Hello I am breeding my first litter  and we had the first successful mating (with 10 minute tie!) today.
I plan to do 3 mating and I was wondering if anyone could tell me if more matings generallly results in a larger number of puppies. Obviuosly, more will mean she's got more chance of getting pregnant, but I'm not sure about how the litter size is affected. I do not mind how many babies she has though as long as they're as beautiful as she is! This is just for my curiousity.
Thankyou.

The bitch can only have as many pups as she has fetile eggs available and how many of these successfully implant.  So the number of matings won't increase the litter number as such just increase the chance of getting fresh sperm to the eggs at optimum time.

I have had a litter of 9 from one mating, and had only 3 live and one stillborn pup from a bitch mated over a five day period.

Hi i'm not very experienced but i'd always go on what the mother had when she had a litter, having loads of matings doesn't mean she'll have loads of pups though, it's suppossed to be 46 hours between matings to make sure all the eggs are there and the sperm meets the eggs for fertiliasation.  I've read posts on here where they get a premate test done by the vet and it tells you when the eggs are ready to be fertilised by the sperm, whether it's accurate or not i'm sure someone else will tell you because i have no experience of this.  Usually more matings mean you've got more guarantee that she might be pregnant but it's got nothing to do with the number.  I dont know whether you've got this book but it's well worth you buying it The book of the bitch, you'll be able to buy it off amazon.uk and it will tell you everything you need to know about breeding and rearing a litter, and since your breeding and your a novice i think you will definitely need it.

Warm regards Susan

Hi susan, i would not be with out the book of the bitch, its a god send, and ive been breading for 10 years+ but iam still leaning.

Hi it dosent matter how many mateing u have you will end up with the same amount, It used to worry breaders that by haveing more than one tie, that it could bring about a double wheliping ,but this is not true . Most breaders have 2 ties 24 hours apart. regards debbie. 

debsspaniel my vet would beg to differ.  He had a dog once that came in and had had pups already, but the dog had started playing up the next day, they found that there were still more pups inside that weren't as mature as the ones that were born and when they had them tested later on the fathers were different!

I also had a litter where my girl had one naturally and the other 2 by c-section the following day, the first born was a lot bigger and more mature than the ones born by c-section.

Yes I would agree with you Spanishwaterdog.I have known that sort of thing to happen aswell.
Paxo

A bitch can only produce one pup per egg produced.If a bitch releases 10 eggs then she can produce 10 pups...but these eggs could be fertilised at different matings hence some bitches have produced litters sired by 2 different males.
Archer

I do no that if a bitch is mated with two dog at same time ,she can conceive from both males. But i was not aware a bitch could conceive at to different time , but u learn some thing new every day . regards debbie.

Also the eggs are released in spurts over about 48 hours and have a shelf life of about 48 hours so pups cannot be much younger than each other certainly no more than a couple of days.

I have a bitch with 3 pups 6 weeks old today, she had 4 pups but one died at 5 days old, she had a ceasarean on day 60 after mating, and my son and his wife have her sister who was mated 2 days before mine, she had 3 pups herself then had problems and needed a ceaser on day 58 after mating, she had 7 pups but 2 were dead inside her, so 5 living now 6 weeks and 4 days old. The breeder with the stud dogs advised us to keep an eye on the colour of blood coming from them, when in season from about day 10 of the season, just by dabbing with a tissue, and to check every few hours when the blood changed to a pink shade, it eventually turns clear, this is the time to mate we were told, and that was what we did, just 1 mating. Turned clear on mine on the wednesday afternoon, and was mated thursday morning. This was day 18 of her season, I was thinking it was too late but it worked fine. That is what the breeder does with all her bitches.

A bitch releases ova over a 24 hour-or less-period. Thus, all puppies are the same age at birth. If some seem less developed, it is generally because there was a problem with the placenta not being as viable as the others. I would say that if all the underdeveloped puppies were by a second sire, it was coincidental OR that particular dog and bitch were not a good genetic match for some reason.
                                                                                                  TiaLee
PS- Vets are not generally authorities on breeding. Or breeds.