i would like to breed from my bitch not yet as i know she is too young but what is the perfect age she is a border collie and i have tried to find books and stuff but i dont know what books are good and what are not please help

1. The Book of the Bitch - absolutely the Bible for owners of bitches/potential breeders! Becomes compulsive bedside reading;)

2. Talk to the breeder of your bitch - she should be able to evaluate her for you and advise on potential stud.

BUT - there are an awful lot of border collies out there....

Good luck

Margot

thanks and i know there are alot i just think its fair that she has one litter at least

Why is it fair? It might well kill her.

have you got kids? if so there you go we can do it why cant they we have the choice if it kills her its nature the way things are intended to happen yes i would be upset before anyone asks

Yes I've got a child, and having him nearly killed me.

So do take care, and remember, any pups will be your responsibility for the rest of their lives. And not all puppies sell. You could be left with them for months, eating you out of house and home.

we intend to keep most of them for the farm anyway

could I suggest that you go and read this posting-
BEHAVIOR / MY DOG IS NUTS - PLEASE HELP
http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/board/topic_show.pl?tid=30756
and then ask yourself if that was your puppy that you had bred what advice would you give and if that didn't help as the breeder you should alway be responsible for the puppy that you breed at whatever age they may be. Could you offer to take that puppy back and keep it no matter what difficulties there may be, as when you bring a life in to this world then you are always responsible for it.
Just the same as if your bitch produces no milk you would have to feed the puppies every 2/3 hours for the first 3 weeks.
When puppies are born, YOU are always responsible!
best of luck Rach.

hey thanks i see what you mean but like i said we intend to keep most of them anyway

How old is she - I know you said she is too young, but how young is that? I find it difficult to tell if a bitch is going to be good enough to breed from until she's about 3 years old, and has had all the breed relevant tests done, and any hereditary problems that can't be tested for should have appeared if they were going to.

A bitch has to have a very sound temperament to be worth breeding from. Having a litter won't improve a poor temperament; instead the puppies are likely to inherit the mother's temperament. It won't make her any healthier in the future, either.

So get a copy of "The Book of the Bitch" and read it carefully.

Also read previous postings on this site from heartbroken people whose bitches and/or litters have died. Nature doesn't always know best.

I have to ask the question Missyhp21, if you are going to keep most of the puppies, are you going to breed from them? And if so, are you going to keep most of the puppies from them? And if so: And if so. And so on! Do you see what I'm driving at? Sooner or later we have to draw the line.

I would love to have a litter from my bitch. She is a superb worker and I have a number of people wanting puppies from her, all working people but I will not be breeding.

Regards, John

Hi there are a number of health checks you should do before you consider breeding your bitch.She will need to be eyetested and she also needs to be hipscored the breed average is 14 so a score lower than this is a must. You should not be considering mating her before she is 18 months old prefrably 2 years.As to keeping most of the pups yourselves I think you may find it difficult to run on anywhere between 4-8 puppies and more is not that uncommon. As Margot says the Book of the Bitch is an invaluable source of information for anyone who has a bitch wether they wish to breed or not.HTH Gillian

Also BAER hearing testing is a good idea!