Dog Breeding Is Not For Amateurs – Part 1

 

Are you tempted to start breeding your dogs in the hopes of adding a couple of new puppies to the family and/or making a few extra dollars by selling the other pups? I think everyone who owns a dog has thought about it at some time or another. Unfortunately, there are some downsides to breeding your dogs that you may not feel comfortable with.

Dog breeding is considered to be a “way of life” for those professionals that are passionate about their animals. These people live, eat, and breathe dog breeding.  However, the same is not true for 99% of the other people out there that just decided to have puppies for the fun of it or for the possibility of smalltime profits.

Here are a few reasons why you might want to reconsider dog breeding unless you are 100% committed to the process and to the health of the new puppies:

1. Breeding can be a bit expensive. For starters, the costs that you will have to absorb can get a little pricey with veterinarian checkups and care for all of the puppies, which include prevention of heartworms, fleas, and regular worms. In addition, you need to budget enough money to advertise the new puppies once they are born. For most people that are not professional breeders, you may barely make enough money back to cover your investment.

2. Breeding puppies yourself can also be emotionally heartbreaking. This is one downside of breeding that most people do not expect. For example, it is not unusual for the mother to die due to whelping complications. What is even more depressing is that many times one or more puppies from the litter will pass away as well. These kind of circumstances are not something that every family can handle so please keep these possibilities in mind should you begin to breed your dogs.

3. A third downside to breeding your dogs is that the entire process is a huge responsibility.  This should be quite obvious with even just the above two examples given in terms of your investment and emotional participation. Once you decide to breed your dogs and bring new life into this world, you are now entirely responsible to ensure that those puppies are given the utmost in high quality attention and health care.  Breeding new puppies is not a hobby and therefore you must understand that your time and energy must be devoted to the process 100%.