Breeding & Whelping Q&As

I really admire what you do with your dogs. Your a great inspiration to anyone who loves this breed. I have several German shepherds and have decided to breed a litter (all my dogs have passed their health screening; meet the breed standard; have the correct dispossession and drive; and have exceptional bloodlines). My problem is that the two dogs I'm trying to breed are both, in lue of a better term, virgins. My female has been flagging our male for 2 days (days 7 and 8 of her cycle) b...

How long after a bitch gives birth can you breed her again? Is it unhealthy to breed her in her next following heat?? Or should you wait for one heat to go by before breeding again? Thank you for your time!

I have a 2 1/2 yr. old female rottweiler she tied on 02/14/06 on her 11th day, it is now 02/27/06 and she is still flagging and the male is going crazy, What should i do should i keep them apart? or let her breed again, i am afraid i missed the breeding for her. Also she bleed her entire cycle this time 22 days and when her blood started to change is when the proven male was urging to breed her which would be today. Thank you, Tricia

I have a seven year old male stud. I just got a four month old german shepherd female. I was wondering about what time will she probably go into heat. When would be the earliest I could breed her...agewise? Thanks

Hello, I have a toy pomeranian that has had 3 litters in the past.Her first litter she did fine.The 2nd litter at first everything was fine than after what we thought was everythings fine, she had a puppy still in her.She didn't act like she was in stress but I coud hear the puppys heart beat, so I was getting concerned that if after the next 17 hours went by and she still hadn't had it we would take her to the vet.So thats what we did.The vet we took her to,wasn't into deliverying puppies...

How long after a bitch starts bleeding do you take her to have her bred? I have heard anything from 2 days to its not to late even after she stops bleeding. When is the right time? Thank You!! Debbie

I have read your article on bottle feeding and hand raising puppies but it seems kind of geared towards larger breeds. My Shitzu had a litter of four on Monday and we have already lost 2. After speaking with my vet, it seems that she may be too young to know everything to do. She is very protective, but sits on them and doesn't nurse them often. She isn't even eating very often. I don't want to loose another puppy!! Will the smaller breeds take the bottles as you web site shows? Any other adv...

Mr. Frawley, My Golden Retriever just had a litter of 12 pups. They are 4 days old and seem to be doing fine nursing, but I am wondering if or when I should start supplementing and bottle feeding? Can her milk dry early or can she run out? I don't know if it's like a human body, when the baby nurses, the milk lets down. I don't know if she 'let's down' each time they nurse or not. I have been weighing them and they are slowly gaining weight. Any feedback you can provide on this issue wo...

My dog recently had a litter of pups which are all doing great. My only problem now is that they are turning 4 weeks old this Thursday and we have began weaning and an attempt at house breaking. Up to 3 weeks old they mostly urinated in their whelping box and the dam cleaned up the mess fairly quickly without us noticing. Now that they are teething, getting rougher with the dam and eating puppy mush she has been leaving them to themselves for longer periods. Unfortunately for my wife and I, w...

Our Blue Heeler, Sky, had 7 puppies last Saturday. Two of the puppies died over night. On Monday (2 days after delivery), Sky passed away. According to the Vet, she might have had an infection or a blood clot. In the midst of our mourning the loss of Sky, we are caring for the 5 remaining puppies. Thankfully, the puppies were able to nurse off Sky their first 2 days. We're feeding them formula from the vet. They are actually all doing very well. We feed them 1 ? - 2 ounces every 4 hours. We h...

Hi Ed, I have just come across your great and informative website. I have a question that I have asked many GSD helplines but never really got the answer. I own 2 German Shepherds that I bred last year both at 3 years old. My bitch was contracting for several hours and ended up a C- section. We brought her home with 10 huge healthy pups . I put the pups on the bitch every 2 or so hours as she did not seem to know what to do with them . After 18 hours and several feeds she seemed to be acce...

My Cairn terrier has just had puppies about 3 weeks ago and up until the past few days she has been nursing them fine. Now she doesn't really want to nurse them and I wonder if it's because her nipples are so scratched up with bumps from them being irritated. Do you know if there is a home-remedy I could do to soothe her that way she will feel better to nurse her puppies? Thank you

Hi! I'm hoping you can answer my question. I am considering buying a dog half pekingnese and half Chihuahua. She is 1 year old. This dog lives outdoors in a shed with other dogs. She comes in the house when grandchildren come over and they play with her, but when she jumps out of your lap she wants to go outside. Of course she is not housebroken. I personally don't think this type of dog should ever be living outdoors. The owner breeds dogs and decided to keep this one because it is so unu...

I have a 5-yr. old Female she is half American half German. She has only had 3 litters in those 5 years. Her first litter was with a hunting dog when she got lose from her pen she had 7pups. Two years later I mated her with a full blooded German rottweiler. She gave me 6 but two died at birth. I kept one of her pups from last year, a male. This year she came in heat. I tried to seperate her from her son but I was to late & she gave me 9 pups this year. 5 of the pups are black & 4 are brown. I...

Hi, I have a 18 month old Doberman, she had puppies in April. She had 13 and did well. Since, they have gone, she doesn't eat at all, and she's losing all of her hair. Took her to the vet, they said it wasn't mange. They dipped her twice no change. In fact she's lost more of her hair, now she's almost bald. They have no idea what to do. They told us to feed her pedigree dry. And gave us some shampoo to use twice a week. I thought she might have allergies this type of dog sometimes does. Ve...

Please help... Me and my fiancee have a 2 year old male American Staffordshire Terrier (70 lbs.) and a 6 month old female Pit Bull (45 lbs.). She started her first heat cycle about 16 days ago. We want them to mate, but because she is not fully grown, we wanted to wait. We had bought something that's similar to a diaper so that he could not mate with her. Just this morning, he had gotten around the diaper and mated with our female Pit Bull. Now my question is, am I looking at some serio...

Please Help. We have four week old puppies. The runt of the litter developed in the past few days tremors, has separated herself from the pack, does not want to be held but will still nurse from mom but for much shorter periods. She is still much smaller than the other pups. We had in the beginning made sure she was getting her own private feedings. We thought she was doing well. She was playful. Now she lays be herself. She does still urinate but we can't check the consistency of her stool b...

Hi Ed, What is the difference between a dominant male alpha puppy and a high drive alpha male puppy? Thank You! Jerry

I have a three year old male Rottweiler, we don't have papers on him but he is purebred. He has a stable temperament, loyal to me ,friendly to my friends and family, but protective when the need arises. He is easily handled, controlled and trained by me and I'm a very small female. He is a gorgeous dog, nice brick head, fairly short back and powerful legs, but not stumpy or leggy. I'd like to breed him, I am confident he can produce both great trustworthy family companions or a SchH or pro...

Hi, First I wanted to say you really must love your dogs!!! We are currently bottle feeding a pug pup he was born on New Years day,his mom just isn't getting the milk in, after reading this I think I understand I need to be tube feeding him the last couple of days when I feed him or even 2hrs after he eats you will see milk coming out his nose.... does that mean the milk got in his lungs??? Do you have any advise, for me, he is a big part of our family now, I really need help, I have bottl...