When you are raising dogs in order to breed them, you are going to need to decide when you should begin the breeding process. This is very important because you don’t want to breed dog when they are too young, and you also don’t want to wait too long.

There are some good rules to follow when you are deciding when to breed your dogs. First of all, keep in mind that you should be prepared for your dogs to not breed as you would like them to. Just because you have a male and a female doesn’t mean that they will breed correctly, and it doesn’t mean that they’ll produce the puppies that you want them to.

Remember if you have a male and a female dog that are living together, you will need to keep them apart during the heat cycles that you don’t want them to breed in. Your dogs will breed if they get the chance, because dogs don’t know that they are too young ,and they won’t understand if they have already been bred on their last heat cycle. Therefore, it is up to you to make sure that breeding only takes place when you want it to take place.

The first thing to think about is the age. Then, it is important to think about how often. Responsible breeders won’t breed their dogs on back to back heat cycles.

So, if your female dog has had a litter of puppies on one cycle, even if she had no problems and the litter was successful, you don’t want to breed her on the next one. Be sure that she is kept away from the male dog until you are ready to breed her again.

Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.

A responsible dog breeder will have a questionnaire for potential owners, and will also have a waiting list for them. This helps you to provide yourself with a good idea of what owners will be like and it allows you to approve them even before you have puppies.

If you haven’t already done so ,while you are waiting for your breeding stock to mature and be ready for breeding, it is a good time to develop a web page that you can use to find homes for your puppies. On the page, you should have information about who you are and what you are going to accomplish through breeding. You should also have a questionnaire.

Remember if someone doesn’t want to take the time to fill out the questionnaire about what kind of home they would provide, they aren’t going to take the time to provide your puppy with a good home, either. There are some great questions that you should ask on your questionnaire, so that you know for sure what type of home your puppy will have. Here are some sample questions to get you started.

• What is your personal information?
• What type of home do you have for your new puppy?
• What do you want to get from your new puppy?
• Have you read the breed standards?
• What types of things are important for your puppy to have?
• Do you want a male or female?
• Do you plan on breeding your puppy?
• Do you plan on showing your puppy?
• Where will your puppy sleep?
• What food will your puppy eat?
• Who will be responsible for taking care of your puppy?
• What type of life will your new puppy have?
• Will your puppy have an area in your home that is just for them?
• Will your puppy get enough exercise?
• Do you have children or do you intend to have them?
• Will you teach your children about the responsibilities of having a dog?
• Will you make sure that your children treat your puppy correctly?
• What will you do with your puppy while you are at work?
• Do you have a fenced in yard for your puppy to run in?
• What type of exercise will your puppy get?
• What type of training are you going to have for your new puppy?
• What will happen to your puppy if you are no longer able to take care of him?
• Would you allow us to come to your home and see where your puppy will be living?
• Do you plan on sticking to the breed standards for raising your puppy?
• What dogs have you owned in the past, and have you been happy with the breeds?
• Which dogs were you not happy with and why?
• Why do you want to own one of our puppies?
• What do you expect a puppy to provide you with?
• What will you give to your new puppy?

Providing a list of questions to your new owners will let them know what type of home you expect the new puppy to have. This is going to be important because it will help you see what type of people are applying to own your puppy. If they fill out the questions and send it back to you, you know that they are going to be responsible because they have taken the time to fill out the answers to the questions. You can also get a good idea of the type of home that they will provide and then you can approve them.

Once you have the questionnaire, you can begin to allow people to fill it out and

place them on waiting lists for your puppies. These should be lists that you will contact every so often. When you have a litter of puppies, you can allow people on the waiting list to have first pick at the puppies.

Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.

Once you have everything set up, you can begin to actually do the breeding process for your puppies. 

Again ,make sure that the dogs you are breeding are the correct age. You want to be sure that you have waited for the right amount of time, and that the dogs you are breeding are going to be at the prime condition for breeding.

Take your female and your male dog to the vet and make sure that they are ready to be bred. Have them checked out, and make sure that they are in the right health to breed. Get them up to date on their shots so that you know you will be breeding dogs that are healthy and will not have any shot problems to worry about.

Once your dogs have bred, you will need to treat your female as if she is pregnant. For the first four weeks, keep her on her regular diet, but make sure that she has access to food whenever she is hungry. Don’t get her too excited and allow her to do what she would like to do. Keep exercising her, however.

For the second eight weeks, switch your pregnant dog to puppy food. This will help her get the right nutrients. Don’t do this before the 5 th week, however, as her body needs to produce several things at the start of her pregnancy to be healthy – and as puppy food might not allow this to happen.

Let your mama dog do what she wants to do, and keep in mind that she might be moody or more loving than usual. Keep her with you and keep her exercising as well. This is very important to good development of puppies.

Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.

When it comes time to birth your puppies, there are a few things that you should know so that your puppies can be happy and healthy and that your mother dog will be safe.

First of all, keep track of the due date. Your vet can help you with this, and so can information regarding your specific breed.As the due date comes closer, be sure that you are gathering your supplies. Your mother dog should have a birthing box that she can go to. Make sure that this is in the room where you want your puppies to be born. It should be in a room that you go in often, like your bedroom – and if possible, it should be in the place where your mother dog sleeps at night. This will allow her to be comfortable with the puppies.

As it gets closer, put together a birthing kit for yourself.

• Clean rags
• Gloves, if you want them
• Iodine
• Scissors
• Eye dropper
• Infant nose and mouth cleaner
• q-tips
• a scale

Make sure that the mother is comfortable in her birthing box and then, wait. When the time gets close, you’ll be able to tell. Your mother dog will spend more time nesting in her box. As she goes into labor, she’ll usually sit up and pant.

You’ll be able to see the contractions that she is having in her body. Move her to the birthing box and then wait with her. Most mother dogs don’t like to have puppies alone if they have good relationships with their owners.

As the puppies begin to be born, you will have to decide whether or not you want to assist. Most of the time, nature can take its course, and the mother will deliver the puppies.

If the mother is laboring for more than an hour after you have seen the sac and the puppy has started to be born, you will want to call a vet to help you. The puppy might be stuck. Otherwise, you can gently guide the puppy out by pulling gently but firmly with a soft and damp rag. Try not to break the sac open while the puppy is still inside of the mother dog. If the sac does break, you’ll need to get the puppy out right away.

Once the puppy is out of the mother, she should break open the sac and lick the puppy’s face. If she doesn’t do this in a matter of moments, you can break open the sac using your fingernails or a scissors.

Present the puppy’s face to the mother and get her to lick it clean. You should hear the puppy begin to breathe. If the mother doesn’t lick the puppies face, you might need to clean it for her and clear the puppy’s nose and throat. You can do this by using the rag or the infant cleaner. Most of the time, the mother will clear the passages so the baby can breathe.

In between puppies, the mother should clean up most of the mess and should clean the baby. Try not to get in her way unless she is having problems with something. You can put the puppy onto a nipple while she does this. Healthy puppies should want to suck right away.

Most puppies will be born within a couple of hours of each other. If the mother dog is laboring and it has been more than a couple of hours between puppies, you should call a vet because there might be something wrong.

Once all of the puppies have been born and the mother is no longer laboring, you can weigh the puppies and change the bedding in the box. The mother will probably want to go outside to go to the bathroom. When she comes back, be sure that you put the puppies onto the nipples to eat.

Your main goal should be to assist the mother if she needs it. Check on them from time to time. It is always a good idea to move puppies closer to the mother if they have been moved, and to put them on a nipple so that they can eat.

There are some things to watch out for right away when it comes to puppies. You should seek vet help immediately if:

• A puppy doesn’t eat
• A puppy isn’t moving around
• A puppy is being pushed to the side by the mother
• A puppy is noisy.

Healthy puppies should:

• Stay mostly quiet
• Gain weight each day
• Be actively eating
• Breathe at a normal rate
• Seem content. 

Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer

!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.

For the next eight weeks, you are going to be in charge of making sure that the puppies are raised correctly. It is going to be your job to make sure that the puppies you are providing are properly socialized and healthy.

First of all, they should be taken to the vet sometime after they are born. However, you want to make sure that they don’t get too cold or too hot, so make sure that this isn’t right away. For the first few days, leave them with their mama and try not to bother them too much.

Continue to handle the puppies and to weigh them each day. Make sure that they are gaining weight, and if a puppy is not, seek the advice of your vet right away. When they are a few weeks old they should visit the vet just to make sure that they are healthy.

The puppies will be blind and deaf for several days after they are born. They should begin to hear you within a few days, and should open their eyes in about a week. Puppies will grown very quickly ,and will look different from one day to the next.

The best thing that you can do for the puppies is to make sure that you are present ,that you are holding them each day, and that the mother has good food, clean water, and plenty of exercise and love. This is the best way to make sure that the family is healthy.

As the puppies get older, they will open their eyes and begin to be able to walk around. This is a good time to star to introduce them to other people.

Because you are going to be finding homes for the puppies, make sure that you are socializing them to everything. In order to socialize a puppy to something, have them experience it.

• Keep them in a room with a TV or radio on.
• Have a ringing phone nearby.
• Have children hold them
• Have adults hold them.
• Allow them to walk and run on different surfaces
• Speak in loud voices and quiet ones
• Have animals (who can be trusted with puppies) meet them – cats, guinea pigs, etc
• Make sure they interact with the mamma dog and with other dogs that you might have.

There are some things, however, that you should not let your new puppies do.

• Don’t expose them to dogs other than your own until they have had their puppy shots.
• Don’t take them to the dog park until they have had puppy shots.
• Don’t let people handle them unless they have washed their hands.
• Don’t let the puppies get too cold or too hot.
• Keep them out of drafts and away from windows.
• Don’t get them overly excited
• Don’t keep them away from their mother for more than a few minutes as long as they are nursing.
• Don’t let them eat anything other than puppy food as they get old enough.

Raising puppies for the first 8 weeks can be interesting and time consuming. There are a few things that you will need to be sure that you start to do for the puppies so that you can be sure you are providing the people who buy your puppies with a good dog.

• Get them socialized to a collar and leash
• Take them for short walks
• Start to work on potty training
• Get them eating canned and solid puppy food, after their teeth come in, around 6 weeks.

Socialize, socialize, socialize!

Then, your puppies should be ready for their new homes!

Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.

Once you know how many puppies you have, and whether they are male or female, you will have some decisions to make as far as what you want to do with the puppies. Sometimes, you might want to keep one for yourself.

Many breeders will keep a female that they think is good for their program, and then bring in a new male later on to continue their program. You also might want to keep one for reasons other than breeding.

Remember, just because someone is on your waiting list does not mean that they’ll want a puppy , and it also does not mean that you owe them a puppy. If someone comes by and you don’t like them – if you don’t trust them or don’t like the way that they act around the puppy, there is no reason that you can’t say you aren’t going to give them a puppy. Remember, these are your puppies and your job is to make sure that they go to the best homes possible. Therefore, don’t be afraid to be picky.

After you have approved of homes and people have chosen their puppies, you can ask for a deposit to hold that particular puppy. Then, you can continue to raise the puppy until you feel that they are old enough to go to their new homes.

Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.

No matter what you decide for yourself, it is important to continue to train and socialize the dog while they are with you. By 8 or 10 weeks old, a puppy should be having a goo idea of what it means to go potty outside, and should be eating on their own. Then, you can feel free to have them go to their new homes. Just make sure that you feel ready and that you think the puppies are ready.

It is always going to be important to have contracts when you are dealing with puppies.

 You want to make sure that you have a good owner contract that you can refer to ,which will outline what the new owner should be doing with your dog. You might include things such as a puppy back system, where if the new owner breeds the dogs, you have the right to get a puppy back if you would like.

There are several things to include in puppy contracts.

• Puppy Back?
• What happens if an owner can’t keep the dog?
• Can the dog be shown?
• Does the dog need to be neutered/spayed?
• How should the dog be treated?
• Can the dog be kept outside or does it need to live inside?
• How much does the puppy cost?
• Is the breeder responsible for anything during the puppy’s life time?
• What is the new owner responsible for?

Creating a contract can help you make sure that you have enough information and can give you the peace of mind that you need to assure yourself that the puppy is going to be well taken care of.

The contract should be signed by all of the parties that are involved, and you want to be sure that you are notarizing the contract. Remember that no matter how nice the transaction might seem to be, there might be problems that develop, so a contract is always a good idea, no matter what.

Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.

Part of being a responsible owner is knowing also when not to breed your dogs. You don’t want to breed a dog too soon, but you also might need to make the decision not to breed the dog if she had a difficult pregnancy, had a hard litter, or had problems weaning or taking care of the puppies. A responsible breeder will know when to not breed again.

What To Breed For

There are several things that you want to breed for. When you are looking at the dogs that you hope to breed, and when you are making judgments about those dogs and deciding which ones to breed, you should look for several things.

Temperament – how the dog acts around you, around others, and around other animals or children.

Physical state:

• Colors
• Size
• Ear Shape
• Eye Shape, Color
• Coat Thickness
• Gait

Health

• Long life span
• Less of a chance of sicknesses

If your dog has these characteristics as called for in the breed standards, you might want to consider breeding them.

What To Breed Out 

There are also several things that you will want to breed out. This means that if you have a dog that exhibits these things, you’ll want to spay or neuter them and place them in a pet quality home.  

• Sickness
• Weak Joints or Knees
• Coats that are not sufficient for breed standards
• Improper Gait
• Colors or markings that don’t conform to breed standards
• Wrong shaped ears, eyes, or facial features
• Bad temperament
• Tendency towards shyness

If your dog has these things, you might want to consider not breeding them, so you don’t pass on the traits that you don’t want to pass on.

Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.