Advice on timing of breeding

chuckanut · Post by **chuckanut** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 8:00 am

I have a 3 year old GSP that I was hoping to breed this spring. She came in season yesterday and I was crunching the numbers and it looks like if I breed her this cycle then the pups will be weaned around the second week of Aug. Problem is she was supposed to go to the trainer for 2 months in Aug. and Sept. There is no other time to get her to the trainer and I want her to be ready for the fall hunting/field trial season. If I wait until her next cycle it would likely be in Jan. which would screw up part of hunting season and my whole spring trial season. Not sure what to do... any advice?

PntrRookie · Post by **PntrRookie** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 8:09 am

chuckanut wrote:...There is no other time to get her to the trainer... any advice?

If this is truly the case I would not breed her now and get her in for training. JMO

reba · Post by **reba** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 8:49 am

WHY do you want to breed her?

RoostersMom · Post by **RoostersMom** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 9:29 am

I would skip the breeding and concentrate on the training and trialing. Once she's proven in the field, then look into breeding her.

dog dr · Post by **dog dr** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 9:47 am

Oh for crying out loud, if the man wants to breed his dog, let him do it. He came here asking for advice on when and how, not to be looked down our noses at and questioned to determine if he and his dog will be allowed into the "bird dog breeder" club. sheesh :roll:

To the OP: basically you need to decide which is more important to you - having pups or hunting/training?

rinker · Post by **rinker** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 10:14 am

[quoteOh for crying out loud, if the man wants to breed his dog, let him do it. He came here asking for advice on when and how, not to be looked down our noses at and questioned to determine if he and his dog will be allowed into the "bird dog breeder" club. sheesh :roll:

To the OP: basically you need to decide which is more important to you - having pups or hunting/training?][/quote]

+1

Post by **ezzy333** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 11:14 am

Thank you Doc.

Ezzy

Post by **ezzy333** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 11:19 am

RoostersMom wrote:I would skip the breeding and concentrate on the training and trialing. Once she's proven in the field, then look into breeding her.

Sounds like she is proven in the field. There are a thousand different reasons someone wants to breed their female and one is about as good as the rest of them.

I think you could possibly get by with breeding her now and still be able to do the rest of your agenda but you would be cutting it close. remember Mom doesn't have to be with the pups till they are eight weeks old.

Ezzy

chuckanut · Post by **chuckanut** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 12:27 pm

Thanks folks. Just to clear things up, IMO she is a proven dog. She placed in almost every derby I entered her in and two out three broke dog stakes. I've also hunted over her the past two seasons and she's one heck of a little bird dog. I want to breed her because a) I really want a pup out of her and I'd rather do it while she's young so she bounces back quicker (this is probably going to be a one time deal) and b) a friend of mine has a real nice titled stud dog that will be a nice outcross and he wants to keep a pup as well (matter of fact, I've got 4 pups spoken for and the breeding hasn't even happened yet). Anyway, thanks for the advice. After a morning on the phone trying to figure this all out it looks like we'll go ahead. If we wean completely at between 5-6 weeks she'll still get 6 weeks with the trainer which is a good amount of time running on wild birds and getting back in shape before the season starts. Cross your fingers for me and thanks again!

SCT · Post by **SCT** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 1:24 pm

Good luck!

RoostersMom · Post by **RoostersMom** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 2:01 pm

Good luck with her - it just sounded to me like you didn't have enough of a window in there to do all you wanted to do - especially if you wanted the trainer and the field trialing this fall. It does sound like she's a very nice dog, I didn't see that she had done so well in previous venues - figured at her young age, you might not have a good idea of what she had to offer - seems like I was wrong on that subject. Good luck with the breeding.

MHWH · Post by **MHWH** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 4:30 pm

If she is in season now, and you breed her, with a gestation period of 63 days, she would have the pups
late in June, right? Or am I missing something? Never bred dogs so I am interested, not trying to second
guess anyone here.

Mike

MHWH · Post by **MHWH** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 4:32 pm

Oops completely did not think of weaning the pups, I said I have
never bred pups. Sorry.

Mike

will-kelly · Post by **will-kelly** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 5:46 pm

Summer's are much easier to whelp and care for the pups in my opinion. You need to get the puppies socialized and outside. This past winter in the North East would have been very hard on puppies.

I just ran into the same issue. I went with breeding now. Pups should be out of the house by the end of August. Not as much training in late summer but hunting season and fall trials should not be affected.

Good luck.

cjhills · Post by **cjhills** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 6:09 pm

Keep her on a good exercise program during gestation and nursing and she will hardly miss a beat. She will consume huge amounts of food.
And by the time the pups are a month old she can handle a good amount of exercise. I run my bitches some what right until they whelp. It makes whelping easy and they recover quickly.............................Cj

Firelight · Post by **Firelight** » Sun Apr 27, 2014 7:54 am

Another good reason to breed her now is that, who knows, maybe in another couple of years these pups will be rock stars and you will be glad that she's young enough to get another litter from her. I also have a dog I've been waiting to breed and like yours, she came in heat at just about the last week that I would have bred her to hopefully not interfere with our active season which starts Sept 1. Cutting it close but I think you'll be okay as so should I. Good luck with your litter.

chuckanut · Post by **chuckanut** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 10:41 am

Mike,
If she breeds on day 9-11 (standard from what I understand) that should put conception around the 2-5th of May so whelping should be right around the first week of July. So ya, you're pretty close. Thanks all for your replies. Going to drop her off at the stud's kennel in the next couple of days. Never done this before and trying to decide if I'm excited or terrified.

chuckanut · Post by **chuckanut** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 11:27 am

So for those of you who have some experience doing this I have a couple questions regarding conditioning a pregnant female.
1) How long after the breeding takes place should I wait to exercise her?
2) How often and how much exercise is safe?
3) Is there any time during the pregnancy that I should stop exercising her?

I'm going to discuss this with my vet eventually but I thought I'd ask you all to get a ballpark as to what I can be expecting. Thanks again.

Vonzeppelinkennels · Post by **Vonzeppelinkennels** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 12:10 pm

You can start exercising her imeddiatley after breeding but should probably wait until she goes out of season so you don't have to worry about another stud dog.
As long as she is not acting sickly & wants to excersise let her,my FC female ran an HR Ch trial 2 1/2 wks before whelping her litter.I saw an E Setter win a NSTRA trial about 3 days before giving birth all healthy pups & easy whelp.
I think she will let you know when it's time to stop if at all.

Good Luck!

Fun dog · Post by **Fun dog** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 2:28 pm

Run her like normal. She will probably start slowing down around 5 or 6 weeks. You can and should still get her out, but just expect her to run slower and let her move at her own speed.

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