hi what is the time the kennel club advise you leave between litters.my dog had a healthy litter last year and has had 2 seasons since.

There is no longer a KC regulation this matter but under the terms of the
Breeding and Sale of Dogs(Welfare )Act 1999 licenced breeders should not
have two litters from the same bitch within a 12 month period.

thanks for reply, so if a bitch was to get pregnant with less then 12 months between litters the kennel club would register the litter.my dog isn`t pregnant or anything its just a friend was asking the other day and i didn`t have a clue.thanks

I cant answer your question :( but it sickens me to my core when i see  so called "breeders" breeding their females at every heat,i cant understand how these people say they care about their dogs and yet mistreat them in this way??
I would really like to know the reason behind them doing this,the only thing i can come up with is $$$$$$$ which in truth makes them unethical breeders,i heard of this woman who didnt give her poor girl a break inbetween seasons and on her last heat she didnt take,thank god :) It must be so hard on the poor girls systems,i couldnt imagine getting pregnant every couple years,even if theoretically i didnt keep the kids,it sure would put a strain on any females body.

What do you all think??

christine :)

yes i agree with you totally thats why i thought the kennel club would have had some kind of rule.i thought they wouldn`t allow you to register another litter within 12 months but it seems you can.even 12 months isn`t a long time.

If puppies are born on say 1st Feb & the next year 31st January the registrations are supposed to be rejected by the KC computer unless prior permisiion has been granted

Hi the kennel club will register a litter within twelve months if you are not a licenced breeder.However I do agree that breeding from a bitch every season isn't right.

hi moonmaiden,
i agree with you, i think that most breeders have an every other season plan or longer, how many of us on the forum are actually licensed breeders? i am not but have the health and welfare of my girls at heart and don't advocate breeding every season, what are others thoughts?

I try to give at least 18 months between litters. In saying that my vet suggested I try with Chloe LAST season as she had had a few problems with infection and she was to have been speyed as soon as she was fit enough. There would only have been 16 months (but 3 seasons) in between. In a way I'm glad she missed as it has given her a few extra months to recover.
Breeding from every season is not good for a bitch unless she is one of those who only come into season once a year or so. Then I suppose circumstances have to be taken into account. It would depend on the age and health of the bitch.

my bitch comes into season every 3 months.my vet seems to think this ok but has anyone had this.

Well, in our case, we think we will breed Daisy next heat.  Why?  Because she is so far between heats.  She has never gone less than 11 months between heats...usually it is more like 13-18 months.  Our vet said it would be just fine...as she came through this pregnancy without a hitch and maintained perfect health.  We've even had a few friends who say she looks BETTER now than before she ever got pregnant.  Pregnancy did her well...she was always on the thinner side before she had her pups, and since the pups she's filled out very nicely.

But I cannot agree with a dog with a "normal" heat cycle of 6-8 months being bred back-to-back.  In fact, a former friend of mine got me so ticked off, I blew my stack at her.  She had an "accidental" litter from her GSD last year, when the bitch was only SEVEN MONTHS OLD!  That's right!  First heat, and she let her get pregnant.  I didn't give her too much hell about that one, as she said the husband was the one at fault for letting the dogs out together.  But what did she tell me a few weeks ago?  Her bitch is likely pregnant again!!!  That's right!!  She once again "accidentally" left the dogs together when the bitch was in heat!  So this poor GSD is now a mere year old, and already in whelp with her second litter.  And my former friend thinks the breeder is to blame for the bitch's poor stature??  How does she expect the poor pup to grow??  She's too busy growing and feeding pups all the time....how can her poor body focus on her OWN growth??? 

My dog had pups with a bitch who was mated on her second season at 3 and a bit.  For lots of reasons they would like her to have another litter before being speyed but as yet has not come into season (6 months after pups were born).  If she goes so long between seasons how can you work out when the best time is to mate her again?

ive done one back to back-which was because half of the previous litter didnt survive the birth---plus the bitch had 8-9 month seasons in between  , and was in her prime, ----i do however disagree with breeding a bitch every season-----or breeding just for the sake of it, ----- having bred a breed record holder i know that my pups are correct to breed type . they also have fabulous temperaments so far better than breeding a litter  just  to fill the market, the pups where booked before they where born, and several seeing the dam after her second litter commented on how fit and well she looked, ---my choice,    :D

forgot to mention, both mari and sharon where at my house when the litter was here,  and both commented on champdogs how fit and well poppy looked.     :rolleyes:

Agree that the condition of the bitch should be the main thing. I see nothing wrong with a back to back when the bitch has come off the previous litter in A1 condition, especially if the previous litter was small and the bitch has a long cycle. My own bitch is heavier (not fat) after her last litter, whelped easily, enjoyed her pups and bounced through the whole thing so I wouldn't hesitate to breed her at her next season if I had reason to. As you say that is not the same as breeding at every season or breeding for the sake of it. I'd worry more about breeding from a bitch that has has had whelping problems or especially one that has been a bad mother than about back to back in a healthy, mature, young, easy whelping mother who enjoyed her pups and didn't lose condition with the last litter.

Interesting analogy there Ozzie, I am a female who had 3 pregnancies on 1 yr all twins and only 1 child survived nothing to do with my fittness or my bodies ability to carry the pregnancies to full term, just unfortunate enough to have a negative with D factor blood and married to a positive husband ergo children suffocated in the womb - didn't affect my bodies ability to produce another pregnacy.

I agree it's not good practice to breed from a bitch back to back but there are some occassions where it is advisable in breeds like my own where a bitch is the last of her line and is prone to phantoms, fails to produce a bitch puppy in the first litter so rather than a phantom a back to back litter then spay. 

Schip,i'm so sorry to hear about your loss,your body must be much tougher than mine as i have been thru 2 pregnancies and both taxed my body to the limits,i couldnt handle being pregnant again~shudder~ and i cant see it being much different for dogs,surely they would feel much the same as us,uncomfortable,heavy etc.
I have been accused of being OVERLY compassionate when it comes to animals,but i cant help it,i mostly compare them to humans,my dogs are my children and are treated as such,not to mention ,my hubby has never looked at me with the same love in his eyes  as my dogs do,LOL They just make my heart melt when they give me that special look,i know you all know which look of love i mean :)

Schip i wish you the best of health and lots of little Schips running under feet very soon :D

luv christine

But what if that back to back litter didn't produce what you wanted either? How many times would you breed back to back until you got what you want?

Jesse

Christine I eventually had 2 daughters they are 18 and 20 this yr, for me with a farming background, sheep and diary I don't see my dogs as people they are far more stoical than us, left to their own devices they'd breed at every opportunity, my parrots would breed upto 3 times in a season if we kept their food supply up.

We make the rules for them, we hope in their best interest, I personally would not breed back to back without good reason and the example I gave was a reality for a fellow breeder, the bitch was spayed after the second litter, even if they didn't get what they were hoping for it wouldn't have made any difference she would have been spayed and the bitch line lost as it should be.

There are times when I feel we are too judgemental of each others methods and practices, yes I know and see many things going on in parrots, dogs even farming that I would not be comfortable with but unfortunatley until there is a legal way of stopping such things there is little point us frowning or pointing our fingers accusing others of bad practices.  Some of the worst conditions I've seen in peoples Aviaries have produced abundant healthy, well conditioned specimens of their breed, whilst in my own aviairies kept in pristine conditions not an egg is seen for yrs from the same speices - an old and wise vet once told me they only breed when they're happy and some animals like people just love to have babies no matter what the conditions - sad but very true.