Puppy eaters

Naus has a good point. Traits get passed along. Eliminate the the bad ones, then breed for the good. Your dogs are what you want them to be. This is not my idea, but something I picked up from someone else and believe to be true. Puppy eaters, mange, curs, cold and any other negatives can be bred away from. Shit + Shit = Bigger Shit. Forgive my profanity. How many pups did ol' honebunch eat or miss spike, red baby etc. You can make or eliminate issues as you see fit.

 

I think this way about it as well. It would have to be a top 5% bitch to make me want to mess around with a puppy eater.

You mention Honeybunch and some others. Were those good dams/mothers? Like I said in a previous post, if some successful lines of dogs are also known for having bitches that are good mothers, it would just make sense to try to work with those, or at the minimum to try to bring the good with puppy blood into your own lines.

 

Just wanted to share my 0,1€.

We all agree that before breed, we all should be selective and pick the best dogs inside our breeding program. You check the performance to see if a dog represents his bloodline and then you breed dogs, hoping that parents pass the good traits to the offspring. (I know its more complex than that).

In this case, the test for a brood bitch, that has proven to perform as expected is breed herself. Then you see if shes a good mom or not, and even then, you get dogs that act unexperienced on his first litter but gain experience and turn to be good moms. And others that are naturally good moms, with good instict to protect and feed pups.

Also, enviorement is important because under stress most bitches will kill the pups, so thats another point to the equation.

When you breed a bitch and she turns to be a bad mom... what you do with pups? You let them die because the bitch is not a good mom? I think most of us, if we see this happening, we'll try to help them surviving and then analyze if that bitch deserves to be breed again.

And with the offspring... if they had a bad mom, does that mean the females will be bad mothers aswell?

For me, the mother is 50% and unless you know both familys carrys this bad trait (bad mothers), anything can happen, but if you dont breed them, you'll never know the result.

As i said few weeks ago in this topic, im not a breeder. I bought a pregnant bitch and she turned to be a bad mom, we bottlefeed them, 6 were born, the first one had injures and died and another born dead, 4 were the survivors and i kept the only female.

When i made this breeding with this female i knew that i might get a bad mom and was ready for everything, but my bitch turned to be a very good mom, pups are 4 weeks old and healthy, fat and active. She does all the cleaning LOL.

I dont plan to breed her again, but even in the case that she would not attend puppys as needed on her first litter. This might happen to unexperienced brood bitches.

So the question is, when a brood bitch is genetically a bad mom?

For me, i would need at least to do 2 litters to confirm she's not good at taking caring pups and that might pass to offspring, which is not good. Or if i know this problem is known, not only in the dam side, but in the sire's side. Because that would explain this behavior.

 

Those are good points.

 

im not breeding her any more shes too old. didnt breed her alot either but the bitch threw some good dogs hand down. i dont regret nursing the pups i had to nurse witch were only a few of the buckskin ones like i said earlier in the thread. i actually started breeding my rebel yell bitch instead of her a long time ago

 

thats what i was trying to say earlier in this thread. i crossed her out to some maverick and skull stuff and didnt have any problems with females coming from that

 

It all depends on what the owner is willing to put up with. Good brood bitches will pass that good trait along to a high percentage of their offspring. Bad brood bitches will do the same. It's up to their owner to decide what they are willing to tolerate.

Personally I wont tolerate anything but an good mother. In my case she must demonstrate she can successfully care for her litter on her first litter or I wont breed her again. I basically rate the brood bitches in 3 classes. 1, being perfect, which means they whelp, clean, account for and care each pup equally without stomping or injuring them in anyway. 2, doing all of the things listed in #1 but a little more recklessly. 3, raising the litter but needing some assistance in keeping up with the pups and an occasional stomping or laying on them.

If they cant do 1-3 their finished. I wont breed them again. Crappy mothers have whelped excellent dogs but good brood bitches will do the same. The difference is the good ones are a pleasure to own and the chances of their offspring being better mothers is higher.