I Want To Breed My Female Dachshund

 

I want to breed my female Dachshund. Can you help me?

 

Breeding a litter of puppies can be a joyous occasion or it can be a recipe for disaster. If you intend to breed your bitch, you need to be aware of the potential for things that can go wrong. It would be foolhardy to breed your bitch without a full understanding that sometimes disasters occur and the beloved pet can die. Certainly bitches don’t die every time they have puppies or we wouldn’t have any dogs but it would not be realistic to breed your bitch without at least thinking of the fact that it could possibly happen. Sometimes bitches die giving birth and you are left with a litter of orphan puppies left to feed. Feeding an orphaned litter of puppies is a challenge not many people are up to. For the first two weeks the puppies have to be fed hourly. The first week they are not able to urinate or defecate on their own and this will be your job to take over what the mother would do if she were still alive.

Additionally, with small bitches it is not inconceivable that you would be facing a C-section. These days C-sections easily cost $800 and usually need to be done at 3 A.M. in the morning. If you are not prepared for this financial burden or the possibility of it, perhaps you might want to reconsider breeding your bitch.

We often ask people why they want to have a litter of puppies and it is a question that we would pose to you. If the answer is that you want to make money you need to realize that this could very easily not happen. First of all, you need to consider the stud fee. The stud fee for a nice dog from a reputable breeder would probably be in the range of $250-$350. Prior to the female being bred the stud owner would require a Brucellosis test on your bitch. The vet bill for that test is approximately $50. Also, prior to being bred the bitch’s inoculations should be up to date so that the puppies can have a high titer. If the bitch’s teeth are dirty they would need to be cleaned prior to being bred so as not to pass on infection to the puppies when she cuts their cords.

Since you want to be a responsible breeder, it will be your duty to insure that the puppies have at least 2-3 sets of vaccinations before they leave for their new homes. This means you will have them at least 9 weeks, possibly 10-12 weeks. Count on the cost of these shots being around $20-25 per puppy. The puppies, in order to be healthy and leave in the best conditions, will also need stool checks for worms at least twice before they go to their new homes. Another vet expense.

And we know that you want ONLY to be a responsible breeder. You decided to have this litter and you must want to do it right since you have already put so much thought in to this decision. Due to the current ‘lawsuit happy’ world we live in, it is not unheard of for puppy buyers to come back to the breeder and demand compensation for the vet bills they have incurred because their puppy got sick due to leaving their birth environment too early and without proper inoculations to prevent the disease from occurring. So to protect yourselves and the puppies, 2-3 sets of shots, 2 stool checks/worming and a “well puppy check” before they are able to leave.

And obviously all of your AKC paperwork must be in order prior to the bitch being bred. You may not breed a bitch that has only a blue slip. That means that only her litter was registered but the bitch herself was not individually registered and her puppies would not be AKC registered in that case. You would need to have your dog individually registered in order to have a litter of AKC registrable puppies. That means your papers should be white with a purple border from the AKC. A white slip with an orange border would not allow her puppies to be registered either. If your dog was not individually registered and it is more than a year from the date of issuance of the blue slip, the AKC “may” allow you to register your dog but will levy a fine for the tardy registration of the dog. More information may be obtained on the AKC’s web site.

When considering the cost of rearing a litter of puppies, you should consider time lost from work. It would be irresponsible to allow a bitch to whelp on her own so you need to plan on taking at least 10-14 days off from work. Obviously it helps to have an understanding boss at this point!

Puppies should not go to their new homes until they are at least 9 weeks of age. Assuming you had a litter of 3 puppies and you decide to keep one that you simply cannot stand to live without, you have two puppies for sale. If you sell them for $250-$350 each, you can see that you have lost money on this business venture.

Even if you have a relatively easy litter to care for with few expenses, it is still a great deal of work to properly raise a litter of puppies. Someone will need to stay home at least the first two weeks for the puppies to be sure the mother doesn’t lay on them and accidentally kill them. The nursing mother needs to be fed 4 times a day and you need to be certain that all the puppies are staying warm and out of a draft. It will be necessary to set up some sort of a pen in the house for the mother and babies that will need extra heat; puppies who do not have a constant source of warmth in the first 7 days of their lives are subject to death because they cannot regulate their own heat. Sometimes mothers won’t care for their puppies which forces you to take over. It can be exhausting to hand rear a litter! Once the puppies are up and toddling on their own, there are puppy pen papers to be changed…as soon as fresh papers are down, they’re dirty and needing to be replaced. Taking care of a litter of newborn puppies is a full time job!

If the answer to the question was that all of our relatives love this dog and think that she is a wonderful dog and want to have a puppy out of her, why would you consider putting your dear pet at risk and jeopardize your finances just to supply your friends and relatives? There are many wonderful dachshunds already on the face of the earth and only the very best need to be bred. We simply have an animal overpopulation problem which means that every person that intends to breed needs to think seriously about the ultimate ramifications.

Something else to consider if the relatives are looking for something out of your wonderful dog. On many occasions we have heard that it was the intent of family members to take a puppy but what they really wanted was a red female and what was actually born was a black and tan male and when it came time for the puppies to leave the relatives didn’t really want a puppy because it wasn’t the puppy they wanted. At that point the owner of the bitch was left holding a litter of puppies with no potential families for them

If the answer to that question is that you want another dog JUST LIKE this one. Well, it’s just not that easy. No matter how special your dog is to you, a puppy out of it is not guaranteed to be just like or even similar to your dog – half its genes will be from another dog! You will have to find another dog that also has the characteristics you want in your puppy; that dog will have to be un neutered; and the owner of that dog will have to be willing to breed her/his dog to yours. Even a litter mate to your dog wouldn’t be JUST like your dog. They are all individuals and no two are alike. If it were as simple as recreating exactly what you want, show breeders would have accomplished this feat long ago and all of them would be producing ‘Best In Show’ quality dogs. It’s just not that easy to reproduce what you want. What you want and what you get are usually two different things!

It is an old wife’s tale that having a litter of puppies will make a dog sweeter, calmer, nicer, better. Your dog is what she is and having a litter of puppies is not going to alter her, nor is it going to satisfy her, it’s only going to put another litter of dachshund puppies on the earth, and it’s hard enough to find suitable homes for puppies. There are many people out there who simply do not provide the type of home that our dogs deserve and it can be quite frustrating interviewing people who want a free, easy, quick puppy that they had no intention of providing a good home for.

One of the biggest issues today with being a breeder is that of responsibility. Because of animal overpopulation today, IF you are going to be a breeder, you MUST agree to take responsibility for every single puppy you produce. That means that you have an iron clad contract with puppy purchasers in which they agree to ALWAYS return the dog to you if they are no longer able to care for the dog. It doesn’t matter what the reason is or how old the dog is. If it needs a home, YOU must take that responsibility. If you are not willing to do this, PLEASE do not consider breeding one single litter of puppies. There are too many dogs bred by irresponsible breeders. Those dogs are the very ones we’re having to rescue!