Should you breed your dachshund?

Whatever your motives for wanting a litter of puppies, you need to be aware of what's actually involved in dog breeding, from an objective point of view.

If you breed even one litter you are, by definition a breeder. The question is what kind of breeder will you be?

Most people think that all they have to do is have a female and find some willing male to cooperate and then bingo, you've got a litter of pups that will each sell for hundreds of dollars. Pretty simple.

• When you breed your female dog, you put her health at risk. Not only is the pregnancy going to be hard on her, but the actual mating can inflict multiple complications, none of which have good outcomes.

• Regardless of how much experience you have, you can still have disasters. Serious disaster is just around every phase of breeding.

• Expect a number of sleepless nights.

• Death of just one pup, even in a large litter, can be heartbreaking.

• No vet is perfect, nor are they miracle workers. Puppies are prone to numerous complications.

• It is almost impossible to get a fading puppy to survive, and you can lose a whole litter to fading puppy syndrome.

• You can never be sure how successful a breeding will be.

Assuming your dog survives the breeding process and the majority of the puppies survive, you next have to find good homes for the little ones. That may mean leaning on friends and family to buy one.

If your friends and family aren't ready for a new addition to their family, that means advertising in the local paper. That means having strangers coming to your home to check out the new pups. How comfortable are you inviting a complete stranger into your house just because they said they wanted to get their girlfriend a dog? Do you know how to screen callers before giving them your address and the key to your front door?

After the sale worries

Once you've sold the last of the litter, don't count your big bucks quite yet— your worries aren't quite over. Read just a few things that might happen to you:

• You sell a puppy to a young couple that seem nice, just bought a new house. They make a couple of payments. Six months later they have to move to an apartment since the husband lost his job. They ask if you can take the dog back because the apartment doesn't allow any 4-legged pets. You reluctantly take it back and of course the payments stop. The dog they returned is so shy, and ill-mannered from lack of socialization and training it takes you a year of work providing socializing and training to be able to give the dog away.

• You sell a puppy to a wonderful home. They love her like one of the family. At a vet check done by their vet, it's determined the puppy has a heart murmur. They love their puppy and want the best for her. They have an expensive surgery done. The puppy is fine. They sue you for the medical costs. They win, because you didn't have a contract stipulating conditions of guarantee and so, as the breeder, you are responsible for the puppy's genetic health.

• One loving home decides your puppy is untrainable, destructive and wants to return the pup and get a full refund, which you have already spent on your vet bills.

• One loving couple calls you and is very upset because their pup has crippling hip dysplasia and want to know what you are going to do about it.

Don't think these things won't happen to you? Of course you don't. How could they? You love your dog. The fact is that these things do happen, regularly to unsuspecting "breeders."

Professional kennel breeders understand the risks

Professional breeders also know how to reduce those risks. They know the blood line of their females and the blood line of the males. Not only do they know the parents, but they know the grand parents, the great grand parents and the great great grand parents. They know the history of their offspring. They know that none of the offspring ever had heart murmurs, never had dysplasia, and that the females almost never had problems with breeding. Just knowing this information reduces the odds of having problems.

Professional breeders know just about everything there is to know about dachshunds. They not only attend all the major dog shows, but they also have won numerous awards. They have a great vet that even comes out to the kennel to do checkups on the pups and the mother.

When the time comes to sell their beautiful dogs, they usually already have a waiting list of people anxious to part with their money to get one of them. Their pups are in demand because they have a reputation for producing top quality dogs with a proven track record for being the healthiest puppies in mind and body that is possible. And before you even can get on their waiting list, you have to prove to them why you're worthy to share your home with one of their babies.

A professional breeder will skillfully interview all applicants for adoption, and will provide the new puppy owners with a healthy, well adjusted, well vaccinated and wormed puppy. Breeding a litter, whelping and raising and finally placing puppies entails a tremendous and sustained effort, education, money plus a good knowledge of applied genetics.

Breeding is anything but a casual undertaking. A breeding undertaken without this kind of effort may produce healthy, sound puppies, or it may not. Obviously you love dachshunds or you wouldn't be reading all this. But that just isn't enough. Breeding dachshunds or any dog, is a full time responsibility that should never be taken lightly. So you have to ask yourself: "Do you really want to breed your little girl?"