ASK THE VET: Breeding pups isn't for faint-of-heart

So you just got a puppy from the pet store, an adorable ball of fluff. But the price tag after all the food and collars and such came to $800. You do have a purebred, the store clerk emphasizes, and he says you might think about recovering some of the cost by breeding her.

But should you do it?

The first thing you need to ask yourself is, “what is my motivation?” Are you hoping to be rolling in dough by letting her get pregnant on every heat cycle until she drops dead? That strategy seems to work well enough financially for puppy mills, but if you care about your dog, you might find that strategy isn’t in her best interest. And realize that conscientious breeders often say they are lucky if they end up breaking even when producing a good litter of puppies.

There are a lot of other questions to consider:

• Are you going to be able to cough up $2,000 for an emergency C-section to save the life of your dog and her puppies? Or will you have to choose to let them die because it didn’t occur to you that expensive complications could happen?

• Can you live with being a contributor to the problem of animal overpopulation? Take a trip to the humane society and realize that for every puppy you bring into the world as a casual breeder, one of those shelter dogs will likely end up euthanized.

• Do you want your kids to experience the death of a pet? Along with the excitement of witnessing the miracle of birth comes the very upsetting possibility that one puppy in the littler will die or have to be euthanized.

• Do you have an excellent example of the breed? If you bought your dog a pet store or from the back of a pickup truck in a parking lot, you might have a dog that will make a nice pet, but you do NOT have a dog you should breed. Conscientious breeders know the bloodlines of their breed and carefully select their breeding stock from other conscientious breeders.

• Do you know what genetic problems run in your breed? Have you screened your dog for those things before deciding whether to breed? Conscientious breeders will not use dogs that have even a whiff of a problem because they care about eliminating the significant health issues from their breed.

• Do you have the knowledge to see the breeding process through safely? When does a dog first go into heat? How often does she go into heat? What is the best age to begin breeding? What is involved in the process of breeding? How long is her gestation period? What should you expect during delivery? How do you know when there is a problem? What sort of problems can crop up after the puppies are born? If you can’t answer these questions with confidence, you need to reconsider your fitness as a breeder.

So do enjoy your new puppy. But don’t think of her as a cash cow or as a vehicle for pregnancy for your entertainment, and she will be more likely to have a long life as a happy and loved member of the family.

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Anne Pierce is a Colorado Springs veterinarian and co-owner of High Plains Veterinary Hospital, a Colorado Springs small-animal clinic. Reach her at petdocs@highplainsvet.com.