Dog Breeding 101

Breeding just once will cost you thousands of dollars. I wish I was kidding.

Your dog should be 18 months or older to bear puppies. Any younger, it will interfere with the mom's growth.

Your dog must be cleared for everything. And your regular veterinarian cannot do it for you. You must see a specialist which is expensive. You do not want to breed a litter with health problems. It will bite you in the butt in the end and cost you a lot of money. Imagine having angry customers who wants to sue you because you gave them a sick puppy? Not good.

If you don't know how to handle newborn puppies, you will be in shock how much work it is. You can even lose puppies at birth if you don't even know how to revive them and bring them back to life. Yes it happens all of the time. Not to mention, what if one puppy doesn't nurse? You can't go to work and leave it alone. You have to be with it all of the time, nursing it yourself, every 2-3 hours. Can you handle that? Then the clean up when the puppies start eating solid food. You're in for a treat. Those puppies poop all day long. ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT LONG. You will be constantly cleaning up after them. And if you don't, you will have dirty puppies and a house that stinks.

If you only know that your dog's parents are such a good boy and a good girl, that's a bad sign. Were they even cleared? What kind of faults did they have in their lineage? You would be unknowingly breed a dog with serious genetic and physical problems as well as temperament problems. You don't know!

If you have your own stud and you don't know what you are doing, you can accidentally let your stud hurt himself badly while mating. If he pulls away too hard, too much, he can damage his own penis and cost you a hefty vet bill and possibly a newly neutered male. The female also can be hurt if the male is too rough and cause injuries to her uterus. Again, that would cost you.

Puppies can die at birth if it arrives lifeless and not moving. If you don't know how to revive and save its life, you shouldn't really breed. I personally have had to do emergency care on my newborn puppies to help save their life. A puppy can die if the mother smothers it and you are not there sleeping next to the pen to keep an eye on them for the first few weeks. If you can't do this, don't breed. If you are not vigilant enough and you bring parvo by accident into your house, your entire litter could die. Each puppy would cost you $2000 to treat. If you don't have a germ preventative plan in place, please don't breed.

What if a puppy falls ill? Can you afford to take it to the ER and save its life which would cost you thousands of dollars? What if your mom falls ill? The same thing could happen. But what if the worse happens and your mom dies? Yes it can happen. Moms do die during c-sections or from sepsis caused by an infected uterus. You would have to nurse the entire litter until they are old enough to eat solid food which is 3, 4 weeks old. You would have to nurse each puppy every 2, 3 hours. You will not earn any sleep for a long while. Can you afford to pay a huge vet bill if this happens?

What if a client says they don't want the puppy anymore? It's too unruly or something's wrong with it. Or maybe just not keep it at all. Can you take it back? If you truly care about the puppies, you would do that. If not, please don't breed.

Many breeders nowadays do not give breeding rights to their puppy buyers unless they think the dog is breeding quality. You usually have to pay more to get breeding rights. Did you get them? If yes and you breed your dog anyway, you could have your dog taken away and sued for tens of thousands of dollars. Yes it does happen. You will be caught. The breeding world is very tightly knit and we watch out for each other.

Have you gotten your dog health certification from the OFA, CERF and DNA companies? Your dog must have its hips, elbows, heart, patellas, eyes certified. Your regular veterinarian cannot do that for you. You must see a specialist.

Health Testing per dog:

Hips & Elbows - $500 per dog

Eyes - $40 per dog

Patellas - $35 per dog

Hearts - $250 with Echocardiogram, which is the best testing for hearts

DNA -$200 per dog

If you don't have your own stud, it would cost you $1000-$3000 to pay to have your female naturally  inseminated. And it's not always successful.  Artificial Insemination costs would be $200-300 on top of the Stud Fee, not including shipping and miscellaneous.

Not to mention, you should have Brucellosis testing to make sure your dog and the stud dog is clear of this disease, otherwise your dog would lose the entire litter before it's even born. To test a dog for this would cost you around $100.

Whelping Expenses:

X-Rays - $200

C-Sections - $2000 on average

Whelping Pen -$200

Heating Pad - $50

Puppy Pen - $200

Puppy Food For Mom: $50 per week

Not to mention equipment for struggling newborns like milk replacer, tube feedings, and of course vet care expenses on top of that.

Puppy Vet Expenses:

Litter Shots - $70-$100 per pup

Microchip - $40 per pup 

Puppy Expenses:

Puppy Food - $50 per week

Potty Training Expenses:

Crates - $25 per puppy

Litter Pans - $25-$100 depending on size of the litter

Litter - $15 per bag for Alfalfa pellets that lasts only  a week or less.