Breeders, how much dog experience did you have before you started to breed?

I've owned a few dogs growing up, some purebred but most strays people dumped in the ditch. I currently live with four and won't have more than that although sometimes one of my past pups will stay for a few days while his/her owner is away. I've had dogs from the day I was born so 25, nearly 26, years. I've owned this breed for four years. I was drawn to them by a little shepherd mix puppy that was dumped outside my house when I was a kid. Still have her at my parents house. She's almost 13 years old. :) I have German Shepherd Dogs. All show in UKC conformation and are championed except the puppy (not old enough at only four months). I also like to go herding with them. Just took one for his HIC and will be taking another next month. I'm hoping to try out competitive obedience as well with the pup. My dogs are two years old at least and passed had a minimum of OFA hips and elbows and MDR1 before breeding. I won't breed a ***** until she is mentally mature. Riv ended up waiting until 3 1/2 because she was still too puppyish at 2 years old. Physically she could have had a litter but mentally, I don't think she'd have done a very good job of teaching them proper canine manners.

How many dogs did you own before you started to breed dogs? ~I own two-three dogs before i started breeding, but we spent two-three years studying/learning/experiencing before we started breeding Was/is the breed, you breed, the first purebred you ever owned? ~No the first purebred I owned was a Dalmatian How many years had you owned dogs before you took the plunge? ~Hmm 13 years or so, when we got our second weim thats when we started studying. What breed is it that you breed? ~Bulldogs and Weims primarily, I will have a litter or two out of the mini bull terrier I am getting. And are they working dogs or show dogs? ~Show dogs primarily, but I do work them a little. Edit- TD? lol edit- 2-3 years min, my youngest weim is 4 and will be bred when she finishes her CH. I know a dog that finished at 9 months so no thats not fully correct. Many dogs finish before 18 months, and vice versa many don't finish till later. Mine is not finished because she just needs majors and I don't have the time to show her as often as I did since I am in college.

My family has always owned dogs. I owned 6 dogs, mostly mixed breeds, as an adult before I got my first show girl (dogue de bordeaux)- two show males prior to that, one passed away very young and the other injured his spine at 8 months thus ending his show career and any breeding plans we had. I spent several years researching the breed before I bought my first one and maintained excellent relationships with the breeders who sold me the male dogs and we bought our female from one of them. We also met lots of people in the breed going to AKC shows (also where we found our stud) so we had plenty of people to mentor us. The breeder who sold us the bit** drove 6 hours after working an 8 hour shift to be there on her due date. She (the breeder) stayed for three days and helped us through an emergency c-section. If she had not been there to give advice, we likely would have lost the whole litter as the girl was not displaying any distress but pups were in trouble and she recognized the subtle signs that I likely would have missed. The last pup from our first litter leaves this weekend and I have to say, I need a break, but I have to start house breaking the one we are keeping. no rest for the weary. lol! It was a steep learning curve and I am going to ask the breeder to come back next time as I am still not 100% comfortable with the birthing process by myself. you can study and talk about it and ask every question, but until you actually go through it you have no idea what it really takes and I cannot stress how important it is to have someone who knows what they are doing help you out. Now, if I could get someone to come clean up the poo for 8 weeks, I'd be in good shape next time. lol! The mom was just two years old. We bred her about a month shy of her 2nd birthday, but she was health tested with OFA prelims and Penn-Hip evals. Heart, thyroid, eyes, etc. can be done before the age of 2. There are plenty of dogs that CH before they are two. Our girl has six points, but we are a fairly rare breed and live pretty far from most show sites, so we don't show much in the winter time because the travel is unpredictable and majors are hard to come by all times of the year. We hope to continue to show her, but we are well aware of how she measures up conformationally and that is the point of showing. The sire is a conformation CH and has consistently been in the top 10 for the breed (our girl was briefly in the top 20 when we first went full AKC).

i'm not a breeder. i think its neat that you what to breed dogs. allot of people want to breed dogs just to get money. the American Kennel Club always tells people that the breeder is trying to improve the breed. ask yourself why there are so many puppy mills. People don't care about the breed, just the money. No breeder should be going into breeding if that is all you want. when Disney made the movie 101 Dalmations---everyone wanted a dalmation. the result was allot of dalamations,that people knew nothing about,and the dogs end up in the dog pound. there are allot of unwanted dogs in dog pounds and humane societies, that people let or had their dogs breed. the thing you should be talking about is having your pet spayed or neutered. most purebreed dogs are not show quality. you may get one puppy out of a litter of 5, 6 or more pups, that is show quality. i hope you dcide to become a responsible pet owner no matter what you choose to do in your life.

I had one female before I started. Yes she was the first purebred. I have had dogs all my life. I have toy poodles, I started with one female, she had 2 litters in 2 years then I had her spayed. I then purchased a black toy and a black tiny toy. My friend has a male tiny toy. My last 2 are a year and a half old and I will breed them when they come in again. They will probably only have a couple of litters then be fixed. With the ecomony the way it is now, I only sell 'pet quality' with no papers. There are just to many families having to give up their pets because of lost jobs etc.