kendall Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 (edited) Hi all, Interested to know of your first breeding experiences :D Had you had any practical experience with whelping a litter with another breeder (same or different breed)? Did you do it alone or with the help of a mentor? Was your bitch a maiden too or had she had a litter previously with another breeder? Any things in hindsight you would have done differently or things that you would definitely do again? What was it like raising the pups? How did you find homes or choose which one/s would stay with you? thanks Edited October 23, 2010 by kendall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelsun Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 Hi all, Interested to know of your first breeding experiences Had you had any practical experience with whelping a litter with another breeder (same or different breed)?No, my first litter was by myself in my home and without having seen/experienced any puppies born Did you do it alone or with the help of a mentor?Alone Was your bitch a maiden too or had she had a litter previously with another breeder?Maiden bitch and the male I used was also a maiden Any things in hindsight you would have done differently or things that you would definitely do again?Not really. Wh at I learned by doing, was much more I think, than I could have been taught by watching a litter being born. I thought for a long time that I would have enjoyed having a mentor, but now as I look back, I realize that I did just fine, and my original breeder, although in the breed for sometime, didn't really know very much and I soon supassed their knowledge(to which they admitted to about a decade later) What was it like raising the pups? Not much different for me than raising kids. Keep them warm, fed and clean. Stimulate to give them experiences and keep a routine. I never stressed with that litter one little bit. It all came naturally. I used common sense when I began to wean them and simply watched them and figured out what their needs were. I have changed a few things since then in how I raise a litter, including whelping set up, but overall....much of what I do now, is still the same as back then. How did you find homes or choose which one/s would stay with you? As a show person, I had a list of names before I even did the breeding. I wouldn't have done it, had I not. I didn't keep from that litter as one of the few pieces of advice I was given by someone I thought knew more than me, was to sell off the pups as they weren't anything special, and use the money to buy a better bitch....yes you guessed it, it was one of hers! thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indigirl Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 My first litter is on the ground now, just 4 days old. Theres a woman I know who breeds cockers that lives nearby and i went over and observed a few whelpings there. My breeder was extremely helpful but she lives 1000km away so she couldnt do much other than offer advice/answer questions. Bitch and dog were both maidens, ended up having an AI done as the bitch wouldnt stand long enough for a tie - may have been my lack of experience which contributed to this im not sure. Next time round i will be more in control of the whelping. I ended up with a group of ppl at my house and Im sure this caused the bitch some stress. I called one person to come qand help and they callled/brought others. I would have preferred to just call the others if i had questions. So next time around (will be a different breed) I will in very much in control over who is there for the whelping. I will also listen to my instincts more. Apart from that I think I could have been a little more prepared, as she whelped a few days earlier than expected. Thus far pups are great and the bitch is a wonderful mother. There are 4 pups and only one will need to find a home so shouldnt be too difficult. The other 3 all have homes lined up. When the time comes i plan to evaluate the puppies using the Hastings Puppy Puzzle, as well as sending pics and footage of each pup to my breeder for her opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandra777 Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 (edited) Had you had any practical experience with whelping a litter with another breeder (same or different breed)? Nope. Not so much as read a book Did you do it alone or with the help of a mentor? Stud dog was chosen by the bitch's breeder, she was on breeding terms. They chose the dog but did absolutely nothing else in conjunction with the breeding Was your bitch a maiden too or had she had a litter previously with another breeder? Maiden Any things in hindsight you would have done differently or things that you would definitely do again? WITH HINDSIGHT I wouldn't have chosen that stud dog, but at the time who was I to say they were wrong. A dog of this mating is behind most of the dogs I have subsequently bred so I really can't complain too much What was it like raising the pups? Lots of fun, I had absolutely no problems at all. Lucky I guess! How did you find homes or choose which one/s would stay with you? The breeder of the bitch took 2 pups (one for the stud fee, one for the bitch which I hadn't paid for), he agreed that my choice of dog was better than his once they had grown up. His pick bitch was lovely, but he "lost" her before she even grew up. The rest were placed via adverts in the newspaper (this was in 1980 LOL) and my choice of dog went to a friend of the breeder, and is the dog mentioned above. I didn't keep anything out of the litter - I would have kept the pick bitch if I could but I already had a dog and was only allowed 2 dogs. Edited October 23, 2010 by Sandra777 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowanbree Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 Horrific. I had a great breeder but she was 8hrs drive away and in those days the expense of toll calls meant all correspondence was by letter so not really anyone to ask those little questions too. Bitch had diarrhoea for weeks and hated her puppies to the point I had to hold her down to feed them. I found homes though the newspaper and word of mouth but found it very difficult to let them go. Looking back I realise the bitch had a milk intolerance and my set up left a lot to be desired so the bitch never settled . Took me about 5years to have another litter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizT Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 My first litter is now 6 weeks old today. Maiden bitch and maiden whelping for me, although I had produced three of my own and a few foals in the past 20 years LOL. And OH attended the birth and was the assistant midwife. Gleaned lots of advice from experienced Show friends/mentors, read lots of books but in the end I think instincts forarmed with plenty of research and the knowledge that my vet had a 24 hr emergency service 2 minutes away gave me the confidence to go it alone. I was blessed with a good birthing but I don't believe that was an accident. A bitch in good health with herbs that tone the uterus certianly contributed in some way to a good birthing. Something I had done myself with all of my own pregnancies. The rest was fate and sheer dumb luck I guess. Next time around I will make sure the bitch get Folate prior to conception as I sadly had a pup with a cleft palate and have learnt more about this since. Homes have been found through DOL with the usual 100 questions I've asked of the potential new owners. However no decisions are being made for another two weeks as I've discovered just today that 6 weeks is really still too early to tell. One or two look promising and even though I wasn't going to keep any fom this litter, I might just do that! Never say never. They have been a huge part of the past few months both in looking after my bitch and then the newborns. I will miss the little poopers when they are gone, as they are starting to become real little personalilties and huge "time wasters" although I have to say that 5 pups pooping one after another in my family room, and the mountains of newspaper I've collected and am rapidly going through, despite expecting it, still floors me at times. I've only ever looked after one puppy at a time and young dogs are very time consuming...especially when multiplied!! Cudos to the large litter carers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poodlemum Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 The first litter I ever bred (in partnership with my ex-husband) was a nightmare, mainly because of bad advice & shonky practice by the Vet we were using Had you had any practical experience with whelping a litter with another breeder (same or different breed)? No practical experience - we did a lot of reading Did you do it alone or with the help of a mentor? We were mentored by the breeder of our bitch Was your bitch a maiden too or had she had a litter previously with another breeder? Maiden Any things in hindsight you would have done differently or things that you would definitely do again? Definitely!! The next litter we bred was much better - we had a different Vet and were much more relaxed about things in general What was it like raising the pups? The Vet advised us to bottle-feed the pups at about 2 weeks - in hindsight this was totally unnecessary and resulted in 3 dying from aspirated pneumonia. I say unnecessary because the same bitch had no problem feeding subsequent litters. How did you find homes or choose which one/s would stay with you? We did not have any problem placing the puppies - out of a litter of 8, due to the poor advice and the vet botching the tail-docking, causing infections which killed another 2 puppies from renal failure, we were only left with 3 puppies. One went to our breeder, in exchange for a white puppy who became our foundation Stud Dog, and the other 2 went to the 1st 2 people on our waiting list. As you can imagine, the whole experience was shattering, not to mention expensive. Looking back, I am still amazed that we decided to continue breeding but I'm glad we did, as all subsequent litters were incident-free, apart from 1 swimmer puppy. Obviously I can't mention our original Vet's name here but he's still in practice and, in my opinion, he's no better than a butcher! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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