Mother Dog and her Newborns

[Dekka]

I too have heard the back to back is easier on their systems.

[HoundedByHounds]

I've heard that too...but that it is based on the idea that "in the wild" a bitch is pregnant every season until she is too old to carry...

I guess it's a matter of it I think my bitches, which cycle TWICE a year...greatly differeing from a "wild" canid which goes ONCE...is still "natural" enough to play by those rules. I personally...don't think mine are. They're thoroughly domesticated critters..so I go a cycle or even two...between.

[Dekka]

No I don't think it was really based on the wild. I remember reading about it in a journal. They did studies on the physiological effects of breeding back to back and skipping one or more heat. They found that in many cases there seemed to be faster recovery and better fertility (if I remember correctly)

As well there effects on heat cycles/breeding and ageing.. I can't remember enough to post about it. But those too seemed to point out that breeding (horses or dogs can't remember which one this was about) back to back and then retire was better.

[HoundedByHounds]

Horses make sense...they are pregnant a VERY long time, and also live longer. Dogs? Not so much...to me. The fact that my girls cycle twice a year...doesn't necessarily follow that I need to breed them that often.

My girls are all done by age 5-6 most times...and I can't see why I should speed that up any more when it's already quite early that they're retired.

[bubbatd]

Same here HBH ....

[FoxyWench]

with vixie me female chi, her first litter, she had absolutly no problem with me or my mother around her babies, BUT with others, for the first week she was very warey, and the other dogs couclnt go neer for 2 weeks without getting an ear full.
once the pups eyes started opening though she was happy for anyone to be neer them and play with them and look after them...she enjoyed the break.

she had to be emergency c-sectioned though because one pup didnt decsend and held the whole ordeal up, because chis are prone to issues during birth already (and id take every possible precaution to avoid it in the first place yet it still happens) i had her spayed at the same time which may or may not have effected her in terms of defensivness with the newborns.

theres nothing more terrifying than an emergency c-section to me...

[naturesgift]

"wilds" breed to promote survival of their pack. But even in the wild there are females that are not bred in the pack.