Litter size - Page 2

D.H, I agree with you. Being a breeder is not a FUN thing to get yourself into if you are a dog person %100 percent. In order to survive in the breeding world a breeder must have some cold heart in them... they cant look at a newborn pup, knowing that their going to die and break down and try to save it... I know some people who did and even spent several hundred of dollars on vet bills to try to save the lifeless puppy but the puppy ended up dying out on them. Jantie... I'm too lazy to get out the translation book... besides relying on somebody else to translate it... why cant you? unless if you ( not knowing) are in the lazy drunk pack as well? What kind of liqueur do you drink? Or beer? Too much eh?

To get back to the original question, I sometimes feel that while we fly the females in at 28 days, sometimes the stress of the move and also the flight (reabsorb?) might have a say in what survives...just a thought........I had ONE large litter on my import litters...11 born, one too small to make it so he did, which left 10 healthy pups, but....usually 4 or 5 in my experience.

Jantie, what is wrong with you? Damien asked a question. He might not know where to look for information and/or he is new to everything. A forum serves the purpose to ask for and give information. And why did you have to post the SV's regulation regarding litter size and foster mothers in German? You know that most people can not translate that. Besides, DH summed it up anyway. Damien, looking at my litters I had through the last ten and more years, 4 puppies is pretty much the average for me. Besides all the reasons DH already listed, another one could be availability of the stud. A popular stud is very much booked out and you have to move the breeding date up or down a couple of days, and that means smaller litters. Another reason could be fertility problems in females, which I heard from different people in Germany are a growing concern latey. But that should probably be a different topic. Chris

28 days is a bit early when importing a pregnant female, in future wait about a week longer, even 2 is ok. It reduces the risk of complications. Jantie, good comment re actually reading some of the info the SV puts out there. I can understand though that it can be a bit daunting to people that are new to all of it, trying to weed through what they need. For the others, the german text above expands on what I had put up as a summary. Try an online translator if you want to read it all. It gives more detail, explains when a forster mom should be used, the limits of such use. When and if to cull (deformed pups or those that cannot survive) and that culling is to be done in a humane way only. Brittany, there is a difference between being cold hearted and being realistic. People in the Western world have a huge issue with death. Death is just as natural as life and living. Living at a low qualitly of life is just as natural as living a high quality of life. Nature does not differentiate. Good and bad is a humen determination. Nature only knows necessity and survival. When the gazelle gets killed by the lion common human interpretation is bad lion, poor gazelle. Lions have to kill, gazelles need to be strong and alert in flight in order to survive. Neither is good or bad, cold or soft hearted. Natural disasters are natural, neither good nor bad. The results may be good or bad from a peoples' point of view though. Life always finds a way, it is the strongest force out there. People have very little faith in that these days. Fighting an inevitible death gives some people the illusion to be in control over nature. But is it really unselfish to keep a pup alive at all means? If the pup is kept alive only for monetary reasons (happens often), or because the breeder cannot bear dealing with death (happens often), even at the chance that survival means a low quality of life for the pup as a result, then is saving such a pup really such an unselfish act? Is it really cold hearted to "cull" if future suffering is eliminated, or is it more cold hearted to create a possible life time of suffering and a low quality life, possibly also create a burden for the future owner as well... Few breeders after all keep any of these extra pups that needed saving. Some go even further an play on a puppy buyers soft heart so that they then want to give a saved puppy a good chance of life, often not knowing what they are getting into. Any serious disease, every fight with death will leave its marks. Who knew that breeding could be so philosophical :o). But it is. New breeders would do better to address such questions before they come up. Breeding is a learning experience. You never know what you will do and how you will react until faced with it for the first time yourself. It is a common misconception that once you start breeding you have suddenly come into all the knowledge all at once. Breeders still learn after 30+ years, still have to make tough decisions.

Hi Chris one question that has been cropping up in my mind re female fertility problems is if the new trend towards ovulation testing before a mating has an influence on litter size? Few stud dog owners will receive females these days unless ovulation tests show that the timing is right. That is not an exact science yet though. You need a good vet to be able to make good sense of the test results. Still a lot of hit and miss. Just wondering if there is a connection. I hear from a lot of breeder friends that despite the test the timing was just not right...

(Message for the Moderator at the bottom of this post! Hi D.H.! You have understood my point. Thanks. If somebody comes up to me asking: "Which one is the German Shepherd Dog do you think? The big black and tan one, or the cute little white fellow with the curls?" I will congratulate him for his interest in dogs (man's best friend) and gently advise him to read some more about dogs in general and visit the club of his favourite race. I will also advise him NOT to buy a GSD, (yet! or maybe go for the poodle first - one of the most intelligent dogs btw), let alone start breeding them. Why did I post the rules in German? I want to avoid 'newbies' to believe everything the "professionals" out here tell them and give proof of the fact that they CAN find the necessary information on GSD's by the source itself, the SV or in books and in whatever language they need. Please note I only posted a fragment, but it documents how meticulous regulations are and how vast the info on every single question is, next to demonstrating how easy the info can be found. So please, go grab some books. Once the homework is done, we can continue with the next lesson. Silbersee: "He might not know where to look for information"? Why does the word "LIBRARY" pop up to my mind? Brittany: For your information: I don't drink. And I already figured you were lazy. Btw, get off of my back. I have helped numerous people on this board and elsewhere finding the ancestors, pedigrees and pictures of their dogs as well as addresses of breeders etc., calling all over Europe and especially Germany and doing all kinds of research to help people worldwide. So don't kill me for one harsh remark. Instead: offer “gimme10” some good English books on the subject or links. Moderator: kindly do NOT delete my post (again)! As long as "Brittany" is allowed to attack people personally, we are at least entitled to defend ourselves against her accusations/insults. Please do check my other posts. I'm a kind person always helping others.