Before deciding to breed your female dog there are some positive and negative considerations that owners should consider. Breeding your dog is not an inexpensive or easy task if you are seriously planning on making the best possible selection of a male dog. There are serious health considerations with regards to breeding dogs that should be discussed with your vet and family members before making the final decision.

Drawbacks To Breeding Your Dog

Breeds have their own unique issues when it comes to breeding. Below are some of the general concerns that can arise with any breed:

·Cost of stud services. For a championship bloodline it can be several hundred or even thousands of dollars to have your female bred to a purebred male.

·Potential health risks. There is always the possibility that the female can be injured during breeding, or may develop life-threatening conditions during the pregnancy. Female dogs can die during delivery if they are left unsupervised and there is a complication.

·Additional vet expenses. The female may require additional trips to the vet or even help with birthing or whelping the puppies. These vet bills can range between the cost of a check-up to several thousands of dollars depending on the size of the dog and the troubles they experience.

·Health issues with the puppies. If there are health issues with the puppies the owner of the female is usually responsible unless there have been other arrangements made prior to the birth. Again, these can be minor or they can be very costly.

·Vaccinations and feeding. Not only will the female require more and higher quality feed throughout her pregnancy but the puppies will also require vet visits and high quality food. For the larger breeds the food can be very costly, and for any breed the vaccinations and vet visits are critical and are an additional cost.

·Ongoing health issues with the female. Female dogs that have had a litter of puppies are much more likely to develop ovarian and breast cancers than spayed females that have not had a litter.

Positive to Breeding Your Female

There are positives as well to breeding your female. Helping develop a line of healthy and breed standard puppies is very rewarding. Finding good homes and families for the puppies is a great opportunity to share the breed of your choice with caring and loving individuals.

In addition breeding is a way for kennels and breeders to seek to develop championship lines. There is increased awareness of the kennel if one of the puppies becomes a champion dog.

For most individuals making money off of puppies is simply not realistic. By the time that you consider the expenses of breeding and caring for the females the price of the puppies does not cover the expenses of raising them. Careful consideration of the options for breeding is important before deciding if this is right for your dog or not.

Kelly Marshall
http://www.articlesbase.com/automotive-articles/pros-and-cons-to-breeding-your-dog-68957.html

Every year hundreds of thousands of dogs are put to sleep in the United States. These are shelter dogs. Dogs that ran away from home, dogs that were dropped off at the shelter because their owners didn’t want them, and dogs that were taken from neglecting owners.
This is a tragedy. What a horrible way to treat who we call “Man’s Best Friend”. I believe that most of this needless death could be avoided through a few responsible practices on the part of dog owners.
The main and number one reason that we have so many euthanized dogs every year is due to poor breeding practices. To put it simply, there are far too many unwanted dogs born to far too many irresponsible dog owners.
In my years working with dogs I have come across many dog owners who want to breed their dogs. I often ask them why they want to breed and the answers, in my opinion, are crazy.
“Well, I want my kids to be able to witness the miracle of birth.” I have heard this one a number of times. This is one of the worst reasons you can have to breed a dog. If your main desire is education then buy a book about animal reproduction. Rent a documentary about animal breeding, don’t bring more animals into the world. Bringing an entire litter into the world just so your kids can see a birth is irresponsible. What often happens to the poor puppies is that they are given away to friends and neighbors or out in front of the local Wal-Mart. The potential owners are never pre-qualified to determine if they would be a good dog owner. The net result is often a new dog owner who is completely unprepared for a puppy. How many of these puppies end up at the shelter when their owners decide they can’t handle a puppy? There are no accurate statistics but the hundreds of thousands of dogs in shelters are a testament to this practice.
“I think it is only fair to allow my dog to have a litter. She is such a sweet dog she should have the chance to be a mother.” Ahhhhh! I scream inside every time I hear this phrase. Just because you have a sweet, female dog doesn’t mean that you should allow her to have puppies. Your dog doesn’t have a ticking biological clock urging her to be a mom. Sure, instinct kicks in when she goes into heat but if you spay your dog she won’t come into heat. Besides, as the human owner with a better and more elevated level of judgment, you should be the one who determines if she should be a mom, not her.
I am a huge advocate of responsible breeding practices. I support dog owners and dog breeders who breed dogs in order to improve their chosen breed. That is to say, breeders who recognize a fine representative of a breed and breed that dog with another fine specimen in order to theoretically improve the breed. These breeders then responsibly screen potential owners to make sure that their puppies will be raised by good dog owners.
The consequences of poor breeding are ugly. Please, don’t breed your dog for the wrong reasons.

Ty Brown
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/dog-breeding-when-is-it-okay-to-breed-your-dog-53931.html

Toy dogs are great choices for people with allergies or limited space, as they are generally docile and have less fur to irritate sensitive people. They do have a small disadvantage in that they often bark more than larger dogs for attention, but due to the small size of their vocal chords, they do so with less volume! The best of these dogs, and there are many, are true companion animals. Their only task in life is to please people and keep them company.

Toy dogs are exceptional choices for the elderly as they love to be loved, are lightweight (weighing on average 5 pounds, bitches weighing even less) and are fiercely protective.

Toy dogs as the name suggests, are very small, and most of time not very good with small children. With the exception of the Pug, who has been characterized as one of the sturdiest and most stable of the toys.

Despite their small size toy dogs are probably the gutsiest pups in the canine family with their big yet little voices barking at the mere site of other dogs and passers-by. Sometimes this can be a problem for them however, when they don’t back down against a larger animal they are sure to come-off worst in the battle.

Toy dogs are not only meant to entertain your pets. Toy dogs provide you with a reason to move more, which we all need to do to avoid overweight problems. Keep fit by exercising your toy dog. Toy dogs are generally an easy-care pet.

Toy dogs are not limited in their gene pool by their small size, and are descendants of a wide variety of dog breeds. Their predominant characteristic is that most were initially bred and developed their characteristic natures when kept as a loyal companion, and are often referred to as lap dogs. No points awarded to you for guessing why that is!

One thing though which they do suffer from. Toy dogs are notorious for having bad teeth and the small mouths and small jaws make it almost impossible to clean them adequately at home. So, many have a need for regular visits to a vet to keep their teeth and gums healthy.

Toy dog breeders are no different from any others and we find their trait of talking about their disappointing pups as “only pet quality” unhelpful. In other words breeders who see pets as a by-product of the breeder’s search for the perfect dog, are not primarily looking after you the pet owners interest. We say beware of buying from such a breeder. Breeders like this do not give the health of their puppies the highest priority, instead their motivation is to show the best looking dog that they can breed.

Breeding for appearance was only introduced in the 19th Century, and is in danger of degrading the stock of healthy genes in our dog population. Before this time dogs and puppies were bred to increase useful abilities and traits helpful for the duties they were intended for. Breeds in the some breed groups nowadays suffer from far more genetic problems than they have in the past. Some breeds that have become more and more popular as time goes on have suffered for being bred for quantity to fed the market, again to the detriment of the health of the pups available for sale. Just be aware of this when you choose a breeder.

Steve Evans
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/toy-dog-breeds-advantages-and-breeding-728964.html