that each gets
individual attention. Expose the
Start weaning the puppies after
three weeks. Discuss with your veterinarian or mentor the type of soft food to
offer the puppies, and help the pups get the idea by putting the food on your
finger and helping it into their mouths.
Tip
Puppy pans — doughnut-shaped dishes with a low outer rim — are ideal for giving every pup a place at the “table.”
When puppies are eating semisolid
food, the mother will quit cleaning up the nest by eating their waste — so the
task of keeping puppies clean falls entirely to you now. About this time, the
mother will start helping the weaning process by spending more time away from
her babies. Understandably, she’s getting a little sick of them.
5 to 7 weeks
The biggest mistake you can make
in this period is to remove a puppy from the litter and send him to a new home.
This practice is probably based on the idea that weaning is the logical time
for puppies to be sold — puppies can start on hard kibble around six weeks —
but the research emphatically insists that this “logic” is wrong.
Puppies have a lot more learning
to do during these two weeks, and they need to be with their littermates to do
it. Think of this period as the time of more. Puppies can see more, hear
more, and play more at this stage. They are starting to become more interested
in the world beyond their enclosure. They are especially attracted to those
funny two-legged dogs who have spent the last few weeks picking them up,
talking to them, and petting them. Suddenly, they think humans are pretty cool.
This stage is when humans think
puppies are pretty cool, too. Puppies are absolutely adorable now, with the
softest fur and the cutest faces. They run with a rolling, bouncing puppy gait,
tripping over their big paws at times. They roughhouse with each other and
stalk their toys. They drive their mother crazy — she is interested in spending
as little time with them as possible now.
They are still learning, but what
a fun time they’re having.
Tip
Spend a lot of time with them at this stage, because their socializing is in full swing. Keep exposing them to the sights and sounds of life all the way up to the time they go to their new homes — ideally, after their seventh week.
Finding Proper Homes for Puppies
Puppy
If you’ve done your job right, you have something truly remarkable to offer puppy buyers: fat, friendly, well-socialized puppies who promise a lifetime of good health and companionship. You want to be sure that the people who take them are worthy of such wonderful pups.
To find good potential owners,
you need to be extra careful in screening homes. You mustn’t just accept money
from the first half-dozen people who walk through your door. If you’ve been
working with a reputable breeder, ask for her help in placing the puppies. Ask
prospective buyers these questions:
- What is your living arrangement? You don’t need a house with a yard — some dogs, even large ones, do just fine in apartments. But you do need a person who’s aware of what a dog needs and is prepared to deliver it. Definitely say no to anyone who plans to stick one of your pups on a chain in the yard.
- Have you had dogs before? What kinds, and what happened to them? Wrong answers include “lots” and “they ran away,” “we moved,” or “he got hit.” Accidents happen to even the most conscientious of dog lovers, but a pattern of mishaps says a great deal about the way the prospective buyer treats dogs.
- Do you have any experience with this breed? What do you expect of it? You want to educate — and possibly eliminate from contention — anyone who isn’t prepared to deal with the reality of living with a dog like yours. Don’t sell to a person who isn’t prepared for the shedding of a long-haired dog or the activity level of a terrier, for example. Be honest with buyers about the drawbacks of the breed, and you’re much more likely to put your puppies in homes that will keep them, because they know what to expect.
- Do you have children? What ages? Some dogs, as with delicate toys, just don’t work out well with children. Still, be flexible. A thoughtful, gentle child could work out fine. Discuss your concerns and see what answers you get.
- Do you intend to breed your dog? Show your dog? Train your dog? Your pet-quality puppies — ones with obvious show faults, such as wrong markings — should be sold on contracts that require them to be spayed or neutered. (Some breeders have the surgery taken care of before their puppies go to their new homes.) People who are interested in training and competing with their dogs are people who plan to be involved in their pup’s life, and that’s the kind of thing you like to see. Look, too, for people who travel with their pets or obviously treat them like family.
Be cordial and informative, but
be persistent. Check references, including calling their veterinarian. A person
who has had numerous pets and doesn’t have a veterinary reference is another to
cross off your list. Don’t be afraid to turn people down. Sure, it may not be
pleasant, but you must do what’s best for your puppies. You’ve put a lot of
effort into them, and you want them to live with someone who will continue to
love and care for them as you have. You want your puppies to go to good homes,
and the only one who has a chance at making that happen is you. So do your
best.
If you are considering breeding
your dog again, you need to skip at least a season to give her time to recover.
In any case, one or two litters are about all you should ask of her if she’s to
enjoy just being a member of your family. As soon as her motherhood days are
behind her, arrange for her to be spayed, to give her the best chance at a
healthy life.
Another reason to spay her
quickly: If you keep a puppy, you may be positively shocked to find your girl
pregnant again — thanks to her own son. Many folks have been surprised to find
that their dog becomes pregnant, because the only male she’d been around was a
pup from her last litter. “But that’s incest!” these people say, shocked.
“Don’t they know better?”
by Eve Adamson, Richard G. Beauchamp, Margaret H. Bonham, Stanley Coren, Miriam Fields-Babineau, Sarah Hodgson, Connie Isbell, Susan McCullough, Gina Spadafori, Jack and Wendy Volhard, Chris Walkowicz, M. Christine Zink, DVM, PhD
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