What is it really like to breed a litter of puppies?
Stressful!
What can go wrong when you try to breed a (carefully planned, greatly desired, and potentially quite valuable) litter of puppies?
And considering how stressful the whole business is, why am I currently putting myself through this again?
Below I'm going to delineate the points of stress that, for me, attend the breeding of a litter. Some of them -- like problems during the whelping -- are probably quite obvious. Others you may well not have thought of. I'm going to list them in chronological order from when you decide to breed a litter, rating them from one to ten, with one being somewhat stressful and ten being horrifically stressful. Naturally the ratings are personal.
I've had three litters of puppies so far, encompassing an emergency c-section, a scheduled c-section, and a natural birth that went by-the-book (a pretty wide range for just three litters, eh?).
My "A" litter: Anara Adornment (Dora) and Anara Affection (Effie), both of whom I kept; and a third blenheim female puppy who had died a couple of days prior to whelping. The (unexplained) prenatal death of this puppy seems to have perhaps caused the primary uterine inertia that led to this litter being delivered by emergency c-section at three in the morning. This was very stressful.
My "B" litter: Anara Brilliant (Bree), whom I kept; Anara Beguilement (Lily); and Anara Briar Rose (Lucy). Because this litter was due Christmas Day and because the emergency clinic is a long way away (and I don't trust unknown vets at emergency clinics anyway) and because the puppies looked huge on the pre-whelping x-ray -- for all these reasons, this litter was delivered by scheduled c-section on Christmast Eve. This was not so stressful.
My "C" litter: Anara Coriander (Andi), whom I kept; Anara Coralberry (Sarah); Anara Coreopsis (Toby); and a fourth puppy, a male, who lived for four hours and then died. This litter was delivered in the middle of the afternoon with no trouble, four puppies in two hours. This was quite stressful.
If you count, you will see that I have produced a total of ten puppies, eight that lived, of which I kept four and sold four. Despite a quite obsessive level of hovering over mother and babies, you'll note that some puppies did not live. Their deaths were probably due to congenital, unavoidable factors.. You might also reasonably guess that I haven't made much money breeding, considering that I've kept half the puppies I've produced (I have in fact so far lost quite a lot of money breeding, but the enormous expenses that attend breeding should really be another post).
I am now hoping for a fourth litter. The girl (Effie) just came into season and I'm already stressed out! This made me think of writing this page. Having just come into season, Effie is at the First Stress Point.
First Stress Point -- When to breed in order to maximize the chance of getting your girl pregnant?
If you don't really care whether your bitch gets pregnant, the stress level would be a zero or one.
If you have the stud dog on the premises, then the stress level would probably be about a one. You could simply breed the girl as soon as she was willing to stand and then every other day after that until she quit standing. Your chances that she would get pregnant would be about 100%, assuming that the dog was capable and the bitch normally fertile.
If the stud dog is a ten-hour drive away, then the stress level is going to be higher. You don't want to arrange a candlelight dinner with romantic music for the two of them and then find you got to Michigan three days too early or (worse) too late. Depending on the progress of the season and what the progesterone tests tell you, you may be rearranging your schedule (and the stud owner's schedule) three or four times before the big day.
Take Effie as an example. She came into season July 10th. The timing is bad, but not terrible. Do the brucellosis, check. Notify the stud owner and make sure she'll be at home from, say, the 21st to the 25th, check. Collect the paperwork required by the CKCSC, check. Get a DNA collection kit, because her DNA profile will need to be on file with the CKCSC before her puppies can be registered -- I'll do that any day now. Calculate when to do the first progesterone test, trying to do it right before the LH spike -- the second progesterone hopefully will catch the initial rise in progesterone and tell me when ovulation should occur. Remind my vet that I really need both the brucellosis clearance and the patella clearance in writing. Calculate that Eff's heart and eye clearances can still be done on the 18th as scheduled, whew! There's quite a bit to arrange, but everything is as expected and everything is going according to plan. STRESS LEVEL -- 3.
But wait! Eff's heat is abnormal. She is having a very, very tiny amount of discharge -- so small that I'm not sure after all that I correctly caught the first day of her heat, even though I have been checking twice a day since July 1st because I knew she was due to come in soon. What if I missed the first couple of days? Worse, what if I missed the whole first week? Maybe the LH spike has already taken place! OMG, what if she has actually already ovulated?
I immediately schedule a progesterone test. Progesterone tests are $90 each, btw. I pay up without hesitation, praying that the level is still very low, even though that will mean I will probably wind up paying for at least three progesterones rather than just two. If I am lucky, maybe she was just kidding about coming in? Maybe she is really not in at all and will come in for real sometime soon? I am hoping very hard for a progesterone of, say, 0.5. A progesterone of, say, 27.5 would mean I am too late to breed her. Most stressful of all would be a progesterone of about 17.0. That would mean that I need to be in Michigan NOW. And I haven't done her heart and eye checks yet! STRESS LEVEL as I wait for the progesterone results -- at least a 5, maybe higher.
Second Stress Point -- the actual breeding.
If all goes well, you arrive at the stud dog's residence confident that you are there on the right day. Questions then arise: will he have sufficient libido to want to bother? To persist if he doesn't find the target right away? Immediate success is not guaranteed. Will the bitch possibly have a stricture so that he can't actually get the job done? You won't know till you try.
Suppose he does breed her successfully. She will fuss some, which is a little stressful for a doting owner, but she'll settle down once they're tied. If they tie. It's better if they do. If they don't, are you sure the breeding was actually successful? Lack of a tie definitely would add to the stress.
What if the stud dog can't get the job done, for whatever reason? Will you do an AI? Is a reproductive vet open and willing to schedule you right away? If not, will the stud dog owner do the AI herself? Are you sure she really knows what she is doing?
STRESS LEVEL -- 2, up to 4 if the stud dog fails to breed the bitch normally but you do a good AI.
Third Stress Point -- is she or isn't she?
It's going to be a month before you know whether she's pregnant. Just try to relax. I skip ultrasounds and stuff and just ask my vet to palpate after a month. You won't know for sure how many puppies the bitch is carrying whatever you do. If you only detect one or two puppies, are they going to be too large for the bitch to deliver normally? Especially with a singleton, your chances of a c-section go way, way up.
STRESS LEVEL -- 2. If she's not pregnant, there's nothing you can do about it. If she is, it's still a waiting game for another month. Try to relax. This is a good time to re-read all your books on whelping.
Fourth Stress Point -- here comes the litter!
A few days before the litter is due, you x-ray to see how many puppies there are and how they are lying and how big they are. It's possible to undercount the puppies, but usually you get them all. You count their skulls and spines. Look at the tooth buds and the digits of the feet -- if you can see those structures, the puppies are probably viable right now. Let's say there are four puppies, average for a Cavalier, and the size looks okay -- not too huge -- and you can see they are about ready to be born.
You start taking the bitch's temperature twice a day, watching for the temperature to drop to 98 degrees and stay there. If you have a reliable thermometer, that is better. An unreliable thermometer can send your stress level soaring (ask me how I know!). Probably the puppies will arrive within 12-24 hours of the temperature drop. Stay home from work. Cancel appointments and parties. You shouldn't have scheduled them that close to her whelping date, you know. Watch for her to start panting, pacing, nesting, etc. Plan to stay up all night if she starts panting hard at nine pm.
I've never pulled an all-nighter in my LIFE except when expecting and whelping a litter, btw.
All kinds of things could go wrong once she actually goes into labor. Don't think that after all, animals do this all the time in the wild without help. You have no idea how many of those wild animals die in the process. But you do know that toy breed bitches have puppies much bigger for their pelvic size than, say, Labradors. Cavaliers have fairly large heads. This does not make whelping easier.
Stuff that can go wrong: a placenta could separate too early. You'd see greenish-black discharge, and the puppy would be dying in there. Why did the placenta separate early? Are the other puppies at risk? Will she be able to deliver the dead puppy without help?
She could have primary uterine inertia and never go into hard labor. At least she won't be screaming in agony as you drive to the vet. She could have secondary uterine inertia after delivering some of the puppies, and the last puppy or puppies will die if you don't get her started again. You'll be re-reading your whelping books, right? So you'll be able to guess whether to try giving her glucose or calcium or oxytocin. Of course, if you guess wrong about the oxytocin and cause strong uterine contractions around a puppy she really can't deliver, you'll probably kill the puppy. You might cause her uterus to rupture. Are you sure you want to try the oxytocin?
A puppy could present wrong or be too big. That could cause secondary uterine inertia. Or it could cause the puppy to just get stuck. Here's where your bitch could wind up screaming in pain while you try to help her. Those books that tell you how to pull puppies are all very well, but WHAT I LEARNED WATCHING A NORMAL DELIVERY is that you better have someone handy to help you because you will not be able to follow those directions if your bitch is whirling in frantic circles and screaming. It's all very well to pray you won't have this happen to you, but you had better plan to have someone calm ready to help you. Preferably a more experienced breeder who's been there and done that.
Suppose a puppy is born weak, flaccid, cool, gasping? That describes the puppy from my "C" litter that lived for four hours and then died. Probably he had a congenital heart or lung defect. But sometimes normal puppies are born weak after a hard delivery. You'll need to try to clear their lungs, get them breathing well, warm them up. You read that part of your whelping books, right? (You HAVE read at least two or three books about whelping, right?)
STRESS LEVEL -- 10, even on a perfectly normal whelping. Until all the puppies have been delivered, it's a 10 because something could go wrong and cause your poor bitch terrible pain, even kill her, and it would be your fault. Once the puppies are all out, even if a puppy is weak, maybe dying, the stress level falls to about an 8. At least your bitch is okay. If the puppies are all vigorous and nursing, getting the necessary colostrum, and the bitch is fine, then the stress level would fall to about a 5 or even lower as you recover and catch your breath and decide that really everything is fine.
If you do a c-section -- well, if you do it in the middle of the night as an emergency, the STRESS LEVEL would be an 8 to a 10, depending on whether your bitch is screaming or whether only the puppies are at risk and not her. If the puppies seem vigorous after a few minutes of work on each one, if their lungs have been cleared and they're crying and you're prepared and have a warm place to put them and a warm box to carry them home in, then the stress level would fall to about a 6 after you're done.
If you do a scheduled c-section, the bitch is very likely to be fine and there should be plenty of staff to help with the puppies as they're delivered and nobody should have forgotten necessary equipment such as warming boxes. STRESS LEVEL for a scheduled c-section, about a 5 or so. It's nothing like as stressful (for the breeder) as a normal delivery. But the bitch does have quite a bit of pain from the surgery for four or so days -- more pain and for longer if she is spayed at the time of the section. And she is likely not to really accept her puppies for a while, especially if it was her first litter. It took Kerah 72 hours to accept her puppies after her first c-section. It is a lot of stress and work for the breeder if the mom is not doing her job.
Fifth Stress Point -- Raising the litter
Newborn puppies are very fragile. If they get chilled, they will die. If you find them in time and warm them up, they may still get pneumonia and die. Many puppies that die, die of chilling. Many of the rest die of trauma. If the mother steps or lies on them, they could die. Chilling and trauma are the two biggest killers of puppies. Chilling is a big, big threat for the first week, a big threat the second weak, a threat the third week, and after that the puppies are safe. Trauma is also a threat that declines because as the puppies grow and get more vigorous, it gets harder for the mother to lie on one without noticing.
This is why I hover so obsessively for the first ten or fourteen days of the puppies' lives. I don't leave new puppies unattended, ever. If I go to take a shower, I put the puppies in a warming box so I can be sure the mother won't lie or step on one. I sleep right next to the whelping box. "Sleep" is a strong term, since really I catnap with a flashlight handy, so I can check immediately if a puppy cries.
Breeders who say that if a puppy dies, it's nature's way of weeding out the unfit or it just 'wasn't meant to be' strike me as nuts. There's nothing wrong with a puppy that got chilled or stepped on. That could have been the best and strongest puppy of the litter. Maybe with a litter of twelve Labradors, they feel it's okay to lose one. Or if they just bred their pet girl to the boy down the block and didn't really plan the litter or care about the puppies? I don't understand breeders who don't hover.
I weigh the puppies twice a day. It seems to me that some Cavalier puppies aren't strong enough or big enough to get enough to eat at first. I've had a puppy that cried and cried even though she seemed to be nursing strongly. Starting on the second day, I tube-fed her, using the directions in my books. She was immediately quiet and happy. I calculated the proper amount to feed an orphan her size and gave her half that amount every four hours for twelve hours, then a quarter of that amount every four hours for twelve hours. After that she was fine. A perfectly good, vigorous puppy with no problems.
I had another puppy who quit gaining weight at ten days old. I don't know why. Something had weakened her and she couldn't nurse effectively, though she was still trying to nurse. Nothing seemed to be wrong with her, she was just weak. I did the same kind of tube-feeding for twenty-four hours, and she was fine after that. A little pig, in fact. A lovely puppy. I can't imagine saying she 'wasn't meant to live' and letting her die. Absolutely nuts.
You've got a book that tells you how to calculate the right amount of formula to give a puppy, right? And you have formula on hand, yes? And tubes? Because a puppy that can't suckle strongly enough from a nipple won't be able to suckle strongly enough from a bottle. And if you feed her from a syringe, you are asking for aspiration pneumonia. If you are not prepared, you will be very stressed if this situation comes up!
Tube feeding for the first time via written directions -- STRESS LEVEL -- 8. Luckily, tube feeding is just as easy as everybody says. Tube feeding the second time -- stress level about a 2.
Having a puppy near death for no discernable reason -- STRESS LEVEL -- 9. What if she has some kind of infectious disease? What if she has canine herpes? The whole litter could die, one at a time, over the next few days! Until it's clear the puppy is actually fine, the stress level stays sky-high.
Infectious diseases are scary, scary, scary. Reading all your books and all about the possible things that could kill your puppies will punch your stress level up to about a constant level of 7 until the puppies are old enough to be safe. Or at least, that's what happens to me. But you have to read about them so you have a chance of recognizing the symptoms. When I had my first litter, I made a list of all the diseases that can kill puppies and crossed them off as the puppies aged out of the danger zone for each one. That was a little too obsessive even for me, and it made me too tense. I don't plan to look at the list again unless a puppy looks sick. Now that I've seen healthy puppies, it should be possible to spot sick ones.
Sixth Stress Point -- How about the health of the mother?
Associated with the above. Metritis and mastitis could be dangerous both to the bitch and the puppies. Not too stressful, though, unless you have some reason to suspect that either is a problem. Nipples do harden up if the puppies don't suck on them. The back nipples have plenty of milk, but they're awfully big for a newborn puppy. If those breasts harden and redden, you need to notice and milk them down a little by hand. Also you need to check and make sure the milk from hard, red breasts looks normal, like milk. If there's any sign of blood or pus, that's an emergency and above all keep the puppies away from that breast until you've called your vet and figured out what else to do. But if you check your bitch regularly you should catch potential problems fast, and I can't see how you could avoid checking her all the time, aren't you always hovering over the puppies? Stress about the mother's health hovers about a 3 unless it looks like something is going wrong (never happened to me so far).
Seventh Stress Point -- Selling puppies.
You need enough homes. And they need to be good homes. No selling one of my precious babies to some slick guy fronting for a puppy mill! Or to somebody who will keep it crated all the time! Or to somebody so ignorant she still thinks whapping a puppy with a newspaper is a fine idea! Nope, a buyer needs to seem literate, informed and like she cares about quality as well as price, or I'm pretty suspicious about what kind of home she would provide.
There is stress as long as the last puppy that's for sale hasn't sold, and the stress gets worse as the puppy gets older and less cute. As potential homes fall through or fail to materialize, the stress level tops out at, I don't know, about a 5 or 6? Nobody's dying, nobody's in pain, Cavaliers are small and don't cost all that much to feed; now and then somebody is looking for an older puppy, so you'll sell that little guy eventually. And above all, you just had four or so puppies, not eight or twelve, so they're not too insane to take care of. Though housebreaking three or more puppies at a time is hard because you can only carry one puppy in each hand. But maybe the puppy that doesn't sell will suddenly trot across the yard, you'll glance his way, and WOW he is a LOOKER! Then, even if you didn't plan to keep a boy, maybe you'll decide he doesn't need a new home anyway, at least not until you see how he grows up.
Even so, there is some stress as long as puppies that are for sale haven't sold. You have incurred pretty serious expenses breeding this litter, and it would be nice to clear the expenses. Good luck with that! I'm still in the red, personally.
Why breed a litter if it's so stressful?
1. To contribute to the general improvement of the breed. No, really. I can't help it if that sounds corny.
2. To create beautiful dogs for you and others to love as pets and show off in the ring.
3. Because it's a tremendous lift when a puppy buyer calls you three weeks after buying a puppy and tells you how great the puppy is and how the whole family loves him and they're so glad they bought him and he's just lovely and everyone admires him. Or when you get a Christmas card a year after you sell the puppy and the buyers rave like that. No one holds this out as a reason to breed, and I didn't expect it, but it's a great feeling, believe me. Thank you for telling me you love your puppy! It means a lot!
4. Because when I look at my Adora, I sometimes find myself thinking, I created this dog. Without me, she wouldn't exist. The world is just objectively a better place because Dora exists, and I created her.
It is hard to describe the feeling this realization gives me. Proud and possessive and smug and maternal and humble all at once. I know that some of those feelings seem like they should be mutually exclusive. I can't help that.
This feeling is an even less expected and even more powerful lift than hearing great things from puppy buyers.
I don't know why other people breed their dogs. But that's why I breed mine.