Singleton Litters?

crazedACD

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#21
From a reproductive health standpoint, singletons and small litters from natural breedings are a bit concerning, especially if it happens repeatedly. Except in toys, where it is considered normal. From a behavior standpoint, I do think people tend to worry a bit too much about it.
Agreed...the few times I've heard of one puppy being produced, there were ongoing reproductive issues with the bitch. Or two puppies would be born, one would die or have a defect. Rebreed and the dog wouldn't take, or aborted the litter. If the puppy produced is healthy and just going to be a pet...should be fine?
 

Shai

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#22
From a reproductive health standpoint, singletons and small litters from natural breedings are a bit concerning, especially if it happens repeatedly. Except in toys, where it is considered normal. From a behavior standpoint, I do think people tend to worry a bit too much about it.
Sure it would be a concern for the breed/breeders if say a retriever line routinely produced singletons. But the thread is regarding the behavior aspect, which is all I was addressing.
 

milos_mommy

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#23
As far as daycare - if you really trust the facility go for it, but lots of day cares end up with pushy dogs, employees don't know much about dog behavior, etc...and if the pup is iffy with other dogs to begin with (either fearful, or potentially aggressive) I think day care can make it worse.
 

Flyinsbt

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#24
Agreed...the few times I've heard of one puppy being produced, there were ongoing reproductive issues with the bitch. Or two puppies would be born, one would die or have a defect. Rebreed and the dog wouldn't take, or aborted the litter. If the puppy produced is healthy and just going to be a pet...should be fine?

I don't think litter size is always the responsibility of the bitch. My last litter, from which I got Pirate, was 3 pups, lost one in whelping. 3 isn't tiny for Staffords, but definitely on the smaller side. Sire of that litter had previously sired a 2 pup litter, his next 2 litters were also 2 or 3 pups. I think his last litter (he's sired 5) was actually a more moderate 4 or 5 pups. But four smaller litters in a row, on unrelated bitches, I would say that was on the sire.
 

Aleron

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#25
I don't think litter size is always the responsibility of the bitch. My last litter, from which I got Pirate, was 3 pups, lost one in whelping. 3 isn't tiny for Staffords, but definitely on the smaller side. Sire of that litter had previously sired a 2 pup litter, his next 2 litters were also 2 or 3 pups. I think his last litter (he's sired 5) was actually a more moderate 4 or 5 pups. But four smaller litters in a row, on unrelated bitches, I would say that was on the sire.
That is interesting. Have they ever had a sperm check done? I assume these were natural breedings? AIs especially from frozen, seem more likely to produce small litters and I wouldn't consider that an reproductive issue.

With natural breedings producing small litters, sometimes it is a temporary abnormality and when it's remedied the dog goes on to produce normal litters. Sometimes it is just overall lack of reproductive health and IME that does seem to be genetic. I know of a breeding that was repeated I believe 6 times. Found out that they were repeated so many times because the quality of the puppies was high but none of the litters had more than 3 puppies. I believe some of the offspring have had reproductive problems too. I guess that could be a reason this breeder doesn't want to keep a singleton?
 
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#26
My pom is a singleton. He is 2 years old now and has no behavioral issues. I actually took him at 6 weeks, I work at a vets office and I take him to work with me everyday. He has been overly socialized with people and other animals. All of us bring our dogs so he grew up with a Norwegian Elkhound, Am Staff, Boston, chorki, havanese and a dachshund. But I went overboard with the socializing 1 because he was a singleton and 2 because he is a pomeranian. I also started training him about a week after brought him home. However, many of the singleton puppies we see at work are all brats who have no boundaries and will bite you if you push them.
 

Flyinsbt

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#27
That is interesting. Have they ever had a sperm check done? I assume these were natural breedings? AIs especially from frozen, seem more likely to produce small litters and I wouldn't consider that an reproductive issue.

With natural breedings producing small litters, sometimes it is a temporary abnormality and when it's remedied the dog goes on to produce normal litters. Sometimes it is just overall lack of reproductive health and IME that does seem to be genetic. I know of a breeding that was repeated I believe 6 times. Found out that they were repeated so many times because the quality of the puppies was high but none of the litters had more than 3 puppies. I believe some of the offspring have had reproductive problems too. I guess that could be a reason this breeder doesn't want to keep a singleton?
These were natural breedings. It's possible that it was because of the stud's youth. At least, I was told by someone at the vet I had the repro work done at that a younger stud might produce smaller litters. (this was before the breeding was actually done). And it's a fact that his last litter was his biggest.

The breeding I did previously, with frozen semen, produced 6 puppies, which is a pretty good sized litter in Staffords, but as I mentioned, I lost 5 of them. That was most likely an issue with the dam. The survivor was the dam of this more recent litter, but I don't think there's any relation between the issues the first bitch had, and her daughter's relatively small litter.

I do kind of wish I'd done a repeat breeding, because what I got was so excellent. It would be interesting to see if a second litter would have been similarly small. But I chose not to breed my girl again.
 

Laurelin

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#28
I do think it's interesting that medium/big dog breed folks worry so much over singleton litters while toy breed folk are used to it and don't even raise an eyebrow.
I honestly did not know that larger breed people worry about singletons behaviorally speaking. Learn something new every day.

Even though Rose did not have siblings, she had the other house dogs to interact with. It's not like she was devoid of dog-dog interaction.
 

milos_mommy

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#29
People worry a lot about only human children, and they LOVE to project everything on to their dogs.
 

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