Dog mating advice

stevoman

Hi. I plan to put my bitch in pup with the mating next week and was just looking for a few opinions. This is her first time to be put in pup and naturally the sire has been chosen. My question is this. Do any of you prefer to bring your bitch to the dog or vice versa? I know in greyhound and terrier circles its always the norm to take the bitch to the dog as opinions are if they bitch is mated in her home place she knows they area too well and not respond well to the dog. I would personally prefer to bring the dogs home here for the day, but I also don't want to ruin the best chances of them mating. Opinions anyone?

andreac

The usual practice is to bring the bitch to the dog as you are availing of his services, therefore you travel to the dog.

I own a stud dog and i would never bring him to the females home, they would come to me as they are the one who wants to use my dog, not the other way around so its up to the bitch owner to travel.

exaisle

If you think about it, it's always the female that travels to the male (same with horses) so there's just one trip there, and one trip back, otherwise the male would be travelling all over the place...

stevoman

True, but in this case the dog is a mile away and I have full access to pick him up and leave back etc. What would your opinions be though on the bitch being out of joint if a dog invades her space so to speak?

Knine

It is the norm to bring the bitch to the dog but as long as the stud dog is experienced, he should still work well at your house provided there is no other dogs there to distract him.

As long as your bitch is at the right time for mating, she will be generally happy to see an entire male!

It is best not to try it with a novice dog.

I know lots of breeders who have brought stud dogs to stay with them to mate their bitches.

andreac

I would be very concerned about a breeder that would allow this to be honest. I would never let my dog go anywhere as you dont know what could happen the stud dog if the owner wasnt around.
Is your bitch health tested as well as the stud dog?

Knine

Depends really on how well they know the person hoping to use their bitch.

In the cases I mentioned, these are UK Champions taken in from the UK for a few weeks to breed with bitches here. All very reputable people.

I wouldnt be too sure about the situation the OP mentions though as he is looking for information on breeding dogs so I certainly wouldnt be lending him a stud dog!

And absolultely all health tests should have been done on both dogs.

stevoman

Well the dog is owned by a relation so trust isn't an issue. I've been training gundogs for a few years now and this is the first bitch I have owned that I would deem worth breeding and the stud dog I know well as I have trained him myself and worked him and he has exactly the qualities I'm looking to add to start a line of my own.

And yes I'm always open to advice and opinions. Everyday is a schoolday.

portgirl123

stevoman wrote: »

Well the dog is owned by a relation so trust isn't an issue. I've been training gundogs for a few years now and this is the first bitch I have owned that I would deem worth breeding and the stud dog I know well as I have trained him myself and worked him and he has exactly the qualities I'm looking to add to start a line of my own.

And yes I'm always open to advice and opinions. Everyday is a schoolday.

while they both might be lovely dogs and have the qualities that your looking for, have they both been health tested?

stevoman

portgirl123 wrote: »

stevoman wrote: »

Well the dog is owned by a relation so trust isn't an issue. I've been training gundogs for a few years now and this is the first bitch I have owned that I would deem worth breeding and the stud dog I know well as I have trained him myself and worked him and he has exactly the qualities I'm looking to add to start a line of my own.

And yes I'm always open to advice and opinions. Everyday is a schoolday.

while they both might be lovely dogs and have the qualities that your looking for, have they both been health tested?

Yep

Knine

I could be all day here trying to give advice so to sum it all up, the best advice I can give you is to go out and buy a copy of the book - "The book of the Bitch" by J.M. Evans and Kay White.

This book is excellent for anyone interested in breeding. It goes into all aspects of breeding in detail. It is well worth buying.

Since you have not mentioned what gundog breed you have, then maybe look up the breed to see what specific tests they need for example lots of setters and retrievers should be hip scored and elbow scored. Health tests involve Certs and detailed tests. This is different from being checked out physcially by a vet.

Also bear in mind that some gundog breeds have big litters. As your stock seems very work orientated, they may not be suitable for the average pet home. Will you be able to get decent homes for all the puppies?

Best of luck and everyone has to start somewhere. I strongly recommend you do as much research as you can. Have you ever thought of taking part in field trials so you may get some qualifications for your dogs?

stevoman

I will definitely check that book out. It's springer spaniels that I train. The pups won't actually be going to pet homes. I'm going to keep back two pups from the litter myself hopefully for training upin the future, it's a labour of love! The other pups will all be given away togood happy working homes, where they will all work as gundogs, so that's all taken care of already.

To be honest I have had field trial dogs and worked with them but they trials only last 15 to 20 minutes a go so trialling dogs aren't actually much good for rough shooting. What is ideal is large boned dogs like the old springer type. Capable of hunting 3 to 4 hours happily. Soft mouths, biddable, not giving tongue, careful retrievers and absolutely no nervousness or shyness in them. Both bitch and sire have exactly what I think may produce good workers so that's why I'm going ahead with it. I don't mind footing the costs myself as I'm more interested in improving a line of rough shooting springers than trying to make money from them.

Knine

I have bred dogs myself that were used for rough shooting - Italian Spinoni even though I don't hunt myself. Some of their descendents are now doing field trials and doing very well against the other traditional HPR's.:D I'm more of a bunny hugger than a hunter!

No matter how good a dog looks I do believe that dogs bred should be fit for their original purpose so I reckon you are already half way there.

Best of luck!

stevoman

Lol the sire I have chosen is as ugly as sin, but demon at his job. As I say to people about working dogs, if you want a pretty picture go buy a postcard! Ha