Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:29 am Post subject: Breeding from same bitch twice in one year ?
Just wanting to know, how common/acceptable is it for a breeder to have two litters of pups from the same bitch in one year? ie one litter born April/May and one litter born October/November?
I know it is a lot for the bitch to cope with having litters so close together, but I also know that the GDBA do do this sometimes with their brood bitches. Personally I feel one litter per year is more than enough..but others may feel differently.
I personally don't agree with it.....the poor bitch would only have a couple of months to recover. Feel sorry for the GDBA girls didn't know they did this
Last edited by sheens on Tue Jul 03, 2007 12:14 pm; edited 1 time in total
I don't agree with it either. Not that I know anything about breeding but I know how I felt after giving birth and wouldn't have wanted another so soon!!!
If I was to breed (not that I am ) I wouldn't breed the same bitch twice in one year - having a litter takes a lot out of them, as you can imagine, so I would want to give them a decent break in-between litters to recover and have some kind of life themselves...
GDBA don't do it with all their bitches, most of their girls are just once a year ladies....No doubt there are reasons surrounding why they do use some girls more than that...but I don't know all the in's and out's...I was surprised they did it too though...and a little bit cross when I first found out...As I said though, they obviously have their reasons.
I would not like to breed a bitch of mine twice the same year - sometimes it can be bad enough to breed them once . It just takes a lot out of them especially when we're talking +8 pups. You can help the bitch by making sure that she's super fit and healthy BEFORE she has her pups and then I also ween the pups fairly early. Once the pups have their needle sharp teeth it's time for them to go on solids.....
After a litter of pups it can easily take several moths for the bitch to get back to full top form again...
I suppose this doesn't only happen in the dog world....I was thinking of all the horses that get bred from, especially in the racing industry. A lot of mares are put back in foal within weeks of giving birth, so they are feeding a foal at foot and carrying another at the same time...Although no doubt this would happen in the wild, just as it would with dogs.....Don't get me wrong though, I'm not saying this is right...it's just the way it is sometimes.
As I said before I don't know all the in's and out's of the GDBA's breeding programme, but it is thoroughly vetted and it is something that has been worked upon for 50 or more years, so although I was a bit shocked I can see that there must be very good reasons for doing this occasionally.
I will find out more in the fullness of time though, as I may offer to hold a brood bitch myself in future years.
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. It just takes a lot out of them especially when we're talking +8 pups. You can help the bitch by making sure that she's super fit and healthy 
