How to Make a Puppy!: A Practical Guide for Dog Breeders with 100+ Illustrations.

By Sy Guth

Dog breeding is a wonderful and fulfilling activity. The aim of this book is to aid the novice dog breeder in establishing a methodology based on best practices and common sense to ensure the delivery and rearing of healthy puppies. The book covers the basic aspects of dog breeding from designing a kennel to a detailed description on whelping puppies to preparing weaning formulas to choosing a puppy to breed on from; vetting puppy buyers; and case lessons based on the author's own experiences.

The book also presents the basics of coefficient of inbreeding; reproduction cycle and mating; record keeping; and equipment helpful in breeding dogs. The book is well illustrated to enable an easy understanding of the concepts.

The reader will find this book a caring approach to breeding dogs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Sep 4, 2008
• ISBN: 9781466994904

Sy Guth

Sy approaches dog breeding in a unique manner. Having worked as a Practice Partner for a billion dollar corporation, the author weaves her project management and root analysis experience into this very different area of managing animal life. Couple this with the knowledge she gleaned from her friend and long time dog breeding mentor, Mrs Margaret Evans. Mrs Evans bred dogs for 54 years under the Vanrose affix, first in the UK and then in New Zealand. Margaret's sage advice appears throughout the book and Sy's breeding techniques closely reflect those of Mrs Evans. Having first bred German Shepherds in California in 1970, there was a long pause during her working years before Sy had the opportunity to start her life long passion of dog breeding. Sy breeds Golden Retrievers under the Lorgair affix and although a late starter to dedicated dog breeding, she has whelped and reared over 100 puppies. Since childhood, Sy has always been in the company of dogs and has a great respect for her dog's intelligence and loving natures.

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HOW TO MAKE A PUPPY, A Practical Guide for Dog Breeders with 100+ Illustrations.

Pre-registration of copyright filed with United States Copyright Office,

Library of Congress on 17 August 2007, No. PRE000000722.

Registration of copyright filed with United States Copyright Office,

Library of Congress on 13 March 2008, TXu 1-572-238

All photographs by Sy Guth, except as noted. Photo 1-9 taken by show photographer on the day; Photos 5-4 to 5-7 taken by Darren Rigden; Photos 7-11, 7-12 taken by Anna Robinson; Photos 8-2 to 8-7 taken by student vet nurse, Kylie Beri.

All drawings and designs by Sy Guth, except where otherwise noted.

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© Copyright 2008, 2014 Sy Guth.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Any electronic form of this book must be obtained and paid for legally through publishing or retail outlets. This book may not be copied or given to friends or others without remuneration paid to the author.

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ISBN:

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Notes to My Bitch and Her Puppies . . . 2004

Breed Standard

Know What Your Breeding is Trying to Achieve

Coefficient of Inbreeding

Line Breeding versus Outcross Breeding

Breeding Plan

Sample Breed Standards

New Zealand Kennel Club Breed Standard for Golden Retrievers

The Kennel Club (UK) Breed Standard for Golden Retrievers

The American Kennel Club Breed Standard for Golden Retrievers

Keeping Records

Kennel Design for Breeding Dogs

Maintaining Both Dogs and Bitches in a Kennel Setting

Objective of a Well-Designed Kennel

Designing a Kennel

Kennel Plans and Details

Logistics of Puppy Runs and Puppy Exercise Area

Working With What You Have

Breeding Equipment

Whelping Box

Whelping Blankets

Heat Lamp

Whelping Tools

Emergency Car Puppy Carrier

Baby Monitors

Whelping Check List

Weaning Dishes

Puppy Pens

Puppy Runs and Exercise Areas

Crate Training

Travel Crates

Reproduction and Mating

The ABCs of Female and Male Canine Sexual Anatomy

Sexual Terminology

Ovarian Cycle of a Bitch

When to Mate

Natural Mating

Setting the Stage for a Mating

How to Mate a Dog to a Bitch

Ties

After Tie Release

Fresh Semen Using Artificial Insemination (AI) Method

Chilled Semen

Frozen Semen

Dogs with Built in Radar Ovulation Detectors

Using the Draminski Ovulation Detector

Sending Your Bitch Off to Be Mated

Nutrition for Dogs and Bitches

Maintaining Your Dogs in Top Health

Dysplasia and Natural Vitamin C

Dr Kruger Ultimate Supplements

What and When to Feed the Dam

From Start of Heat to Mating

During Pregnancy

During Whelp

Post Whelp to Start of Weaning

When Puppies are Being Weaned

Post Weaning

Pregnancy

First Signs of Pregnancy

Highlights of Pregnancy Phase

Scan for Pups—What is It, How Safe, When to Scan

Using a Summit Foetal Doppler

Taking the Dam’s Temperature

Preparing for the Delivery of the Pups

Whelping Box

Signs 24 Hours Before Birth

Whelping

Setting Up the Whelping Area

What to Have on Hand for Whelping

Fading Puppy Syndrome / Why Heat Lamps are Vital

Litter Record Sheet

Notes for Anything Out of the Ordinary

Who Should Be in Attendance?

The Birth of the Puppies

Guideline for Birthing Times

Using Oxytocin

Have All the Puppies Been Born?

Letting the Dam Out to Relieve Herself

Changing the Whelping Box Blankets

Location of Whelping Box for First Three Weeks

Caesarean Section Births

Lessons Learned About Late Arrivals

When the Dam is in Trouble—Time to Call the Vet

Newborns to Eight Weeks

First Three Weeks of Life

Room Temperature

Constant Food for Dam

Changing and Washing Whelping Blankets

Cutting Puppy Nails

Weigh the Puppies

Marking Puppies

Nursing Puppies without the Dam

Worming Puppies

Once the Puppies Turn Three Weeks Old

The Day the Puppies Turn Four Weeks Old

Importance of Routines

Daily Routine

Puppy Run and Exercise Area Safety Check

Introducing the Puppy to New Things

Observing and Critiquing the Puppies

Vaccinations and Microchips

Weaning Puppies

First Stage Weaning

Overeating / Bloat

Preparing Weaning Foods

Some Tips on Preparing Weaning Foods

Introducing Goat’s Milk

First-Day Weaning

Weaning Schedule and Formulas

Leaving Home

Puppy Buyers / New Owners

Vetting Puppy Buyers

Scheduling Puppy Visitors & Socialisation Days

When to Send a Puppy to Their New Home

Shipping Puppies to Owners

Flying a Puppy within New Zealand

Flying a Puppy Internationally

Using a Sales and Purchase Contract

Providing Puppy Notes

Puppy Information Sheet

What Puppy Buyers Need to Bring When They Pick-Up the Puppy

Check List

Puppy Packages

Commercial Puppy Packages from Pet Food Distributors

Making up Your Own Puppy Packages

Early Neutering and Spaying

Early Spay / Neuter Behavioural Issues

Published Research on Early Spay / Neuter Issues

Orthopedic Affects of Early Spay / Neutering

Other Early Spay / Neuter Considerations

Long-Term Health Risks & Benefits Associated with Spray / Neuter in Dogs

Summary (Laura J. Sanborn article)

Conclusion

Appendices

Sample Contract of Sale

Costs to Breed a First Time Litter of Ten Puppies

Puppy Data Sheet

Calendar of Events

The Schaferhund Pregnancy & Lapdog Weaning Canine Calendar

Vanrose Natural Food Diet

Recommended Dog Food—Ingredient Lists

Canidae—All Life Stages Formula

Nutrience Junior Large Breed Puppy

Nutrience Senior Adult Large / Giant Breed

Butch Black Label (fresh dog roll)

Dr Kruger Ultimate Supplements

Bibliography

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the late Mrs Margaret Evans, Vanrose Golden Retrievers, for her generous patience in sharing her years of experience of breeding Golden Retrievers with me and for sending me Vanrose Maratyme Stardust (Dusty), through joint ownership, who in turn taught me more about the problems with breeding than I wanted to know. Bless you, dear Margaret, and I know there were many friends waiting for you at Rainbow Bridge.

By the way, I love helping you and am only too pleased that I can give the knowledge that I have gained over the last 54 years to help you. It kind of keeps me in touch, so to speak.

Margaret Evans, 2002

"Experience without theory is blind,

but theory without experience is mere intellectual play."

                                                Immanuel Kant

With Thanks

I would like to thank Anna, Cherry, and David for their assistance in proof reading and to the many people who gave their permission to include articles, illustrations, and quotes.

Introduction

Nothing puts as big a smile on my face as having a litter of puppies. Puppies are one of nature’s wonders. This book is written from my notes, photographs, illustrations, and journals on how I breed Golden Retriever puppies and contains over a hundred illustrations. The book is intended to aid first time breeders by providing a common sense platform of best practice procedures for dog breeding. Breeding that first litter can be daunting. It is expected that the first time dog breeder, will in time, develop a methodology that best adapts to their situation and needs.

I would like to emphasis a point early on about the use of the words NORMAL and NORMALLY. These words are used throughout the book and the reader should take into account my definition of these words. Normal means the highest frequency of an occurrence throughout the canine population. Normal does not guarantee either certainty or the absolute. It is important to keep in mind that every bitch and dog are different and the term normal should be interpreted as a guideline.

I am not a veterinarian or animal behaviourist or animal nutritionist. I am just a common sense sort of person who has been around dogs all my life and reads their behaviour well. Through-out my life, I have learned a great deal about dogs from owning them and further about breeding them from my good friend and mentor, Margaret Evans, of Vanrose Golden Retrievers. Margaret bred dogs for over 54 years and passed away in March 2007. Margaret coached me and patiently answered all my questions and offered advice on how to breed Golden Retrievers. Much of the advice Margaret offered to me, I have included in the book along with some of the content of her many e-mails to me. The quotes from the e-mails will be found in the form of boxed quotes throughout the book with her initials ME at the end of the quote.

My approach to dog breeding is also greatly influenced by my experience as a certified Professional Project Manager and Practice Partner for a billion dollar company. The business experience provided years of best practice procedures and management of global multi-million dollar projects and, as such, I have a tendency to weave best practice and root analysis thinking into my everyday living experience. It is hard to leave it behind.

The information in this book applies to most breeds, but the examples have been based on Golden Retrievers. Some breeds of dogs are better at whelping by themselves than others. Moreover, let it be said, some Golden Retrievers prefer to do the whelping of their puppies by themselves. However, many Golden Retrievers need the reassurance and help of their owners or breeders when giving birth. I realise that not all breeds need to be whelped under these conditions. I do believe, however, that unless one supervises the birth of puppies, there is always the risk of the dam having a puppy become stuck in the womb or that her calcium levels will drop too low and the dam may possibly die as a result. Therefore, my practice of dog breeding is very much hands on and I attend to the dam throughout the whelping process. Many breeders may find this book too over protective of the whelping process. It is simply the way I do it because my bitches are my best friends and much-loved family members.

It is easy for experienced breeders to look at a book on breeding and say, well, that is common sense. The hard part was thinking of every little thing that happens and takes place in regards to breeding for inclusion in a book. I hope that I have remembered most of what takes place in breeding puppies and included it. There is much more that could have been said and many more topics that could have been covered. The subject of dog breeding is vast and those seekers of knowledge will find it an ever-changing and endless quest. This book started as a paper for a few people who had bought puppies from me and wanted to breed from them. As I started writing it, I received more questions from other people and in a short time, it developed into a full book. For the first time breeder, I hope it will be of help in having a successful first litter and taking some of the fear out of the unknown parts of the process of breeding. The experienced breeder probably does things differently. Most of us have our own way of doing things; however, the long-time breeder may find a new tip or two of interest.

The book can be used as a reference guide and enables the reader to find the information quickly in the relevant section without having to search backwards or forwards to locate it. For this reason, points that I have deemed to be important are repeated in one or more chapters. For instance, if the breeder is at the mating stage, they will probably read the reproduction and pregnancy chapters and then two months later come back to read or re—read the chapter on whelping.

The first litter of puppies I bred was when I was at university and owned a white German Shepherd named Shotzi. I had her mated to another white German Shepherd and, to be truthful, it was so many years ago that I do not even remember the mating event. However, time went on and I do remember fixing up a whelping box in the kitchen of my rental in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Northern California. One day I drove to San Jose State University to go to class and when I came home, there were five large puppies in the whelping box nursing on their mum and Shotzi had cleaned everything up. After having many Golden Retriever litters I look back and laugh at how naive I was and how easy Shotzi made the whole experience for me. All I had to do was keep feeding her fresh deli sauerkraut to get her to eat her dog food. Oh, what I did not know about dog breeding in 1970 would have filled this whole book! Therefore, if your breed of dog is one of those that just gets on with it, appreciate how blessed you are. However, if your breed of dog is a Golden Retriever or other breed that needs your help to whelp a litter of puppies, you will want to read this book.

I first became acquainted with Golden Retrievers over 40 years ago through a Golden Retriever named Rufus that was owned by some cousins who bought him from a veterinarian near Willits, California, in the late 1960s. Rufus was a grandson of Dual CH David of Westley (UK) and I found him bright, beautiful, intelligent, and humorous and he started my love affair with Golden Retrievers. I owned several other breed of dogs between my introduction to Rufus and the time I came to own my first purebred Golden Retriever, Roxie, in 1979. Roxie was bred by the same vet as Rufus and as such was a granddaughter of Dual CH David of Westley. She was a beautiful bitch, but was three years old when she came to me and had been ignored and neglected and took awhile to settle in. Once I came to own Roxie, I was hooked and brought more Golden Retrievers into my life from that moment onward.

I hope the reader finds as much enjoyment or more from their beloved dogs as I have over the years… truly man’s best friend.

Notes to My Bitch and Her Puppies . . . 2004

Dearest Nikita,

Your puppies are lovely. Thank you for making such beautiful bundles of joy. However, in the future, could you please have litters in numbers countable by 2s or 3s. Do not have litters with 5, 11, or 13 puppies, as they are too hard to count when checking that all are accounted for. Thank you.

To the wee bundles of joy… .

Racing to surround my feet with your wee bodies will not get your meals to you faster. It will slow the meals down by the length of time you spend disabling me from walking.

When waiting for your gruel to be poured into bowls, please note the following:

•    Do not crowd around the bowl making it impossible to pour the gruel into the bowl.

•    When faced with an empty bowl waiting to be filled, do not stand in the middle of it.

•    Do not stand on the other side of a wire fence crying for your food when you can easily walk through an open gate to get to it.

Do not start crying in the morning to be let out when the robins start singing and it is still dark outside. We get up when I say so.

Likewise, we go to bed when I say so.

Sleeping through the night without crying is a great virtue—try it. That way I will not jump out of my skin when the baby monitor at the head of the bed shrills unexpectedly.

Crying once in the middle of the night, setting off the baby monitor, and then going right back to sleep is not on—stop it.

Carefully placing your poo on a main walkway may seem like a fun game to you—it is not to me.

Do not try to bite off or chew the male jewels of the boys in the litter—they are meant to go with the boys at the time of sale to their new owner.

You do not need to examine what comes out your back-end. It is basically the same format as what went in the front-end.

And the last bit of advice—Be good, learn quickly the things people try to teach you and wag your tail a lot. Do not dig holes, eat things you should not and bark just because it seems like fun. This will be repaid with lots of love and hugs from your new owners.

Breed Standard

Chapter 1 -

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

Albert Einstein

Know What Your Breeding is Trying to Achieve

The foremost objective in breeding should be to improve the breed by breeding to a breed standard. In other words, if a bitch or a dog has a fault, do not breed it to another bitch or dog with the same fault, but rather try to find a partner that can improve on the existing fault. For instance, if a dog is weak in bend of stifle and rear assembly angulation, than breed to a dog strong in these areas. If your aim is to achieve a lower hip score and are breeding from a bitch with a high score, than breed to a dog with a total single digit hip score such as 3:3=6. According to Dr Willis in the UK, who has studied hip dysplasia for many decades, breeding a double-digit hip score dog to a single-digit dog should result in puppies with a three-point improvement to the breed average. In Golden Retrievers for example where the breed average is 20, breeding a bitch with a total hip score of 18 to a dog with a total hip score of 6, should result in puppies with hip scores of 15. For a more relaxed temperament, mate to a bulletproof dog. To strengthen certain traits without compromising on others, breed strength to strength such as natural retrieving abilities. First, know what you are trying to achieve with a mating, then select the dogs for the mating accordingly. Fig 1-6 to Fig 1-9

Every breed has its strong and weak traits, as well as known ailments. The most important trait in a Golden Retriever should be temperament. It should be biddable, steady, fun loving, intelligent and be gentle in nature. Conformation should be a secondary consideration to the temperament of the dog. The Golden Retriever weak traits are its proneness to hip dysplasia and eye cataracts, among some other ailments. If there are schemes that test for ailments in a breed, then the breeder should give serious thought to testing their breeding stock in accordance with the breed schemes available to them. They should know the temperament of the dogs they are breeding and understand their behaviour in order to understand the likely temperament and behaviour of the planned puppies.

My foundation dog caused me years of embarrassment because I failed to understand his behaviour. When he was with me on a lead, he used to growl at other dogs when we were at shows, even though he absolutely loved the shows and being shown. It was not until he was around five or six years old and I had someone else take him in the show ring that I noticed he did not growl around dogs when this other person was handling him in the ring. I tried it again with a few other handlers and found he never growled at other dogs when handled by someone else. Finally, I realised that he was protecting me and his way of doing this was to warn other dogs to stay away from me. This is far from being an aggressive dog by nature. His protectiveness for me was not mean spirited. In fact, I felt very comfortable leaving this dog with any puppy. It did not matter how annoying a puppy was, this dog would never correct the puppy, but instead fully tolerated having his ears teethed on and his toys taken away from him. An aggressive dog would not tolerate this type of treatment. I found the growling at other dogs embarrassing, but understanding the behaviour helped me to manage it. When I flew this dog to New Zealand after living in Scotland for a couple of years, the last thing I said to him at Glasgow Airport was take good care of the girls. He was being flown back with two bitches. The first thing the kennel manager in New Zealand said to me when I arrived in New Zealand three weeks later was he really watches out after the girls. Good boy!

"About breeding, yes I have done quite a lot of line breeding in the past, well in the early years in NZ I didn’t have a choice as there were not many Goldens here.

"The great Tom Horner (famous UK Judge and writer in the dog magazines) said years ago, if you breed mediocrity to mediocrity that’s all you’ll get. If you breed a superb specimen, with a fault not all, the progeny will carry the fault and that’s the way success lies.

"Very sound advice.

On paper the breeding you suggest should be very good, but it really does depend on the individual dog and bitch, what their good points are and what their bad points are. You don’t want the same faults in both animals obviously. You will have time to see what they are both like as you have to get eyes and hips done after they are a year old. I usually have hips done after they are 14 months of age, but get the eyes done first.

Cheers, Margaret (Margaret Evans)

Most important to improving breeding lines is to keep a pick puppy from each litter. Even if the puppy is only run on for a year or so, at least the breeder can observe how the puppy is developing as well as observing how closely the puppy comes to the breed standard. Most important, the breeder can observe the temperament of the puppy and note the positive and negative aspects.

Coefficient of Inbreeding

Knowing the behaviour of the dam and sire intended for breeding, would help to evaluate the behaviour traits that may be carried on from the breeding. But, what is the architecture involved and how does one achieve it? It may help to know the coefficient of inbreeding (COI) percentages and blood percentages when breeding. COI is not anywhere as exact as DNA testing will be in the future. Currently, DNA can now detect some diseases, but the mapping process is nowhere near complete at present. COI, coined by Sewell Wright in 1922, is the percentages of influence of ancestors in the two pedigrees of the dogs intending to be mated and is based on genetic probability not genetic certainty. The breeder can calculate percent contribution of repeat ancestors by multiplying the number of times each ancestor appears in each generation by the percentage for that generation and then add all the calculated percentage numbers contributed together. This can be done manually, but is tedious. The genetic contributions of ancestor percentages by generation is as follows: Fig 1-1

Fig 1-1

Looking at some repeat ancestors in a ten-generation pedigree can yield some interesting results. The following data is from the pedigree of my foundation dam and stud dog:

Ch Stanroph Sailor Boy - 1 x 3g = 12.5; 1 x 5g = 3.125;             Total = 15.75

Stanroph Shere Fantasy - 1 x 3g = 12.5; 1 x 4g = 6.25;              Total = 18.75

Stanroph Silent Tears - 2 x 4g = 12.5; 1x 5g = 3.125; 1 x 6g = 1.543;

                                                                           Total = 17.17

Ch Camrose Cabus Christopher - 6 x 6g = 9.258; 4 x 7g = 3.124; 14 x 8g = 5.474; 15 x 9g

= 2.925; 11 x 10g = 1.078;                                              Total = 21.86

This is only a minor portion of the repeat ancestors in the pedigree. However, this sampling shows how one ancestor who would not appear on a five-generation pedigree would have a blood percentage nearly as high as a grandparent. Ch Camrose Cabus Christopher appears 50 times in this ten-generation pedigree from the 6th generation to the 10th generation. There are 1024 ancestors in a ten-generation pedigree. Some of the factors that can influence how often ancestors repeat in a pedigree include whether the dog has been line bred; its diversity throughout the world; the length of time the breed has been in existence; and the number of dogs residing in the country.

Breedmate, database software for breeders, has a COI generator in the software program that will make this task easy, provided you have input ten generations of the dog’s ancestors. Golden Retriever owners, who own dogs registered in the UK, can use Standfastdata to produce COI temperature pedigrees for UK Golden Retrievers and allows for what if mating. The web address is www.standfastdata.co.nz. K9data (www.k9data.com) is another Golden Retriever