The American Beagler Forum

I have a really small bitch {"about 11 1/2"} that should be coming into heat soon. Im going to breed her to a 13" male. It makes me nervous because of her size. Has anyone had any problems? Or no problems at all when breeding a dog of this size?

Thanks

Craig

I bred 4 or 5 different 13 inch females years ago when i ran the class. I never had a problem. Would be helpful if you knew a bit of the two dogs your breeding ancestory. Mainly if there both from solid 13 inch litters. Goodluck..

Good question also interested in everyone's opinion.....I too have a small female that I think I would want to breed but already wondering if she is too small.

youll be ok

Your be fine just let nature take its course. However you could limit her feed to not allow the pups to be born fat as she will consume more food as it gets closer to having pups but just adjust her feed to enough needing and not allow her to over eat.

the size of the dog will not matter. what you need to do is, get you some calf milk repacer give it to the female it is nothing more thaan vitamins, minerals it will help her and make her give 3 times the milk that she normally would have. when the pups are born continue to give her this and when the pups start to eat on there own you can give this to them as well will help them grow and be healthy ad well. just sprinkle this over there feed, they will eat it right up. this will also help the female so that your pups dont drain her body weight down. start your female on this as soon as you breed to her. continue this till bout 3 weeks after she has weened the pups off of her. as for the pups you can give this to them till there bout 2 months old. then give them all the puppy chow they can handle until there 1 yr old. result, big strong nice healthy pups.

It has been my experiance that the height of the dog has some bearing on the whelping only to the point of her stature as well as that of the stud. The last little 11" female I bred was one that was fine boned and the stud was an average medium built dog with a blocky head. The female started to have the pups between the time I left for work and got home that afternoon. The very first pup was hung up and I could not get it out. Took her to the vet and he couldn't either so C-section had to be done. ALL 7 pups were dead. The vet said that this female was so finely built that her pelvic canal was not big enough and the pups head could not get through. I told him I loved her small size and he said that he would recommend not breeding her again due to her height but rather her very petite body structure although he didn't suggest spaying her.

My little female just whelped 3 pups last night. She is about 11" and small frame. Went to bed at 11pm woke up at 5am to 3 pups. She was bred to a good sized 13" male.

I always keep smaller females and my average litter size is 3. The most pups I ever had was 5 and 2 were born dead in that litter. All of my females are short coupled as well.

The last gyp I had whelped 5 litters over the course of 8 years and raised all but 3 pups. Never any complications.

I think there ares advantages to breeding them younger rather that starting at age 5 or 6.

The close linebreeding/inbreeding is a factor as well. Guys swear that has nothing to do with it, but they have a hell of a time whelping a litter without a vet.

A few years back I sold a teenager a nice 12" female.
He let her run loose and run rabbits all day.
The neighbor had a male rottweiler/lab mix.
Eventually it happened.
I saw the pups at 8 wks and they were nearly as big as their mother!

she'll be fine.

LPB

Thanks for the replies. Makes me feel more at ease.

I will add to my post above that was the only time I had trouble with a small female whelping pups. I too like them small but this female had a very small pelvic canal and I surely couldn;t tell it by looking at size or stature. I brought this up only to say that when dealing with dogs nothing is 100%. As I have stated before when dealing with them "when you least expect it, expect it."

I have a 11 inch bitch that just had pups se did fine had 5 and 3 lived and she was bread to a 15 dog

I would suggest only breeding her one time so that you know when to expect pups. When you breed a bitch 2-3 times over a week you really don’t know what day she took so you are guessing when she should pup. I would also start taking her temperature a couple times a day starting around day 58. When you see a change you will know she is starting to pup and can get her to the vet if she has any issues.