Let's think about this
for a minute. So you want to breed your female. You
know what to expect if everything goes right.
Your little girl will present
you with little bundles of joy.
She will lovingly nurse
them and care for them until they are old enough to be weaned.
You and your family will find
great joy in watching and playing with these little dolls, and then when the time is right they will all (or maybe you keep
just one) go off to special homes to live out their
lives as cherished companions.
But have you given consideration
to what if something goes wrong?
I have listed here a few
of the problems that I myself have personal knowledge of. Everything
listed has happened either to me or someone I know. These
are not isolated incidents. I'm sure others could add miles to my list. Learn by the mistakes of others. Leave the breeding to those who REALLY know what they are doing, have the experience
and know what to expect.
What if during the breeding............
1) The stud dog you have chosen
is carrying a venereal disease and gives it to your female.
She not only doesn't conceive
but you have to pay the vet bills to get her infection cleared up and she is now sterile.
2) The stud dog you decided
to breed your darling to is not experienced.
Once the two dogs are
joined tightly in a tie, he decides to chase the neighbors cat out of his yard.
He bolts for the cat ripping
his penis loose and causing your b-witch to hemorrhage from within.
3) Your modest girl decides
she doesn't want the attentions of this gigolo mutt chosen for her without her consent.
She snaps at him catching her
tooth on his loose cheek and rips it open sending blood flying everywhere.
He retaliates by sinking
his teeth into her left eye.
4) You leave your dog with the
owner of the male dog because the breeding is not going very swiftly. In fact, it's been three hours and nothing is happening.
The stud owner leaves the two
dogs alone in the backyard.
The dogs get out through
a tiny hole in the fence and a truck hits your female.
5) You pay the stud fee up front
figuring you will make that and more back when the pups sell. The owner of the male guarantees the stud service to work or
you can come back again.
Well into the gestation
time you discover your b-witch isn't pregnant and
you now must wait another 4
months for her to come back in heat in order to try again.
Of course it doesn't work again,
so in another 4 months you take your dog to another male and risk loosing another stud fee.
6) You get her bred. Bring her
home. She bothers you so you let her out (she is still in heat and still receptive to males).
You here a commotion outside
there is your girl tied up with the neighborhood mutt.
When she whelps there
will need to be DNA tests done on the pups.
7) You get her bred. Bring her
home. Let her out.
(She is still in heat
and receptive to other males) but you do not see the neighborhood mutt breed her.
The pups are born but
look very odd. You call the stud owner he suggests
DNA testing (at your expense).
You have a litter of mutts!. What do you do about the ones you have already sold?.
Or, knowing she tied with the
neighborhood mutt you decide to terminate the pregnancy and try again being more careful next time.
But a few weeks later
your female is very sick because you had her given a miss-mate shot which has caused a hormonal imbalance
which in turn caused a
uterine infection and now she has Pyometra and needs a complete hysterectomy.
All plans of getting a
litter is gone and your females' life is now in danger if she does not have the operation.
What if during the birth..............
1) The puppies are too large
for the female. She never goes into labor, the puppies die and she becomes infected by the decaying bodies.
2) The puppies are coming breech
and they drown in their own sacks before they can be born.
3) The first puppy is large
and breech. When it starts coming your female starts screaming,
and before you can stop
her she reaches around, grabs the puppy in her teeth and yanks it out killing it instantly.
4) A puppy gets stuck. Neither
your female nor you can get it out. You have to race her to the vet.
The vet can't get it out either.
She has to have an emergency caesarian section of course it is 3:00 am Christmas Day.
5) A puppy is coming out breech
and dry (the water sack that protects them has burst). It gets stuck.
Mom tries to help it out
by clamping her teeth over one of the back legs. The head and shoulders are firmly caught.
Mom pulls on the leg, hard,
peeling the flesh from the leg and leaving a wiggling stump of bone.
6) A dead puppy gets stuck in
the birth canal, but your female is well into hard labor.
She contracts so hard
trying to give birth that her uterus ruptures and she bleeds to death on the way to the vet.
What if directly after birth..........
1) The mother has no idea what
to do with a puppy and she drops them out and walks away, leaving them in the sack to drown.
2) The mother takes one look
at the puppies, decides they are disgusting droppings and tries to smother them in anything she can find to bury them .
3) The mother gets too enthusiastic
in her removal of the placenta and umbilical cord, and rips the cord out leaving a gushing hole pulsing blood all over you
as you try in vain to stop the bleeding.
4) Or, she pulls on the cords
so hard she disembowels the puppies as they are born and you have a box full of tiny,
kicking babies with a tangle
of guts the size of a walnut hanging from their stomachs. Of course all the babies must be put to sleep.
5) What if because of some Hormone
deficiency she turns vicious allowing no-one near her or the babies,
who she refuses to nurse,
or you have to interfere with.
6) You notice something protruding
from her vagina when you let her out to pee.
You take her to the vet
to discover a prolapsed uterus, which needs to be removed.
What if when you think you are
in the clear..................
1) One or more of the puppies
inhaled fluid during birth, pneumonia develops and death occurs within 36 hours.
2) what if the mothers milk
goes bad. You lose three of your four puppies before you discover what is wrong.
You end up bottle feeding the
remaining pup every two hours, day and night. After three days the puppy fades from
infection and dies.
3) The puppies develop fading
puppy syndrome you lose two. You bottle-feed or tube feed the last remaining baby.
It begins to choke and despite
your efforts to clear the airway, the pup stiffens and dies in your hands.
4) Your female develops mastitis
and her breast ruptures.
5) Your female develops a uterine
infection from a retained placenta. Her temperature soars to 105.
You race her to the vet,
he determines she must be spayed. He does the spay in an attempt to save her life,
you pay the hundreds of
dollars bill. The infection has gone into her blood stream.
The infected milk kills all
the puppies and the b-witch dies a day later.
6) All the puppies are fine
but following the birth the female develops a hormone imbalance.
She becomes a fear biter
and anytime anyone tries to touch her she viciously attacks them.
7) Mom and pups seem fine, the
puppies are four weeks old and are at their cutest.
However, one day one of
the puppies disappears. You search everywhere but you can't find it.
A few days later another
puppy is gone. And another. You can't figure how on earth the puppies are getting out of their safe 4' x 4' puppy pen.
Finally there is only one puppy
left. The next morning you find the mother chomping contentedly on what is left of the last puppy she herself killed.
What if the new homes are not
so happy?.......................
1) You give a puppy to a friend.
Their fence blows down so they tie the puppy outside while they go to work.
A roving dog comes along and
kills the puppy. Your friend calls you up to tell you about the poor little puppy and asks when you are having more puppies.
2) You sell a puppy to an acquaintance.
The next time you see them you ask how the puppy is doing.
They tell you that it soiled
their new carpet so they took it to the pound
3) You sell a puppy to a friend
(you give them a good price and payments).
They make a couple of
tiny payments. Six months later they move to an apartment.
They ask you to take it back.
You take it back and of course even the tiny payments stop.
The dog they returned is so
shy, and ill mannered
from lack of socialization and
training it takes you a year of work providing socializing and training to be able to give it away.
4) You sell a puppy to a wonderful
home. They love her like one of the family.
At a vet check done by their
vet it is determined that the puppy has a heart murmur. (Your vet found nothing when he checked the puppy before it was sold.)
They love their puppy and want
the best for her. They have an expensive surgery done. The puppy is fine. They sue you for the medical costs.
They win, because you did not
have a contract stipulating conditions of guarantee and so as breeder you are responsible for the puppy's genetic health.
5) You give a puppy to your
mother. she is thrilled. Two years later the puppy starts developing problems. It begins to develop odd symptoms and is suffering.
Hundreds and hundreds of dollars
worth of tests later it is finally discovered that the dog is suffering from a terminal condition that was inherited,
possibly from your female
since you know nothing about her family lines.
6) One loving home decides your
puppy is un-trainable, destructive and wants to return the pup and get a full refund, which you have spent on your vet bills.
7) One loving couple calls you
and is very upset because their pup has crippling hip dysplasia and want to know what you are going to do about it.
You have spayed your female
so a replacement is out of the question, looks like another big refund.
The Sale:...................
1) You put your ad in the local
paper for your pups at the usual price and get only 2 responses and no sales.
You cut the pup's price in half
and broaden your advertising to 3 other newspapers in which the advertising totals $120.00 a week.
2) You get a few more puppy
inquiries from people who ask all about health testing you did before breeding and if the pups are registered with AKC.
You tell them your dogs are
healthy and it was enough and that you could get the papers. The callers politely thank you and hang up.
3) The pups are now 4 months
old and getting bigger, eating a lot and their barking is really beginning to annoy the neighbors who call the police who
inform you of the $150.00 noise by-law.
4) Your neighbors also call
the humane society who comes out to inspect the care of your dogs. You pass inspection but end up feeling stressed and harassed.
5) You finally decide to give
the rest of the litter away but still have to pay the $1200.00 advertising bill and the $600.00 vet bill.
So you gotta ask yourself:
Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, "breeder?"." |
