How many litters should a weim have and how often?

[Ocha]

May 1, 2014 at 12:09 pm

Shane,

At the beginning I also did not understand why it was so important that breeders do all the stuff they do. Initially it sounded “legalistic” to me when they were talking about all the pedigree, registration, tests, etc as it all sounded to me as related to rules. As I read and got more familiar with the dog world and after having a particularly difficult dog that came from a puppy mill, I thing i understand the basics now.

This is my most humble understanding of it: The whole thing about registration, showing, pedigree, genetics, etc is not just for the sake of it. By tracking all the family history they make sure they are breeding dogs that come from reputable family lines, meaning those dogs conform to the breed standards, have good temperaments, and have been extensively tested for any genetic health problems.

Most reputable breeders show their dogs in competitions and in that way, you know their dogs truly conform to the breed standards as many of them win a lot of those competitions (meaning they are “good” weimaraners, at least physically i guess but also you probably cannot have an aggressive dog going to all those shows so it tells you something about the overall aspects of the dog). The health tests I think speak for themselves. Good breeders will NEVER breed dogs that have any health issues as there is a high chance those problems will be transmitted to the puppies (even when some of the issues might not show up until later on in their lives). Temperament is a HUGE deal too and one of the reason a lot of dogs end up in shelters. A reputable breeder besides picking dogs that are healthy and conform to the breed, also will only breed those that do not show any signs of behavioral problems to try to minimize any chance of that in the puppies. Also, there are things you need to do from the time they are born to the time they go to their forever families such that the dogs are well socialized, etc. Experience breeders know all these details and make sure their puppies get well prepared to face the world.

I am sure there are many other considerations taken into account at the time of picking the dogs they will be breeding each time but as you can see it is not as simple as picking 2 dogs that look healthy and that seem to behave. Obviously there is a lot of research and time that goes into learning to become a good breeder (for a lot of them it is a family business so they learnt from their parents, and their parents from theirs, etc). I don’t think that means somebody cannot get into breeding but I do think they need to be trained and a lot of learning needs to go into it in order to do it right. Otherwise, even with good intentions you can’t never know how the puppies will turn out as they get older (behavioral, health issues, etc).

I am sorry for the hostility you have felt and I hope that if you still want to go this road, you go ahead and learn all the stuff, even get in contact with current breeders, such that you can be confident you are conforming to the proper ways of breeding. I am guessing it might take some time to be in good shape to actually do this right but if it is in your heart, I wish you all the best.