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First, consider the reasons why you want to breed your dog. If your dog is AKC registered, go back to
the breeder where you bought him/her. The breeder will tell you if your dog's conformation is
something that you should pass on to the next generation. The breeder might also be willing to help you
with the litter, stud dog, brood bitch, etc. If the breeder sold you your dog as a pet and he or she
recommends that you don't breed the dog, take their word for it. It isn't because they think you are
going to compete with them. It is because they can see something about your dog that warrants not
breeding it. Perhaps it is simple like a bad bite. Perhaps it is a white spot. Perhaps the dog isn't the
correct type. Whatever it is, heed the expert's words. By breeding pet quality dogs, you will be adding
dogs of the wrong type to the gene pool. If everybody did this, before long, we would have dogs that
don't even resemble the black & tan coonhound.
One of the most important things to keep in mind when considering a breeding is that our breed is not
without health concerns. Anybody can look at a dog who is prancing around the yard and say, "That dog
is healthy." But there are problems that can lurk beneath the surface; problems that only the experts can
see. For example, in order to see many of the eye problems that occur in our breed (i.e. progressive retinal atrophy,
cataracts), a dilation of the eye will be necessary. The canine ophthalmologist will look at the dog's eyes
through a special instrument. There are also skeletal problems, like hip and elbow dysplasia, that can't
been seen without special x-rays. There are heart conditions that require testing. There are thyroid
disorders that can't be detected without blood work. Good breeders have been checking all of their
breeding stock for generations. How would you feel if you produced a litter and just when their families
started loving them, the dogs became blind? It happens! While you can't completely rule it out, you
can stack the odds in your favor by testing all breeding stock.
The other thing to keep in mind when considering breeding your pet is that while you may only want one
puppy, there may be as many as 14 puppies! That's a lot of food and an awful pile of puppies. I doubt
the bitch will be able to feed all of them. Are you prepared to bottle feed every few hours? Puppies can
never go to their pet homes before 8-9 weeks and they are already fairly big by then. Throw fourteen of
them together and you'd better hope you have a whelping room large enough and you'd better hope you
can deal with the smell. You'll put them in a kennel? I hope you have one large enough for fourteen
puppies. It's gonna be a mess with fourteen of them going "potty" every few hours and playing and
running through it. They will grow up dirty and will come to accept it as being part of life. Therefore, it
will add to housebreaking difficulties. It also makes for a great place to grow diseases and illnesses.
When you do sell (or give away) the puppies, are you going to be prepared to spay/neuter them before
they leave? Are you going to require the new owners to sign a spay/neuter agreement? If not, do you
realize how many puppies you may really be producing by sending out an unaltered animal? One
unspayed bitch can, in her lifetime, produce (through her puppies and her puppies' puppies) 65,000
dogs. Can you be certain that all of those dogs will find good homes?
If you love your dog enough to want to breed it, you are a very special person. It is BECAUSE you love
your dog and its breed that you should do the very best for it as a whole. You owe it to your dog to
ensure the future of his breed. Don't just go into it willy nilly and produce puppies. Remember, your
dog is only HALF of the equation.
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