To breed or not to breed ?

Joe | blog | February 21, 2011

Firstly one should never breed a litter of puppies for financial gain. If you look after your puppies and their mother properly there are a lot of financial costs involved that need to be taken into consideration, the mother and the puppies have to be fed good quality food, you have to be able to cover any unexpected veterinary bills in case your bitch may have trouble whelping and if the puppies need medical attention at any stage.  In our case our bitch did have trouble whelping and we had to bring her to the vets on a bank holiday weekend in order to have her induced, most bitches whelp without any problems but sometimes it does not always go to plan and veterinary assistance is required. Thankfully we had thought about unexpected costs and we were able to cover same.  Responsible breeders treat each litter with care and the physical and mental health of the mother and her puppies is paramount at all times,this is what differentiates them from puppy farmers/backyard breeders. 

You have to select a healthy male to mate with your healthy bitch and for most breeds especially the larger breeds it is vital that the necessary health checks have been done on both the male and female, as any health defects can be hereditary. A good temperament is also vital as this will be passed onto the puppies.   Luckily for us we owned the father of our litter of puppies, Dempsey, and he had the most wonderful temperament and this can be very hard to find in the dachshund breed as they can be quite aloof, as a result we had 3 wonderful well adjusted puppies.

You have to be prepared to spend a lot of time socializing the puppies in the first few weeks as this is a vital time in their lives. Puppies need a lot of care and attention and it can be a full time job for the first few weeks, both day and night, that is, if you do it right !

Be prepared to do house house checks on any potential buyers, have a detailed list of questions for them,(Like on the advice page on our site) you need to ensure that your puppy is going to the perfect home.  Thankfully our bitch only had 3 in her litter, initially we had only planned on keeping one but we could not find the quality 5 star home that we were looking for, for the remaining puppy and luckily we were in a position to keep two from our litter.  Some people would say that we were very fussy, but we firmly believed that we did it the right way and we were in a position to give these two puppies a great home and the time and love that any dog deserves. The puppy that we parted with went to a fantastic home, we had spoken to the interested party over the phone and we then arranged a house visit and we had the new owners sign a contract. Some bitches can have up to 8 puppies, can you imagine trying to find top quality homes for each of them, it would be a very difficult task in my opinion.  Puppy farmers don’t care where their dogs end up, but responsible breeders do !

Be prepared to cope with the emotional stress of parting with your puppies, for some people this can be very difficult even when they know their little ones are going to a great home.

Having a litter of puppies can be a very stressful and demanding time but if you do it right it can also be a very rewarding and happy experience,  we have wonderful memories of our three healthy puppies who were raised in house, it was a very happy time in our lives. We are glad we did it, but just the once !  Sadly the father of our puppies, Dempsey passed away last month and we miss him terribly but we are so glad we have two of his wonderful offspring, Danno and Daisy to keep his memory alive.  They are a credit to him and to the Dachshund breed in our opinion of course ! We still call them our puppy doodles even though they will be three this August.  Yes you are right we are dotty about our breed and our dogs, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Breed only for the right reasons, for the love of your breed and to promote healthy and well adjusted puppies that will be loved and cared for by responsible owners !