breeding my poodle

[sue528]

Hi All
I would like to breed my female poodle. How old does she have to be before I can breed her?
She will be a year old in 8/22/05 and has already gone through one heat last March.

[Pam]

Hi Sue and welcome to Pet Talk! It is nice to see another poodle person here! I would love to see and hear more about your girl! I don't know if you have ever bred a poodle before but there are so many things to consider. There are genetic strengths and weaknesses with this, and any, breed and there must be testing done on both parents to be sure that none of these weaknesses are passed on to any puppies.

Most of the folks here at Pet Talk are not big fans of breeders as many here do rescue. If breeding is done responsibly and by a fully informed and knowledgeable breeder that is another story. I belong to a poodle forum and there are some very knowledgeable folks there who can tell you all you want to know, and then some, about our wonderful poodle breed. If you would like info about them, please just PM me. In the meantime, please do stick around and let us get to know your poodle and don't be concerned if some of the comments are negative regarding breeding. Everyone here is very nice and just concerned that puppies are bred for the right reasons. I'll leave it to the others to explain what I am trying to say.

[lute]

WELCOME TO PT!!!

i advise you not to breed your dog unless you do conformation with her. the whole reason for breeding is to better the breed and unless you have a registered dog that is a good example of the breed you are just adding to the overpopulation of unwanted pups.

[*LabLoverKEB*]

Amen to what Lute said.

[Vette]

All thought i agree with what Lute said... i heard something about waiting at least 3 years before breeding... that way there it gives the dog a chacne to grow up. like letting the puppy be a puppy before it has puppies of its own...

sounds fair to me.



would love to see a picture of your Poodle!!!
i have a Poodle too.

[lute]

Originally posted by Vette
All thought i agree with what Lute said... i heard something about waiting at least 3 years before breeding... that way there it gives the dog a chacne to grow up. like letting the puppy be a puppy before it has puppies of its own...

that's right. the best age to breed is between 2 1/2-3yrs old.

if you insist on breeding your poodle then please make sure you do it right. contact poodle breeders and there are a couple people here that breed dogs that can give you plenty of information on breeding,welping, finding homes, etc.

[CagneyDog]

I personally think you should hold off on breeding her until you know all the neccesary information! If you don't know how old she has to be to breed her then maybe you should hold off and start researching more!!!

Please make sure you have homes for all of these pups, do not offer for them for free!

Can you afford to pay for the vet bills for the puppies? What if there was a problem with the birth? Would you know what to do?

[Giselle]

Before you breed, you must health test your dog (and, in this case, you will have to wait a couple years to get a good idea of what your bitch will be passing on to its offspring).

So, you'll need to test her eyes through OptiGen (optigen.com) and/or CERF (Canine Eye Registration Foundation -- www.vmdb.org/cerf.html).

Also, you'll need to test her hips through OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals -- www.offa.org).

If you can't do these bare minimums and/or if your Poodle happens to carry a genetic disease (bad hips and/or PRA), she should be spayed. Good Luck in your research and please consider spaying your Poodle. If your aim is to expand your doggy family by breeding your Poodle, then my suggestion is to go to your nearest animal shelter and adopt all the Poodles in the kennels

[sue528]

Thanks all for all your answers and concerns.
I did have my poodles checked out by my VET and they are both fine ( I have the male too). Actually, I used to breed poodles about 25 years ago with a friend of mine and we made a lot of people happy by supplying them with a great companion. Of course I have not had poodles for quite some time as my husabnd and son wanted to go with a bigger dog. So we've had Dobs and Rotties. Now my kids are grown and since I'm the one who takes care of the dogs, I decided to go back to my favorite breed, the Poodle. When I started to look for a poodle for myself, I had a hard time finding private breeders in my area and I will not by from puppy stores so It took me a while to get what I wanted. As soon as I did find the right puppies, I bought them. Now I have the same people who I sold to before asking me if I'm going to breed again. I am well aware of all the costs and responsibilities that go with breeding and trust me, these dogs get treated better than my husband sometimes! LOL......The thing is it's been 25 years since I did this so I do forget some things. I have done plenty of research and have bought every book I could fine but none of them say the exact age you should start to breed so I saw this website and just figured I ask.I don't know how to post a picture but I have a minature Apricot female (Fifi) and a toy male who's cream (Pierre). I understand about the unwanted dogs and asure all of you I will not be irresponsible when breeding since I love all animals too. Thanks for all your help! Talk to all soon.

[Pam]

Sue I am glad we didn't scare you away. I would love to hear more about your dogs and see some pictures if I may. I started out with poodles in 1970 (two toy apricots) then in 1984 got a silver mini and finally in 1986 got a black standard. When my last poodle passed away hubby told me "No more dogs because it is too hard when they pass away." Well, in 2001 I really missed running my fingers through poodle curls and found a breeder and went out and bought Bella, a white standard. In 2003 I found Ripley (black mini) in an animal shelter in terrible condition (matted, etc.). Long story short (is it too late for that?LOL! ) I am back to having poodles in my life. I understand what you are saying when you mention your *favorite breed." I share that view.

In order to post pictures you must first upload them to a photo sharing site on the web like Imagestation or Photobucket. If you get that far we'd all be glad to help you from there. It's not hard really - especially if I can do it!

What part of Pa. are you in? I grew up in suburban Philadelphia.

[sue528]

HI Pam
I live in a little town right outside of Philly called Croydon. As far as pictures, I guess I would have to buy a camera that does digital pictures first before I could down upload anything. I'll check it out and see what I can do. I see there are alot of people who discourage people fromm breeding since there are alot of unwanted animals out there and I hear what the're saying but I would not doing anything that would hurt any animal. My first 2 poodles (25 years ago)was a black toy named Pierre( can't seem to get away from that name)- LOL- and I also had a minature silver named Pepper! Now I have a toy (Pierre) who's beige and Fifi who's miniature and she's Apricot. Pierre will be 2 in Dec and Fifi will be on next month.
After listening to all of you , I will wait to mate them. Of course all the people who were expecting them will be disappointed but oh well, they'll have to wait. Great talking to you! Got to go right now but I'll be back later!

[wolfsoul]

Getting your dog checked out by the vet is not good enough -- she has to be health certified by certain foundations. Poodles need to be CERF tested and cardio tested (OFA). The vet's certification does not tell you whether or not your dog does not carry the specific genetic disorders found in the poodle. You could pass these traits on to the pups. Also, you should definatly not be breeding unless your dog is pedigreed. Being a dog groomer I hear horror stories quite often. One involved two people breeding their golden retrievers, only to find out later that the dogs were half brother and sister to a father with a terrible temperment. Seeing as it's a linebreeding, the pups of the brother and sister inhreited their gradsire's temperment. They were all aggressive, shy, etc. Your dog should also be involved in conformation, and something else that shows that your dog is a good example of the breed. Obedience, agility, flyball, etc. And then you must find a male that will not only have these qualifications as well, but be perfect for your dog. I hope you realise that breeding takes alot of time and dedication, and is very very very expensive. If you are willing to do all of these things in order to protect your breed, then good for you! Welcome to PT!

[KYS]

I love poodles.
2 days a ago when I was walking with my Aunt around
the neighborhood, I spotted a beautiful white standard
poodle. I thought she belonged to the people down
the block who own 2 of them.
I started coaxing her to follow me, when I man came
out from his garage. He had accidentally left his gate open.
Him and his wife had just adopted her 2 months prior.
He was so thankful, and begged us not to mention it
to his wife who had just drove up the driveway.
She would have killed him if she found out. lol
Happy ending.

If you do decide you want to breed, speak to your vet
about doing the x-rays and other tests that are needed.
He will need to take the x-rays a certain way and send them too
either the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals or one
other place that does it too. When the results come back
you will know if your two have good enough hips for breeding etc.

Per the agreement with Rocky's breeder, I had to have
my vet send Rocky's xrays to them.
Even though he was neutered his breeder not only wanted to keep records of her breeding pair but
the parents and all the off spring to keep track of generations
of breeding.

Welcome to Pet Talk,
I can't wait to see pictures of your two.

[Vette]

You dont have to have a digital camera,, as long as you have DVD ROM.

what you do is,, next time you take your film to get devloped,, you take it to Walmart and on that thingy that you fill out.. theres a little squar box that says (Put pictures on CD) if you check it.. they will do that for you..

then when you get home,, you put in your DVD ROM... and all your pictures will be on there.

then you can sign up with ImageShack or some type of photo stroage and upload the pictures off there.

[Giselle]

Oh, right, I forgot. OFA (which has been mentioned multiple times now) tests dogs' hips. KYS mentioned another place that tests hips for hip dysplasia. This would be PennHip: http://www.pennhip.org/

Sue, I'm glad you're taking this all in stride and have returned . However, I'm wondering why you're breeding a Toy to a Mini...? See, while we adore dogs due to their wonderful companionship, it is to my and many other's preferance that dogs be bred to either the conformational standard or used for working (herding, police work, etc.). So, my suggestion is to get both your pups into an AKC dog show and breed them to their own sizes.