While checking out a website on pitbulls posted by another forum member, I saw that one female was "dual sired" to two males in a single breeding. I have never heard of this being deliberately done, but admit to not being "into" breeding dogs. Is this a common practice? How is it looked upon in the professional dog world? I'm honestly kinda shocked... Any professional breeders out there who can address this for me?

I am glad you posted that. I didn't understand what "dual sired" meant?

Dual sired litters are now acceptable in the AKC as well as the UKC. I would not say they are common but they are not really rare either. Reasons for doing it vary. A lot of times the bitch is getting old and the breeder would like to cross her with two different sires but does not want to put the bitch through two seperate whelps.

I know people who had bred to a male using insemination that might only questionably take so they breed the bitch to another male (either by insemination or live cover) as well in hopes to get puppies from at least one sire. I almost did this last fall but figured Frost was young and if she did not take by my old male, I would wait a year and breed her to one of his sons so there was no real reason to attempt a dual sired litter at that time.

When you do such a breeding you have to have both sires (and the dam) DNA tested and then you have to DNA test the puppies. More often than not the puppies are sired by only one stud but I do know people who have "won the lottery" so to speak and gotten puppies from both sires.

These are expensive litters to have due to having to DNA as well as other costs so they are only generally done for specific reasons and not for the heck of it.

Here is a link to the AKC page on multiple sire litters:

http://www.akc.org/dna/multisire.cfm

And the UKC's page on it for that registry:

http://www.ukcdogs.com/WebSite.nsf/WebPages/RegistrationCanineDNADSLitter

Oh, thank you for explaining! I doubt these people actually paid to do the DNA test...Especially since they were never posted.

Thanks Ingrid. I appreciate the info.

Ingrid - what are the views on embryo transfers or do they even do that in dogs? With all the horse owners not wanting to take their good mares out of training or off the show circuit they super ovulate the mare, flush the eggs, inseminate them and implant them in recipient mares, thus getting multiple foals in a year by different sires.

I knew it was possible to have more than one sire in litters of cats and dogs but they were almost always oops litters and back then, AKC wouldn't recognize them. But then AKC doesn't require pictures of babies prior to registration or DNA on regular litters where horses do nowadays due to unscrupulous breeders trying to pass off foals being by sires they aren't out of. So all AQHA and I think APHA have to be DNA'd to reg and thoroughbreds don't allow AI at all - live cover only still.

Learn something new every day, thankyou for the info Ingrid!

I did a dual sired litter about 2 years ago. I did it for the reasons Ingrid stated (2 litters for the "price" of one in terms of wear/tear on the female and down time from training) but also because I thought it would be an interesting blind study on what the two males produced. It's interesting to evaluate pups when you aren't sure who was sired by who, so there is no bias in terms of traits. I got lucky and my litter was half and half on the sires. And I was only about half and half on accuracy of guessing who was sired by each male.

The down sides of this type of breeding are the timing of the DNA results, the pups were 8 weeks and ready to go to their new homes, but I still didn't have the DNA results back from AKC. And I had swabbed and mailed them off when the pups were 3 days old. Most of my homes didn't care which sire their pup was from, but a couple were hoping to get a pup from a specific sire so it threw a wrench in things. It also added a lot to the overall cost, I believe the DNA, extra registration fees, etc was about 600.00. But I would do it again, in the right circumstances.

To keep the pups straight, I assigned each sire's pups a different litter letter.

R Litter - http://www.dantero.com/litters.php?id=31
Q Litter - http://www.dantero.com/litters.php?id=32

If you go to either of the links there is a link to the results of the DNA tests (http://www.dantero.com/qr.php), and how the decision was made regarding the sire of each pup.

The ability to use two sires and DNA the puppies has many advantages. The downside, however, is that statistics indicate that most litters ultimately have a single sire. (The bitch in my sig line is from a dual sire breeding....100% were from one sire. I won the bet on which one it was LOL)

I've heard that vets are now attempting something different when using surgical insemination: one sire's semen in one horn, the second sire's in the other. Has anyone heard if this has improved the odds on actually getting puppies from both sires, or has anyone here tried it themselves with any success?

Tracy

"Has anyone heard if this has improved the odds on actually getting puppies from both sires, or has anyone here tried it themselves with any success?"

I have a litter on the ground right now that we did this too. One sire on one side, and the other on the other side. Awaiting the DNA results, did the swabs at 1 1/2 weeks. Hopefully I will have them soon, the litter is almost 7 weeks. If I were to put $ on it, I would say one is from the older sire, four from the younger dog. It will be interesting to see