So you want to breed from your dog? Lets look at why 9 times out of ten its a bad idea.

5I am getting now an increased amount of emails from people wanting to breed from their pet. I have got to tell you from my point of view you really need to leave it to the experts. I have many many stories from people over the years who the disaster caused a lot of heartache for them. But lets look at everything. It is because people are going on the sales website everyone goes on and sees the Vizsla is going for a minimum of 2k and up to 4750k. They think whooooooooo MONEY! I can do that. 

We look down at our pet and think its the best dog we have ever seen. Everyone rightly loves their dog. Why shouldn’t we, as we care for them on a daily basis and adore them. We are all bias. We have a terminology in the dog world called Kennel blind. It means when a breeder can not see the poor quality that they have and brags they are the best dogs. Its false and the dogs aren't great dogs. Its kennel blind.

The notion that its good for a bitch to have a litter is utter poppy cock. It can actually be the worst thing in the world for that dog. Have you ever seen a bitch hate what she’s just birthed? I have done. They sit in the corner not wanting anything to do with the puppy. In my case with the huge experience behind me, I know how to over come this. But the many stories I’ve heard how bitches have ended up killing their puppies, and eating them too. For some that is too much to bear. You can not just expert everything in life to be perfect. You can not look through rosey coloured glasses at dog breeding. Its hard work, it can be heart breaking also.

Ive seen breeders whose bitches have needed a C section only to die on the table or hours later. Then left with bottle feeding the puppies, and if your inexperienced you can say a good percentage will die. You may of already paid out anything from £1000-£3500 on the c section to the vet. You may well of paid the price of a puppy to the stud owner, and you may well end up with one puppy or none. Then you have lost your bitch.

Breeding to make money? It cant be done unless your a prolific puppy farmer having a litter every day or every week of the year. Or charging 4750k a pup. Dogs need good quality food if your going to breed from them, exercise to keep them fit, and many do not realise the time that you put into the dog. Treats by the handfuls, and training needed. Time training dogs, time exercising dogs. If you have kennels they have to be to a standard now with the council license. I know a friend of mine has just paid 40k for new kennels to come up to scratch.
You may think of the cash, and if your lucky all works out well. But to be honest it’s the last thing you want to think about. Breeders who earn cash have mass produced the pups.
When you have quantity of dogs say 100 bitches sitting there, they most likely have behaviour issues as the breeders cant give each one individual attention. They will employ people most likely to help with these dogs and puppies. Their are also a lot of groomers linked to kennels because hairy breeds need grooming. I was asked years ago to be a groomer for one kennel and I refused because of the amount of work and the dogs were kept in mud! I didnt fancy working in that kind of environment so I refused.
Most likely the puppy wont have the right mind set either as its been brought up in filth and quantity and they are penned in as they can not give individual attention to the pups. So boredom and behaviour issues set in. Which is passed on to the new owner.
You need space. People breeding in little houses have no idea what they are letting themselves in for. Some residential properties are not ideal for breeding of dogs. It is unfair to the neighbours.
The Vizsla puppy starts screaming at around 5 weeks of age when it realised their is more to life than a pen or whelping box. Ive seen friends whose neighbours have reported them for screaming puppies from 6am in the morning until 9 at night. It causes a rift between neighbours. Vizsla are the noisiest breed of puppy you can have. I remember my friend telling me Vizsla puppies are noisy, and I thought..”How bad can that be”? I had a litter and all seemed okay then at 5 weeks I rang my friend and said”Do you remember saying to me how noisy the vizsla puppy is? YOUR RIGHT!”” She said “ I told you so”! LOL. I’m so grateful I dont have close neighbours.

If you breed responsibly and look after the puppies properly and pay a lot of attention then yes breeding the dog is a nice idea. But you have to do it properly. Ive seen people do everything right and they end up spaying the bitch as she has had one, or its died. So all that expense and nothing to cover the costs.
It is not guaranteed to make you money by breeding. Even I know from submitting a tax return how many thousands I’ve lost some years which have gone to vets. If you dont care about your dogs you do not go to the vets. Thats how corners are cut by bad breeders. They will make money of course. But its not the way it should be done. We have a law in the UK called the five freedoms and in it, every single pet owner should know it. If a dog needs medical attention you should do it.
So your dogs perfect, have you shown her? If she has won at championship shows, then you’ve got a basis of judges critiques on your dog. If you do fete shows or the odd open shows you wont of had the competition to know your dogs any good. If you turn up at a show and your the only dog then of course the win doesn't mean as much as if you turned up and your dog won ten dogs or 50 dogs or 300 dogs. One of my dogs won best in show out of 956 dogs. Not just one dog.
Can you afford to breed your dog? You need the stud fee to pay up front. Can you cover a c section £1000-£3500. Can you afford the extra food required. Can you afford the breeders license of £1000 then approx £500 for the vet check for license. Then advertising of pups. Can you afford to loose time off work. Thats a minimum of 8 weeks at home with the dog and pups. Can you afford the microchips, vaccinations if required, wormers, and sleep loss that goes with it. Do you know how to bottle feed puppies or tube feed them to keep them alive ?
Can you afford the council planning for change of use of your home? In some cases its a minimum of £1500 to change use. If you have lived at a property under ten years you will be required to change use. If you live in rented or council property do not expect them to allow you to breed dogs.

The first thing to consider is age of bitch, as in most breeds they need to be approx 2, in some breeders your allowed to breed 18 months. But after 12 months you need to do the health tests on the bitch. It can cost you approx £1000 in some breeds and far more in others. Still think your going to make money? You could get just two puppies after doing everything right and you’ll still be owning money to someone.

If you decided to go with it regardless finding the right kennel club registered dog thats also had all the health tests required. If some tests are missing do you know the dogs behind at all to know if they carried any health issues ?
You can not breed too closely your bitch. Defra recommend a coi of 11.5 any more its too closely bred. The kennel club do a breed average online but in fact will register any litter up to over 20 coi. Why is this? Because you can. The line bred dog is the pedigree dog. You keep outcrossing and your dog will produce pups that are not similar in type. In fact out crossing can even throw up more health problems. Most of the good breeders I know wont look at COI any more. Also on the Kennel club database they hold false COI on dogs. I know myself from Tango that when we had him any bitch put to him kept coming up with 0 coi. Which was incorrect. Their are a lot of false coi on the website even today.

You can not let a bitch whelp by itself as many times they need assistance in manipulating a puppy out of the vulva, be warned they can bite as it can be painful. You must also not have a weak stomach for blood and mess. You have to get rid of the mess appropriately as you cant stick it In your dust bin under some councils. You have to make sure the mum doesnt eat too much of the umbillical area as if the cords are too close to stomach they can bleed to death, also cause an umbillical hernia. You have to weigh all the pups then keep an eye that they will all gain weight. You also have to know the right time to go to the vets, in case of a c section. Leave it too late and all pups die and so can mum. Go too soon and the bitch may not produce milk also if taken out premature they can not suckle and the only way of survival is tube into the stomach to feed them.

You wont sleep for days once the litter is born. If anyone is not gaining weight you need to know how to either bottle feed or tube feed. Sometimes you have to give glucose to a newborn. You have to recognise signs. See why I say leave it to the experts?
Even the experts have seen things go drastically wrong in the last few days leading up to birth. You can have intertia where a bitch wont expel pups during labour, you can have twisted uterine horns which cause immediate collapse and death in bitch, you can have low blood sugar which makes the bitch very ill and cant birth naturally, and the bitch may have to on a drip to have a c section.

I knew a lady who pestered me for a stud years ago, went on and on and on, and in the end I said yes. This all went fantastic, but she got ten pups and wasn’t prepared. They destroyed her kitchen as she didnt use a pen. She had to have all new kitchen units. She called me at 6 weeks and said I never ever want to breed another dog as long as I live, she hated them, she wanted them gone from sight. She was depressed because she felt this way. Puppies make a dreadful mess, its not all easy peasy. They are worth every single penny you pay for one for the work involved in looking after a puppy. Its a 24/7 job with no let up.

Buying a puppy and paying x amount of pounds to the experienced breeder just know that those pups are worth every penny you have paid as its not easy peasy. For the new people reading this thinking they are money making machines, you have absolutely no idea what your talking about. Yes I will of missed a lot of stuff out of this, but I’m trying to make those of you who think its all easy peasy to sit back and realise its not easy.