in my reading, experience & questions I have asked other breeders a bitch should be breed every other heat if you dont want to shorten her life span. My vet said I should skip my bitches first heat then breed her every other & thay way she will be mature enough to be a mom & her body will be able to handle the stress of preg. & labor better.I have found Dog breeding for dummies was a good book for me to have as a reference they explain everything in simple easy to understand terms......Good Luck!

Personally, I wouldn't breed my female more than 3 times and I would wait a year between litters.

Usually after a few glasses of wine I like to put on the Barry White and get down to... Wha? OH...... DOGS! Sorry, my bad.

I think that the decision to breed should only be made with the greatest of care. Is your bitch of superior quality, that will improve the breed. WIll the stud dog you pick truly improve on her and be an asset to the breed. Have both dogs passed and exceeded all vet checks and xrays for health and structure? Then maybe one breeding would be fine. Did everything work well with your first breeding? Did you accomplish what you wanted? Then maybe next year, try again. But I don't think a bitch should ever be bred more tha 3 times, and that only if she is an exception individual.

Doesn't the world already have way too many dogs? Dogs that then have to be killed because EACH bitch could potentially throw over a dozen litters? If you aren't a professional pet breeder with customers for every puppy, spay her--don't breed her.

I have been told that you should not breed from a bitch until she is at least 18months old. You should skip every second season and that she should only have a maximum of 6 litters. There sre special circumstances when a 7th litter would be allowed.

Unless you are going to SHOW your bitch, hopefully earn your points and titles and PROVE by doing so that your bitch has something OUTSTANDING to contribute to the breed...YOU SHOULD NOT BREED HER AT ALL! As mentioned, there are literally hundreds of fantastic dogs and puppies that are put to death DAILY in the USA because no one wants them, they are GOOD DOGS, beautiful, loving, intelligent, fully adoptable, but there are not enough people who want them. Many of these grand dogs and puppies ARE PUREBRED animals. Before considering breeding, in addition to showing your dog or bitch, you should learn HOW TO READ bloodlines. This is imperative so that you have the ability to sort through the bloodline of the DOG you want to consider breeding to, and also so you really do know and understand your bitch's bloodlines too. A responsible breeder takes to heart the breeding to IMPROVE the breed they are working with. This means KNOWING that if the females in your bitch's line are prone to having wider shoulders than is considered optimum for the breed..you then look for a dog (male) where the females tend to have MORE NARROW shoulders...you are constantly trying to make a better dog in your breeding. Better should include general health, temperament, conformation, agility, intelligence, trainability...willingness to learn, coat...all are factors that a responsible breeder strives to improve upon. IF you are doing all of this you will attract dog owners who also only want to breed their dog to the very best bitch available. Even then...don't be fooled...dog breeders who CARE are not in it for the MONEY...because they ALREADY KNOW...they are NOT going to ever make as much money as they have put out to do this thing! If they are 'rich' it's because they already HAD money going into it..not because they sold expensive puppies. If you only want to do this because you think puppies are so cute and "Dolly" would be such a good mom...THINK AGAIN..."Dolly" could give a rats ass about being a mother..it is NOT on her list of things to do in this life. As for cute...take yourself to the local pound, look over the dogs and puppies on LAST DAY adoption row...You'll see some cute ones there...and after hours TONIGHT...they'll get their shot of death, the tech giving it will probably feel like crying again and whisper to them, that they ARE a good dog..one last time...and that dog or puppy won't be so cute anymore...it will be dead. Every other year is optimum for breeding..but please THINK LONG AND HARD ABOUT WHY YOU WANT TO BREED YOUR BITCH... BE PART OF THE SOLUTION...NOT PART OF THE PROBLEM!

Please make sure you have done research before even thinking about breeding..and if you are asking this question you are obviously not ready...a bitch should not be bred before 2 years of age..and you should skip AT LEAST one heat between breedings..once again please make sure you are 100% ready before breeding.

i show dogs and you should not let them have a litter till they are at least 3years old when they are mature and they will look after them plus do not breed a bitch just because you want the money no way... if you have people who want that type of dog and you know for sure that they will buy and look after it and if you have a few poeple who wants on go forit but do not mate them with a differant kind of dog make sure its the same type.. their are too many crosses out their in the world its rediculase.. i had 17 dogs at one stage but we sent some up to our friends house on the farm in the country they love it their but we bring them back here now and thenm juust make sure your ready to look after them as they get to 5 weeks old as they should start going on to solids at least 2 times a day

I suggest you do alot of research on breeding before you start. Also it is recommended you wait until the dog is at least 18 months old. Then breed every other heat cycle. once a year basicly, skipping a heat in between. And retire her by age of 5 some say 6.

It's interesting to hear many other people's opinion on how often to breed a bitch. I have attended a few canine repo clinics recently and the general consensus is now that a bitch should be bred back to back (from one heat to the next) and then skip a heat, be bred again back to back and then spayed. The bitch should never be bred on her first heat, and I've found it safer to start on the 3rd heat. Many repo vets are finding that the uterus is more healthy when it is pregnant. Keeping a uterus unused risks pyometra. The safest thing to do is of course spay!!!!!! And even though the uterus is healthy when pregnant, that certainly doesn't mean she should spend her life a brood bitch. I feel 4 litters is safe. Spay her young and let her have a good life as a beloved pet. Someone also wrote to wait until the bitch was 3 years old to be bred. While they are mentally mature, this is often too late. The bitch has lost some of her normal elasticity after 3 years old.

My grandmother has breed for many years and she says that you should wait till their 3rd heat to bread them. Then after that you should skip. Meaning if you bread them on the third heat, don't breed them again till their 5th heat and so on.

I have been at where or not to let my dogs be bred on the next heat cycle after the have had puppies. This would be their third litter, and I have planned on spaying them at six or seven years old. The had their puppies in August, and will not even be coming into heat for another six or so months. They are high quality pomeranians. I have seen the back-back-breeding so many times, and I don't have a problem with it. The only thing that I can see as being a problem is breeding them EVERY time that they come into heat. What I think that people don't understand is that the 'back-back-breeding' is NOT every heat. The dog is bred from her third heat cycle, and then allowed to rest for the six or so months after that. Then when she comes back into heat you allow her to have another liter. You then wait a full year or even sometimes longer maybe 12-16 months, and then allow her to have another litter. You should only do this when the dog is healthy enough, and has been cleared by a vet. Well, true dogs are not people they still feel, and it's not easy for them to have puppies every six or so months for the rest of their lives. I have not yet done this with any of my females, but my grandmother has and I have not seen any problems with her dogs. The only thing was their age. The were getting too old to be bred, and so she had them spayed. (7 years old). I will be looking over my girls in another six to eight months to see if I and the vet feel that they will be ready for another litter. If not I will wait until they are. Thanks, OurStarPoms