I currently have a bleinham bitch 1 year old and would like to breed her, how old does she have be to breed her, and also in order to get ruby pups what colour should we breed here with?

Firstly guest go back to her breeder, if you can.   If you cannot, for whatever reason, I would advise you to get a copy of "The Book of the Bitch", which is available from Amazon.   Read this through thoroughly, do a search on this board on BREEDING, read some of the sad stories on here - as well as the good ones - and if you still feel that you want to breed, join your local breed club (again, if you type in BLENHEIM on Google, you will find details of breed clubs local to you) so that people who are knowledgeable in your breed can advise you if your bitch is a good enough specimen of the breed to be bred from, carry out the necessary health checks, then maybe, at 2 years old at the earliest, you could breed from her.

It isn't something to be entered into lightly, as you will learn - so good luck - maybe you will be better saying that she is just your gorgeous girl.

Regards

Margot

Hi guest, Having taken on board Margots excellent advice, just a few words on your colour question.  Dont know if we are talking CKCS or King Charles, but to get Ruby from blenheim you have to mate to Ruby or Black & Tan carrying Ruby.  Doing this sort of hybrid parti to solid breeding you will get a proportion of mismarks.  If you use a Ruby dog who was the product (or grand child) of a similar hybrid mating, then the percentage of mismarks will by higher.

If your breeder is a knowledgeable person, go to them and discuss their thoughts.  Your bitch is still a baby so it gives you pleanty of time to sort out health tests - Heart testing a must, Eye testing important but not everyone does it in the breed.  Find out if your girl is of sufficient quality to breed from, do you show her? Has she been succesful?  Research her pedigree, find out the heart test state of parents, grand-parents and siblings.  Then have a good think about the reasons why you want to breed.  Will you be doing so to advance the quality of the breed, to continue a succesful line, or are you wanting a pup to keep?  If this last is the case, have another think - it would probably be better, less stressful, and certainly less dangerous to buy a pup.  Remember that no pregnancy and whleping is without risk to the bitch.  Do you have the time, and the financial resources if anything goes wrong - you need to have the money ready in case a Caesar is needed, you could be lest with a big vets fee and no pups.

However, if you feel that you are breeding for all the right reasons, and want to do everything the correct way, why not join the boards so you can discuss any problems and new things you learn with us?

bye
Gwen