AgileGSD
Posted : 11/14/2010 1:29:11 PM
glenmar
And no, it would not be safe to breed the two. The males size is twice hers and the pups are likely to be too large for her to whelp.
This is actually not true - birth size of puppies is determined by the mother, regardless of what their adult size will be. Problems arise with any breeding if the litter is abnormally small, such as only one or two puppies. When there are too few puppies, they do tend to become very large and may require a c-section. Often such a small litter size is an indication of a genetic or reproductive problem. That said, the dwarf and toy breeds seem more prone to reproductive difficulties then the average dog and as such may be at a higher risk for needing c-sections or poor mothering ability.
Any breeding can have unforeseen complications and these are worth considering before you decide to breed your dog. Friends of mine had a litter over the summer. There were 11 puppies in the litter, the mother needed a c-section and then would not accept the puppies (this is not uncommon after c-sections). Newborn puppies need fed every 3-4 hours around the clock for the first few weeks. This meant they had to wake up every four hours to hand feed 11 puppies. This meant they had to wake up 2 hours early to have time to hand feed puppies before going to work in the morning. This meant that they had to leave work for almost 2 hours in the middle of the day to hand feed 11 puppies. This meant that their life for almost a month totally revolved around when the puppies were last fed and when they needed fed the next time. They luckily had three people in the house who could take turns with the feeding and one of them had an understanding enough boss to allow them to leave in the middle of the day. Still they lost a lot of sleep, had a lot of unpaid time off of work and spent thousands on vet and health care for the mother and puppies.
I had a litter get sick once and it cost a lot of money, a lot of unpaid time off of work and a lot of sleepless nights to get the puppies through it. One of the puppies didn't make it and at 6 weeks old, she already had a name, a personality and a very excited new owner. It was beyond heartbreaking. I had a puppy in a litter with hydrocephalus (water on the brain), which is a birth defect that can happen in any breed. For such puppies, there is no cure. The choice is between keeping a very special needs dog in your family until their quality of life starts to diminish or euthanizing an otherwise healthy puppy because they have brain damage.
There are all sorts of unforeseeable things which can go wrong when you breed dogs and most of them will cost a lot of time and money to remedy. Even if everything goes right and admittedly it often does, you still
have to find responsible homes for the puppies. This means lots of time
answering phone calls, emails and arranging visits. And being able to
turn down homes which aren't right for the breed or your puppies. The
days of people making lots of money selling pet puppies have largely
passed. People are now lucky to recover the costs of the litter and very often breeders still have puppies for sale at 4-6 months old. Then there is the issue of puppies that don't work out in their new homes. Do you take them back, keeping an extra dog (possibly with behavioral issues) for the next 10+ years if you can't rehome them? Or do you let your puppy be passed from owner to owner, surrendered to the shelter or euthanized?