if a mom dog has a big litter will her puppies have a big litter?

if a puppies mom has a safe welphing will her puppies have a safe welping?

i tell you at the end of oct,as my flatcoated retriever is due then,her mum had 10 in four hours.and her mum was the same.

it can't be for real, surely?

Sam,
I think it's the 13 year old that started a thread the other day asking for advice. Apparently, she's done ALL the research on health matters and risks, so its ok with her parents for her to eventually breed her year old Golden retriever bitch. :rolleyes:

Personally, I don't think breeding is a child or teenage activity. It's only for adults and only those who are willing to accept a lot of work. Having children work along side is one thing, but to be the ones in charge??????? No way. :( There's a lot of issues at hand, along with costs and responsibility towards future offspring. Oh well, I'll stop before I really get irritated. :(

Apparently, deep in her posting was a question that if her bitch's dam had large litters, would her own bitch also have a large litter? The other question was concerning if there would be a guarantee of a safe healthy delivery if everything had gone alright with the bitch's dam?

I'm not into the breeding side, so I know little on how to answer these two questions. Other than to just enjoy your bitch for what she is --- your pet. She doesn't NEED to be a mother to be 'happy' in life.
toodles

Sara & Sam agree that breeding isn't an activity for youngsters (even if they are led to believe otherwise :-)), but I actually think its quite a good question. Of course there are no guarantees, but my impression is that if the dam whelped easily and well, there may be a slightly better chance that her pups will go on to do likewise and I'm half convinced that large (or small) litter size tends to run in certain lines. (Presumably dad has an input on these things too :-)) The one I'm really convinced about is maternal behaviour, to the point where I'd be very reluctant to breed from the daughter of a bitch that had shown poor maternal behaviour.

Having bred small livestock, Rabbits I would agree that fertility matters such as litter size, maternal behaviour, and birthing problems, or lack are definately familial, mostly on the female line.

The breeding of small livestock also proves and disproves some of the much vaunted theories on inbreding. Inbreeding seems to be a tool used much more with this sort of livestock, as the turn around of generatrions is quite fast, so results or mistakes can be seen quite quickly.

With Poultry and Rabbvits, some of the moral dilema in an experimental/close mating is removed, as if it goes wrong you can put them in the pot, lesson learned, and move on.

Inbreeding does not cause any problems, it brings latent onesto the surface. Inbreeding depression (loss of fertility and viability) tends to occur only when a family is very inbred, say 10 generations of close breeding between close relatives.

That's very interesting Barbara. As I said, its only an impression and one that might well be skewed by having a breed that tends to big litters and easy whelping anyway, so its nice to have some tentative 'evidence'. I'm not scared of in-breeding as long as the person doing it knows the stock and knows why they are doing it, but again its nice to hear from someone who can cook the mistakes :-).

Thankfully my breed seems to have average to large litters, and the bitches tend to be very natural broods, that is why when it all goes wrong for someone you know (there were two bitches lost only a couple of months apart last year) that itis all the more shocking, and makes you stop and think.

I did enjoy breeding the rabbits and playing with genetics. It is an interesting area, but when it comews to dogs you can't eat your mistakes, that is why you cannot really afford to make your own mistakes, but hopefully should learn from others to minimise their occurence.

a friend of mine had her bitch die, and lose the whole litter last year. she had safely had puppies before! There are no Gurantees that things will go snoothly, each litter is a law unto itself.

One of my bitches also has had two litters of 7 pups with no problems, and last year had her third and final litter of 4 she went over her time and needed a Ceaseraen section and one of the pups died at 5 days old!

It was only experience that meant I didn't leave things too long and had some puppies and a healthy Mum at the end.

A child also should not be breeding as the sale of puppies carri9es legal responsibilities under the sale of goods and other acts.

There is also the lifelong moral responsibility for the puppies your bitch may have.

Hi golden, I believe the size of litters will be influenced by the mothers and grandmothers general fertility, but to ensure the maximum size litter the bitch does have to be mated at exactly the right time with a fertile dog. Please be aware that bitches do sometimes die whelping, or maybe have to have a c-section (very expensive and traumatic for you and the bitch). Its also possible to lose the bitch and all the puppies and have a huge vets bill to pay. Before you go into breeding her, you have to accept that this could happen. Also before you mate her she MUST be hip scored and have an acceptable hip score result for the breed and have be eye tested with a NAD ( No abnormalities detected) result. These tests will cost you about £175. If you do not do these tests on her or dont have good test results, if the puppies inherit certain diseases from her, you could be taken to court and sued for a great deal of money. Of course the stud dog must also have good test results. Also you will have to wait until her third or fourth season. Also she should not be mated until she is at least 18 months and preferably 2 years of age, to make sure she is completely grown up.

Hi Golden, I read your first post a few days ago when you expressed an interest in breeding from your bitch puppy. Although I know you say that you have your parents agreement on this idea,I feel you are very young. Breeding a litter of puppies is an enormous responsibility. So enormous, that in fact I have kept dogs of both sexes for thirty years, and never bred a litter. I'm planning my first litter for next spring, and only to fulfil the breeding terms that were applied to my bitch when I got her. This also means that I will have the support of a very experienced breeder when I need some advice, as I surely will. Wouldn't you get as much pleasure from breeding baby rabbits? That is something that I did do at your age. I must advise you not to be a breeder of Golden Retrievers at age 13.