Dog breeding
 

How old should a jip be before you first breed her? The wife and I were going to have our lab fixed, but some friends have a chocolate they want to breed. She's only four months, and someone said wait until her second " season ". Is this correct or should we wait longer?

I did Hershey on her second period.
Bout 9 months old.
2 of my friends have done the same with their labs.

I was worried about Hershey Bn immature and not taking care if her pups..... But she was great!!
Nursed em nonstop, super protective, laid with em or played with em if they weren't eating. She kept em clean and did a great job.
But Hershey is much more clam & we trained her to b very good. I guess it depends on each dog..... Kinda like people.
Some may b great parents at 24 years old..... Some may never.... Lol

Best of luck to ya with the breeding!!

Few tips
We bought 2 big play pools for hershey and the pups.
So we could move em back and forth when one needed to b cleaned.
Newspaper, newspaper , newspaper..... Gotta have news paper.
Also we put some cheap sheets in the pools with heating pads under em to keep em warm.

I ran / retrieved with Hershey every afternoon. So she stayed in shape and got some free/ fun time!!
Having all the puppies around the house was fun & hectic!!
We they became more mobile we got a portable cage that folded up for easy storage. It was about 8 ft around / 3 feet high and had a door for Hershey to walk thru. They stayed in there during the day and nite. we could let them outside & keep em contained, lol

I'll do it again someday......

Dogs, male/female should not be breed prior to two years of age and only then if all health clearances are good. Just because you have dogs does not mean they should be bread. Common dogs are a dime a dozen and most end up in hands of people that know zip about raising,training,or health requirements. Ask yourself this question, if she has TWELVE puppies do you have orders??? I can think of more reasons not to breed common dogs than anyone one on here can give me to breed them. If that makes me a know-it-all then so be it, PM me to discuss in detail.

Normal cycle is every six months.

No reason to breed unless your dogs have something extraordiary to add to the gene pool. 2 years minimum.

Re
 

Yea, that's what I expected.
Hershey first was 5 months, then 9.5 months.... Go figure.
Claire her puppy was 7 months b4 her first.

My cousin has a yellow lab that didn't start have her first till 10 months.

But all the books said expect 6 months & my vet said re same.

Agree 100%

Re
 

Hershey had 11 pups.
We had 5 people who wanted dogs prior to the breeding.
4 of those were to hunting families, 1 as family pet.
Then 3 were sold to salty cajun members. We kept the runt.
2 passed away soon after birth.

I agree with Raymond 100% also. Their us way more reasons not to breed then to breed. Please make sure your dog has all the Health clearances before you make this decision. Coming from a owner of a dog that has EIC you don't want to put this in the bloodline anymore than it is. Many people believe that if they have two good dogs then they should breed. This is one of the reasons why the breed has so many issues.

Dogs are not fully grown until two years of age. Bones,growth plates,ect are inhibited by the extra demands of puppies. What made your ***** so extraordinary at less than a year old? Did the pedigrees match up? Sometimes i see greatness in young dogs but it is generally only after spending 7 days a week with them actually training for many months. Every newspaper has backyard bread dogs forsale, no genetics no health cleareances and plenty of heartache for those looking for a deal. I have never had or wanted to deal with puppies and probably never will because I can buy what I want much cheaper than dealing with a litter. If done right, there ain't much money in after expenses so it is a negative in my book. Poorly bread and untrained dogs are a pet (no pun intended) Peeve of mine. Ask cajunforeman about health clearances and how much not getting them cost.

Hershey & Jake both have a good pedigree.
Jake is Awsome n the field, he was 2 when we bred him with Hershey. Jake is my bro n law dog.

Hershey dad has some field trial awards and her grandfather did as well.

At 5 months Hershey was retrieving with basic commands.
My friends saw her and Jake retrieving a few times and said they would like a puppy from Jake and Hershey.

It wasnt for profit, cause like u said after vet bills, and all the other cost there wasn't much profit.
I would never use breeding my dogs as a form of profit.

I did it to give my friends a good dog, that they can hunt with and have as a family companion.