Breeding Dogs

[protodon]

In my never ending search for border collies, I came with idea that maybe I could breed them. I've bred a different kinds of animals before and I like dogs the most so why now? That way I would always have some available and since I am in a border collie vacuum, puppies might not be so hard to sell. But I'd like to know about the cons of breeding dogs. I've never kept intact adult dogs before. All of my dogs have been neutered. I'd really like to hear about what a dog in heat is like. I know they require diapers but how often andwhat is their behavior like? I had a cat go into heat once right before she was spayed and I can tell you that I never want to have a cat go into heat again! I assume dogs can only be bred while they're in heat but will a boy try to breed a girl all year?

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

In my limited experience of rescuing unaltered dogs that show up on the doorstep:

Males will try and escape to find a female in heat. They will find ANY means necessary to get to that female. They can and will breed through the fencing.

Females become b.itches. Seriously.

I have found that unaltered animals are simply not as loving or as amiable as altered ones.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

Until recently I never had an altered dog before. My so-called "fixed" male humps all the females every chance he gets whether they are in season or not. However, my unaltered males never pay attention to the females that way unless one is coming into heat. One Dobie I had would not eat from the time his favorite lady came into heat until she finally went out. He would sit as close to where she was being kept as he could manage and he would cry softly under his breath for her for hours and hours. It was not loud enough to hear, but if you put your hand on his throat, you could feel the vibration. Unfortunately, she was a GSD and he was a Dobie, so he never got to have his heart's desire.

One thing to consider if you have more than one intact male is that they WILL fight when anyone is in season. During those times, I always had to keep the males separated. During the rest of the time, they worked together on a daily basis without a problem. Nor do my females fight among themselves UNLESS someone is coming "in".

Personality-wise I do not see any difference between fixed and unfixed. And working abilities and aggression levels seem to be determined more by bloodline than by sex.

HTH


Rusty

 

[lorieMN]

BC are NOT the breed to sell to others,they just arent the type of dog to fit into everyones lifestyle..they can be very hard to handle and tend to get into lots of trouble when left on their own to long..look into a BC rescue,you should be able to find what you are looking for..I am not against breeding at all,but really if you dont even know about a females heat cycles I think that breeding dogs is not the best choice for you,,

 

[KinderKorner]

Quote:

 

[Sunny the Hippie Chick]

I loved my Border Collie as a kid. But she did need lots of exercise.

My animals were usually always fixed.

*I have one female. Unaltered. She has never had pups. She is six years old. And she puts a capital B in the word witch.

*Other unaltered female has had pups. She is lovable and not mean.

*My unaltered male was so annoying. Always following the females around. Even when not in season. And whinning. And more whinning. Constant. Thats all you could hear in the house. It was even worse if one went into heat. He would whine louder and he would stop eatting. He never peed in the house unless one of the females was in heat. Then he would mark every where. No matter how good his training was. And when the females were in heat, he would pee on them too. It was a big mess. No more unaltered males with unaltered females at my house until I have a way bigger place so I can keep them appart if I want or need to..

*ETA having two unaltered females in the house often leads to dog fights. At least with my two gals.

 

[onthespot]

I agree with the other two. If you just wanted to make money, choose a smaller (not too small) low maintenance breed like bigger chihuahuas, rat terriers, some breed without too many exrtreme mutations like Bulldogs, Doxies, the coated breeds, too much maintenance if you are not a groomer or know one you can hire on the cheap. Male dogs, when there is a girl in heat all bets are off with regards to their usual good behavior. I have heard of them chewing through eight heavy chain link kennels to get to the female they wanted to breed, chewing all the way through a solid wood fence, or climbing an eight foot fence, howling all day and all night until she goes out of season, which can take up to three weeks... Bigger breed puppies don't sell for any more, but cost ten times as much to raise. There goes all your profit. They are more expensive to properly house and fence in, harder on the landscaping, blah blah blah... Get small dogs and be prepared for c-sections, just in case. There is not shortcut to money when it comes to breeding animals. It is all hard work, messy, dirty, and you lose sleep and sometimes miss work. You are tied down BIG TIME and can't go anywhere. I'm just saying, you might want to just pick up a night or evening part time job and be way ahead than get a couple dogs to breed. Good luck to you though. I understand if you need more $, don't we all these days. Hang in there. After Chrismas, the next biggie isn't till April.

 

[protodon]

BC are NOT the breed to sell to others,they just arent the type of dog to fit into everyones lifestyle..they can be very hard to handle and tend to get into lots of trouble when left on their own to long..look into a BC rescue,you should be able to find what you are looking for..I am not against breeding at all,but really if you dont even know about a females heat cycles I think that breeding dogs is not the best choice for you,,

I think this is a generic statement that can said about any dog breed or to any prospective dog breeder. People who are interested in this sort of thing have to start somewhere.


I know that when people say they want to breed dogs other people usually think money money money. I'm really not looking to breed to make some huge profit. I think when people get into breeding for that purpose, it leads to bad husbandry when it comes to whatever animal. I would only keep one male and one female as I already have 2 fixed mixed breeds. I'm also not looking for a rescue dog. I want puppies. I know these dogs can be a handful; and need exercise like most working dogs so I don't want someone's teenage problem dog who already has the bad behaviors engrained in them and has never been worked. All of my other dogs and cats are from the SPCA but when it comes to border collies my main reason for having them is to work them and actually help me out on the farm.


On the topic of altered dogs humping things, I have a fixed lab mix that humps EVERYTHING! Cats, my other dog and he has taking a huge liking to my nigerian dwarf buck. I guess he smells more attractive in rut?? I actually feel sorry for the buck. I often have pry my dog off of the poor guy!​

 

[onthespot]

That kind of humping is dominant display.

It would be FAR cheaper to buy a border collie puppy than to buy a pair, raise a litter, sell the puppies. I you just want to do it to do it... do it. Be prepared to hemorrage a lot of money and be stuck with a single litter to choose your puppy from, instead of all available litters you can find at a a given time.

 

[protodon]

Quote:
It's far cheaper to never breed anything i.e. sheep, goats, chickens, etc. People still do it. My problem is I can't find any available litters at any given time. If I could eventually come up with an unrelated pair, I wouldn't have that problem. Of course I am thinking way far in advance like the life of the original parents and maybe keeping a puppy after 5 or 6 years of breeding at which point the parents would be fixed. That's at least 20 years of me not having to look for another border collie.

It took me forever to find nigerian dwarf goats. You can be certain that now that I have some, I won't be getting rid of them and with breeding I will always have some for milk. When I finally find some of the heritage turkeys I want, I will always have them and breed them. I live in an area that seems to be a vacuum for a lot of the livestock that I would like to raise. Once I finally get a hold of something I've spent months or years looking for, I don't take it for granted.