When do you retire a dog from breeding?

[Nhuskr]

I took my daughter to see Secretariat for her birthday. There was a statement in their about how mares throw their best foals when they are young, and the quality of foals goes down as the mare ages. I don't know if this is true or an old horseman's tale, but it got me wondering about dogs. At what point do you retire your bitch from your breeding program? Do pups born when a bitch is say 10 or 11 show a decrease in hunting ability, desire, etc? Obviously, this is an IMO type of post, so let's be nice.

Just curious,

Cheryl

[kninebirddog]

I think it is more the total over health of the female and the breeding program and how the pups are reared and trained

I bred my one female 5 times 5 different sires and I believe her last litter produced the best pups
My other female bred 4 times to the same sire Her first litter through to the last litter were pretty consistent in looks style and desire for birds

[bowhunter1221975]

i cant say in bird dog breeding programs but i would breed my hounds 4 to 5 times after that i would retire them IMO i think its to hard on them to welp more then that
Hope this helps

[ElhewPointer]

Youre correct. There is a correlation with the age of the sire and dam and quality of pups produced. It is the same with horse racing. I'll try to find the link, but Frank Thompson has done EXTENSIVE research regarding this.

[BigShooter]

In humans the old statistic was forty percent of babies born to women over forty had Down's Syndrome. Whether this statistic is still accurate & how well the rate of increase in birth defects from older human women ties to canines I do not know. Intuitively one would think the rate of puppy defects probably goes up with the dam's age never-the-less many excellent pups will still be born to older dams.

There have always been those that prefer using young dogs for best results when breeding. Bob Whele, a very successful breeder, preferred to use very young stud dogs.

[Vonzeppelinkennels]

I'm speaking from my experience only & know nothing about the scientific or medical facts.I bred my foundation bitch Ginger 3 times all to the same stud my foundation sire Ace.
The first time Ginger was bred she was 5,she had 8 or 9 pups one was born with an open chest cavity so never lived.Her second litter she was 6 1/2 had 8 or 9 again I think we lost 1 from that litter.
The last time I bred her she was 8 only 5 pups in this litter she raised all of them.All three litters were outstanding & I do believe the last litter was as good if not better then the first 2.
In fact I believe the W&L female in the last litter was the best of them all & I'm still kicking myself in the butt for letting her get away from me.
Wendy the female I kept from the second litter has produced 3 litters from 3 different sires all outstanding litters & if I could have put them all in trial homes she could have possibly been one of the Top Producing bitches of all times.

There has only been 2 pups from those 3 litters being trialed,Star from her first needs 2 points to finish & Fancy from her last litter who is making a big impression on a few trialers out West.
There was littermates from both those litters that could have been very competitive if given the chance.No pups in her second litter went to trial home but probably 3 should have been trialed.

I normally only breed a bitch 3 times & retire them at eight from breeding,but if started earlier & kept in good health see no reason why they couldn't have 4 or 5 litters & kept in the breeding program untill 9 or 10.
I would have to want a breeding pretty bad to breed them past 8 though myself.JMO

[Cajun Casey]

There is some new material out from vet reproductive specialists that say females should be bred before two years old for the best results healthwise for mom and pups. That's a kick in the teeth to OFA.