My girl had her pup in December and has just finished her first season from the birth.  i was asked why i hadn't mated her again with her only having a singleton.  This was said to on other occasions as well by other people.  With her only having the one, I would maybe mate her again after a year instead of two.  

I remember reading on here about back to back matings after a bitch has had a singleton or dead litter.  So just wondered what peoples thoughts on this was and why.  I'm thinking along the lines that the pup has still done the same to the body as multiple whelps, except the drain for milk production. 

IMO the biggest drain is raising the pups once born, not carrying them. If my girl had a singleton and was in good health/condition then if it was right time etc I wouldnt have a problem with a back to back mating.

My girls come back into season around about 17 weeks post whelping so too soon for me to contemplate starting another pregnancy whether there was one pup or no pups survived, it takes near on a year for them to get their coats back which is when I think they are back in condition.

Drover does have a point.  My vet always says that carrying the litter isn't the biggest problem.  Rearing them is a huge strain, and when rearing a singleton most bitches are still in excellent shape. 

The KC won't have a problem registering from people who don't have loads of litters.  I believe (stand corrected if I'm wrong) that it's only people registering lots of litters in a year that would be refused.

So, yes, if your bitch is in good shape, it isn't a big no no.

Thanks for the replies.  one reason it was suggested was to get a full litter out of her, don't know how that one works :)

What is the likely hood of another singleton litter occurring.  

Don't know about a back to back mating, although, as with other posters I would not have an issue with that if she was in good health, but when mine had a singleton she had a litter of four two years later. 

There is different reasons for single pups, wrong timing of mating,stud not very fertile,bitch not very fertile,infection,genetic abnormalities cause reabsorbtion, one pup dies and the remainder in that horn are affected by the decomposing pup which may be too far on for reabsorbtion just to name a few.

Some of those may be repeated next time or it could be plain sailing.

Last year I had a bitch scanned at day39 and 3 pups were alive, she went into labour 2 days early and had 2 partially decomposed pups and a stillbirth which I knew was alive the night before because I heard the heart beat, if I hadn't had the scan and the 2 pups had been reabsorbed then I would have thought she only had a singleton pregnancy.

I didn't scan until 6wks so don't know if any got absorbed.  My othergirl when scanned had two and one absorbing.

I know she was late taking the boy, kept resisting but he wasn't raring to go either, so i guessed she wasn't ready and only one and a slip matings.  So could explain that.  She wanted my young boy at the time and wanted to ravage him :)   He was too young and petrified of her molesting him x

>He was too young and petrified of her molesting him

They can be right little trollops at times!  :-)

a couple of years ago my girl had a singleton (previous litter a year before was 10 puppies) she didnt go into labour and had a c-section, sadly puppy was dead. had she of given birth naturally to one dead puppy i would probably have tried again on the next season but because she had a section i waited a year (i wanted a puppy from this combination) repeated the mating and yet again one puppy....c-section and born dead needless to say she was spayed at the time of the section.

so if she had a natural birth then i think that would be the only time i would of considered a back to back mating as i am otherwise very against them.

I guess it does depend on the individual bitch, mine had her season a month ago 7months after her litter, she has looked and felt fantastic since 5/6months post whelp, she didn't have a singleton and I got what I wanted but if I hadn't I wouldn't have had a problem mating her on the season she has just had.

With a singleton it wouldn't particularly bother me to have a back to back mating, but otoh if there's no particular rush (timing of seasons, age of bitch, stud about to go abroad for example), I wouldn't be bothered about waiting a season between the litters as well.