Showlines Small Litters? - Page 1

Hi Guys - I am sure many of you have seen this before, but why is it most days when you are looking at litters that the showline GSDs always seem to have litters of 3 or 4 and the working lines always seem to have like 9-12 pups in a litter? Does this have anything to do with healthiness/heartiness in the lines? Is there anything breeders can do about it? Please don't say it's the dogfood, as most show breeders feed their dogs the absolute best out there and are still having small litters...

Hi Just to let you know that our last two litters, pure showlines, have been 11 and 12 pups. We blood test always before we mate to make sure we get the right day.

I would look at age of Dam, age of Sire, progesterone levels on day(s) of breeding, number of mating events per heat cycle, overall health of both Dam and Sire, frequency of usage of the Sire, health, volume and mobility of Sire's sperm count, fertility of lines being use, ect. Whether the dog is from the showlines or working lines would not even be of a concern to me. Stephen

I had a working line litter this summer that was 5 pups, have had show litters as small as 2 pups and as large as 11. It depends on so many other factors as SGBH stated.