My girl is due to whelp in just under 2 weeks - does anyone know how long after the pups are born she will be OK to show again?

How long does it take to get back in to her 'pre pregnancy' state?

She is a staffie & I am thinking maybe when the pups are about 6 months old, but any advice would be great!

I have to plan way ahead for shows as I dont drive & dont want to enter her & lose my money when she cant go ;-)

Thankyou

Jo
xxx

If you keep her fit she will be probably showable by the time pups are 4 months.  A bitch looses all her coat when the pups are weaned, and in my breed you would be talking about the pups being five or 6 months before the bitch was remotely showable though I did win a group and in last 3 for BIS with my girls at a Christmas show when her pups were born 3rd September, with a short but good coat and super figure.

With a staff I think a month for her coat to recover would be plenty enough and excersise should take care of the undercarriage.  If there was a particular show you wnated to enter her for on spec then you could even try 3 months after the pups are born and see how she looks on the day before deciding on whether to take her.

The size of the litter she has may have a bearing on when she's back in the ring. One bitch I had who had a litter of 10 (and 8 nipples) was never as firm underneath afterwards as she had been before, but another bitch who only had 4 pups was in the ring after 3 months and nobody believed me when I said she'd had pups at all! I have a smooth-coated breed so any post-pregnancy coat loss is hard to detect.
:)

I think individual bitches and also their age and general fitness play a big part. 

My Kizi at two had a litter of 9 and she was fit in body (not in coat) byt the time her pups were 10 weeks, and if she were a smooth coated breed I could have shown her then. 

After her third litter at 6 1/2 years old (only 4) she was again in good shape by the time pups were 12 weeks, when I had her spayed. 

Now spaying seems to have altrered her shape a bit and she is sort of billowy, though not overweight, but looks it to how slim she used to be, and I ahve cut her food down by a third to what she used to eat before spaying.

Sometimes in caoted breeds the coat grows back wrong after a litter (with mine kinks and waves, or off colour) and you then have to waith another 6 months for the coat to regrow when it comes right again.  So campaigning a bitch in a coated breed is a nightmae if you wish to have them reproduce.

As they say it all depends on their coat, Carina after her second litter could have been shown when the pups were 10 weeks old she looked brilliant, but after her first litter it would have been about 4 months after as she took ages to get her teets back up, bless her :d

I have got friends who have their bitches back in 12 weeks and I will say I am planning on showing mine within that time span but I saw my friends GSD yesterday for grooming and she was 10 weeks post whelping and looked appalling.  She usually has a beautiful coat but it was very thin and short.  I will say that mine is not terribly saggy underneath and yet her litter sister looks terrible very saggy even though they have the same amount of pups but mine is very well excercised hers are not.  I have been giving her sunflower seeds, primrose oil, royal jelly, cod liver oil, vetzyne and restore so if that doesnt help her nothing will.  My husband has commented the dog has more vitamins than the kids ;)  Got to agree with the others that I do think it depends on age and general fitness.

Thanx for your help :-)

I was hoping on the paignton show as it is close to me & a couple of opens just after.

I thought it may be a bit soon for her but she is very fit.

She is 3 1/2 yrs & it is her first litter. The scan said at least 6.

Oh well, I may enter her as it is quite local to me & unless she looks horrendious (sp) I will still have a go :-)

As I dont drive I dont go to many shows but as we both enjoy it & she usually does quite well I would like to go to the ones close to me if poss.

Thanx

Jo
xxx

As everyone says, depends on the bitch. Mine (coated breed) won 2 tickets 4 & 5 months after her first (large) litter - shortly after that, just before her next season, her coat went. Then after her second (again large litter) her coat went straight away and she has never really recovered her superb coat quality (or her figure!) again. :(