Dog Breeding
Breeding Border Collies or Golden Retrievers
The risks and consequences
Hand feed a litter is exhausting and not always successful
When you consider breeding from your Border Collie or Golden Retriever bitch, cost, legal complications and disruption to the household are not the only considerations, if you are a dog lover the ethical side of breeding will be more important than any of the above points and before embarking on what will quite literally be a matter of life and death for your bitch and her puppies you should reflect on the following.
Bitches can die during whelping,
especially in the hands of inexperienced breeders, you may have a dewy
eyed vision of your beloved bitch surrounded by chubby, fluffy, playful
puppies, the truth is that you may finish up with no puppies and no
bitch. Caesareans seem to be becoming more common, a caesarean is a
major, invasive surgical procedure that puts your bitch at serious risk,
it is a last resort and by the time it is deemed necessary there is
no alternative. If a bitch undergoes a caesarean she remains in considerable
danger until her wound is fully healed which will take about 2 weeks
during that time she will need close supervision and may need help caring
for her pups.
If your bitch dies during or just after whelping what will you do with
her puppies, can you hand feed them and clean them day and night every
2 hours for 10 days, they will be weak, vulnerable to disease, prone
to chilling and losses are likely to be high.
Your bitch may suffer eclampsia (milk fever),
a life threatening condition where the body becomes exhausted of calcium,
resulting in collapse followed shortly by death if not immediately and
correctly diagnosed and treated. Even if treated successfully your bitch
will not be able to feed her puppies afterwards and this means that
the pups will have to be removed from the bitch and either hand reared
or fostered, will you be able to find a foster home or will you try
to hand rear the pups?
If your bitch deliverers her litter without problems
how will you cope if one or more of the pups show a defect such as a
cleft palate or sever umbilical hernia, are you able financially and
practically able to keep those puppies and provide special care for
several months until they are old enough to undergo expensive surgery
and can you cope with the postoperative care they will need.
Even if you do everything right puppies can fade for no apparent reason
and whole litters die from causes that are difficult and expensive to
identify.
Those puppies that survive will need to be homed, will you be in a position
to select loving, permanent homes for them or will you be faced with
keeping some or all of them for months until you finally despair and
sell them to anyone who wants them or until you give them away, condsider
how much can you afford to spend on advertising week after week if you
can't find homes for them?.
Once homed your responsibility will not be over, do you have the experience
and knowledge to help your puppy owners with the problems that may and
probably will arise? What if a new owner can't house train their puppy,
can't stop it chasing cars or snapping at the children - they will quite
rightly expect you to help.
What will you do if someone who has bought one of your puppies can't
keep it because their domestic circumstances have changed or because
they have not trained it and it is now out of control and they do not
feel they can cope? Are you practically and financially able to take
back a dog perhaps 18 months old, out of control, maybe aggressive or
nervous because poor care? What will you do? Can you keep the dog, correct
it's behaviour and rehome it, or will you harden your heart and take
it straight to the vet to be destroyed, rescue is not there to pick
up the mess left by irresponsible breeders who take the money and run!