I am not a breeder but I am involved in the campaign against puppy farming. I know that the legal requirement for licensed breeders is only one litter per bitch in a 12 month period. What I need to know for an investigation is how soon after a litter can a bitch come in season and so the minimum time that it is possible for her to have another litter?

It varies from bitch to bitch...I have heard of some going 4 months inbetween seasons but most people work on a bitch going 6 month intervals.
At the other end of the scale I personally, have had bitches go 9 months inbetween seasons & I'm sure some have gone much later.

I know that the time between seasons can vary but is this affected by the bitch having puppies? How soon after having puppies could a bitch theoretically come in season?

A bitch will tend to come in season at the same time she would have done had she not had the litter.

> I know that the time between seasons can vary but is this affected by the bitch having puppies? How soon after having puppies could a bitch theoretically come in season?

The same answer applies to my previous post

One of my girls came into heat 8 weeks after the puppies were born :-0

> One of my girls came into heat 8 weeks after the puppies were born :-0

Good grief, that is quick..poor thing..mother nature at her worst...

We never bold tested as obviously we were not wanting another litter but I would suspect it was maybe a split heat

In my own experience with bitches that have longer than six month cycles is that the next season is usually delayed by a few weeks, but some people say their bitches come in 6 months on the dot from the last season, so I would be surprised if there was less than 6 months between litters, even with those 4 month seasons.

Assuming mating at 3 weeks into season, and 9 week pregnancy, that woudl have been just 19 weeks between seasons which is quite possible.  A few of my young bitches started off with short season intervals, but usually settled into 6+ month cycles by breeding age (for me 2 plus years).

So looks like 4 1/2 months would seem a minimum, as I would expect lactation to inhibit anything sooner.

Thanks everyone. The bitch in question had litters registered with the KC just 5 months apart so people were doubting that it was possible. Sounds like it is.

One of my girls came into heat 8 weeks after the puppies were born :-0

So no not quite impossible. 8 weeks plus 2 weeks before mating = 10 weeks, plus 9 weeks for birth = 19 weeks i.e. just short of 5 months.
I once reported to the KC a Licensed Breeder that had 2 litters 5 months after previous litters, 2 litters 6 months after previous litters and 3 litters 7 months after their previous litters. The KC happily (and I do repeat happily) registered those litters even though as a Licensed Breeder they were permitting him to breach his Licensing conditions, sopmething which I pointed out to them!. Luckily the Local Council thought differently about it.

Yes, just the same as if a bitch hadn't mated, I remember one time I had one of my male pups back at 18 weeks so that the new owners could have their holiday and my girl came into season whilst he was here and unfortunately I had to keep them separated which was a shame. 

This is exactly what puppy farmers do though, just back to back breeding, if a bitch has recovered well enough she will come into season again could be on time or later.

I've also just had a girl come into season when her pups were 8wks old :-(  And she normally goes 10mths between.  

> The KC happily (and I do repeat happily) registered those litters even though as a Licensed Breeder they were permitting him to breach his Licensing conditions, sopmething which I pointed out to them!. Luckily the Local Council thought differently about it.

From January the KC (finally) require anyone who has already registered four litters in a 12 month to supply their Licence details if wanting to register a fifth.

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Thanks everyone. The bitch in question had litters registered with the KC just 5 months apart so people were doubting that it was possible. Sounds like it is

It is be possible.. I have a girl who has 3/4monthly seasons.  She came into season when her 1st litter was just 7.5weeks old (I assumed a late bleed and discharge, but went into full season )... she came into season again, just 3months later, and again 4months later. 

The thing is though Barbara this guy is a Licensed Breeder and they knew that so in effect were permitting and abetting him to break the law. I believe that they should make a stance by a) having a copy of the Breeders licence on record and then b) if they register a litter under the 12 month period then they tell the Breeder that it is not registerable.

That is exactly what they are now doing.

Yes Barbara they are asking for the copy of the Licence but they do not say that they will not register a litter under 12 months between litters so technically they are permitting them to break the law. They say this is to prevent puppy farmers registering their litters but in fact it is mainly puppy farmers that need to be licensed and a lot of them are. So I believe in this instance where someone is registering 5 or more litters a year then they should follow the letter of the law and not produce puppies from a bitch that has has a litter within 12 months.
The argument on the forum has always been about what if the litters are born just under the 12 month period but where people are producing so many puppies then IMO there is no need to have them so close together.

I do beleive the 12 months rule is part of it too, as it only came in in January.

I sincerely hope so but it doesn't make it clear.