I was recently told that because my bitch only had 1 puppy the stud was at fault and had a low sperm count and not to use him at stud again? Is this entirely true?, OR, does my bitch playa part in how many pups she has? HELP.

The size of the litter is generally down to the number of eggs a bitch releases. A normal dog releases millions of sperm, but they need to be healthy and strong enough to reach the eggs and fertilise them. The mating also needs to be on the optimum day after ovulation to 'catch' all the eggs.

Unless the stud dog has a history of bitches missing and only one puppy in litters, it is nothing to do with him.  If your bitch produced millions of eggs, then the stud dog has enough sperm to fertilize them all.  If he was at fault (low sperm count or deformed sperm), then his breeding record would show this.  Sometimes when a dog gets old or if he is ill, the quality of his sperm falls off.  But a lot of well known stud dogs are still producing well into their 12th year.

The main problem when only one pup occurs is that the mating took place on the wrong day, and either too early so most of the sperm had died off by the time of ovulation or too late and most of the eggs had died by the first mating.  Sometimes Premate tests show real surprises as to when a bitch is ovulating.  If you mated on day 11 and she didn't ovulate until day 17, then there wasn't much chance of success.  Really, we are very lucky to get so many successful matings by just aiming for the usual 2 days.  But if you breed your bitch again, it would be very sensible to either get a Premate done, or if it is convenient to take the bitch to the dog every other day from about day 9 until she won't stand any more.

It is also very possible that your bitch reabsorbed the rest of the pups that were fertilized, leaving her with only one viable puppy.

This can be for many reasons, malformed puppies, infection etc.

As someone else said, the bitch releases a certain amount of eggs, but the dog releases millions of sperm, so unless he has a history of leaving bitches empty, it could also mean you had the mating dates wrong.