Breeding Opinions?? - Page 1

I got my female with the intention of breeding her when she is old enough (I am shooting for 3-4 years old). I have wanted to breed for years but was waiting until I got the right dog. She comes from good, strong working lines. She is currently 1.5. She already has some titles and we are working toward more. She is healthy and when she turns 2 I am going to get her OFA's, eye cert., elbows, etc. She has outstanding drives. She has also turned out to be one of those special once-in-a -lifetime-type dogs to me and I am weighing risk vs reward. What are the risks of breeding? I mean I know there can always be complications, but just HOW risky is it? If I decide not to breed her she is at the point I would rather just get her spayed sooner than later. She is also my working dog so I would probably only breed 1-3 times because a) the stress to her and b) I don't want her 'out of commission' any more than that. thanks

I rarely counsel anyone to breed dogs. Depends on how she turns out when she gets all her titles, breed survey and her h & e cert's. There is always rsik, and the results of those risks can be heartbreaking and expensive. If you don't have homes lned up for the litter in advance of the breeding, I advise you to skip it.

Anybody notice I have bred hardly any puppies this last two years? Wonder why? Its because in this economy there are fewer and fewer serious working homes for high-drive working dogs. Too many go into the backyards of obscurity as it is at the best of times, or worse... are returned because the owners are losing homes, jobs, can't afford to keep them. I won't breed any more dogs than I can reasonably expect to feed and care for myself if their owners can't keep them these days. My responsibility for having brought them into this world.

SS

Good for you, Shelly! 

I find that the most risky part could be when you knock them out to x-ray their hips,

if you do decide to breed her, do a pre-screening blood test before putting her under for hip x-rays, tp make sure
she will wake up!

and like Shelly says, make sure you have people interested and as excited as you are to have one of your pups,
let them visit your dam before you plan to breed her