Philippine Dog Finder

First, remember that it is extremely difficult to come up with a top quality stud dog that people want to use. After all, they will look around and pick out the best male they can find. So your dog has to be pretty impressive to be noticed in the competition.

Your male should be in top condition. He should be certified clear of joint problems (and in many cases that means he has to be at least two years old). His eyes should be checked annually. He should be clear of any abnormalities common to his breed. No heart problems, no seizures, no thyroid problems, etc. He should be clear of brucellosis. His temperament should be good, and appropriate for his breed. If you have such a dog, you will need to get your dog well known. This generally involves showing your dog (in show, field, or obedience) and doing other work with him. An unproven dog (that has no previous puppies or only puppies too young to evaluate) will command a much lower stud dog fee than a proven dog (with a record of puppies to examine).

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Prewhelping preparations

You should have a sturdy, clean, proper sized whelping box for the litter. It MUST include a “pig rail” around the edge to prevent the bitch from laying on or smashing her pups. It should be big enought to allow the bitch to turn around but small enough to prevent the pups from being “lost” in the unused portions. About six inches longer than she is, fore and aft, when laying prone (as in suckling her puppies) and about a foot on either side length wise.

To get the whelping box ready for your bitch, get a sheet of plastic, such as you would use for painting a ceiling to protect the floor. Cut it up into several pieces the size of the whelping box. Put one piece of plastic down, several layers of newspaper, another piece of plastic, more layers of newspaper and so on for four or five layers. Then when your bitch is whelping puppies, you can roll off a layer when it gets messy — and it will! — and throw it away to instantly clean the whelping box.

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You should make sure the bitch is up-to-date on all her vaccinations, medications, and shots before she is bred. She will require supplementary food during the last three weeks or so of pregnancy. In general, puppy food is formulated both for puppies and pregnant or nursing bitches.

She should be under the care of a vet for any related problems. Dogs can have miscarriages. Illnesses, diseases, or infestations that the bitch picks up during her pregnancy can affect the puppies. Difficulties during whelping are entirely possible, and the rule for some breeds. You must be prepared to get her to the vet quickly in an emergency.

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Ideally, a bitch should only be bred every other year and she should not be bred much before two years of age. The season closest to the second birthday is a good one to start with; certainly no earlier than this. In some breeds, you may need to wait one more season before beginning. By this time, she is better prepared mentally for having puppies than she would have been with her first few seasons. Her physical growth is complete and pregnancy at this point won’t endanger her health, provided that she is healthy to begin with.

In breeds with Hip Dysplasia, many people wait until after two years of age so that the parents can be certified; however if you have sent in xrays to OFA for preliminary evaluation and they came back as fine, many breeders consider it safe enough to then breed on the season closest to the second year, which can wind up being before the bitch is actually old enough to be certified. (And when the bitch is old enough, she is, of course, duly certified.) But the preliminary xrays must be examined by OFA, not by a local veterinarian. There are many dysplastic dogs out there that had vets look at their xrays and pronounce them “wonderful.”

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You must make sure the bitch and the stud both are free from brucellosis before breeding them. Brucellosis causes eventual sterility in both sexes (sometimes non-obviously) and can cause a litter of puppies to be aborted or die shortly after birth. In addition, brucellosis is on occasion transmissible to humans via the urine or feces of an affected dog. Between dogs, it is most commonly passed in sexual intercourse, although an entire kennel can be infected through contact with secretions.

The sire should be in excellent general health. The dam must be in good health, to withstand the stresses and rigors of a pregnancy. They must both be up to date on their vaccinations.

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