Considering breeding

[Monstersspaniel]

As said I have long way to go before I put it into motion their is as mentioned a lot to consider about breeding you don't just decide to do it im just looking into it at this stage and taking everything on board as its something id like to learn about.

[MuffinsMum]

ive read some threads on seasons and its one of the reasons alone that I would have her spade before considering breeding but the more i think about the more i want to do it.

Are you sure you mean this?

[Magic Star]

As said I have long way to go before I put it into motion their is as mentioned a lot to consider about breeding you don't just decide to do it im just looking into it at this stage and taking everything on board as its something id like to learn about.

To be honest with you, when I first got my cocker and was a loved up puppy owner, I thought she would be a wonderful mum and make good pups, I thought the same as you, I think I posted on here about it back then, I have to say I am glad I did as I had no idea of what was involved, I think its naive romantic thought to breed pups but I think in reality its far from romantic  

[Nicola]

and the fact that their are laods of mutts out their in shelters all ready because their owners made careless decissions or simply could not cope

Quite a few of them are also there because people just decided to 'try out' breeding their bitch for the sake of it.

I work in the breeding scheme at Hearing Dogs and we breed Cocker/Poodle crosses as assistance dogs but I also really don't understand why you would want to do this just for the sake of 'trying it out'. Do you know anything about them? Although breeding any kind of dog, pedigree or cross, just for the sake of trying it out is not a good enough reason. As for colour, which seems to be your main concern, you won't get a blue roan Cocker/Poodle cross. Breeding dogs is not 'fun', it's hard work, expensive and very stressful and it is a lot to put your bitch through just so you can give it a go to see if you like it. If you do do it though I'd recommend you keep a spare £1200 or so in the bank in case your bitch needs to have an emergency out-of-hours c-section as one of ours did 2 weeks ago - no insurance covers anything related to breeding - and also be sure to take a lot of time off work in case you end up hand-feeding any pups, as we had to do last month.

[bajoleth]

Nicola can I just ask why you breed cocker/poodle crosses for assistance dogs, not having a 'go' just very interested as why the cross is a more suitable dog fort assistance rather than a full bred Cocker or Poodle?

[Nicola]

We do breed purebred dogs too but with the C/P crosses it's size, weight, coat type and if - and it's a big if - they inherit the 'right' characteristics from each parent they can make better assistance dogs than the purebreds. Ideally we want them to have the resilience and intelligence of the Poodle and the people-orientedness and trainability of the Cocker, but obviously that does not always happen, even after years of looking into and developing the lines that are used to produce them. 

[Monstersspaniel]

What i meant was the whole season show and how long it was and what you had to do for her in that time was enough to put my mind set to spaying her plus the fact that unbread/unspayed females are more llikely to get cancer as most animals are :<

One of the first things that went through my mind when the thoughts of breeding came into it was what if she didnt want to raise her pups herself the cost of c sections and extra vet bill for the check ups and test I think im probably looking at lots of cash their to keep on hand not to mention the regular bills of dog ownership fortunately for me mum insures Millie with pet plan but the deal is I have to pay for all her regular bills under the £75 thing (because it only covers the cost on bills over £75 and most bills are never this much.

Yes I believe their is a certain romantic aspect of what breeding is all about that people just don't consider its easy to look at your own pups/dogs and think awww id like them to have pups one day I think thats my thinking at this stage but before id ever put into place id consider every aspect pro and con before finnally going for it as it isn't cheap by any stretch and of coure requires complete responsibility and dedication to creating what you want in a pup and whats good for the breed and up holding the ideal and what not.

[bajoleth]

We do breed purebred dogs too but with the C/P crosses it's size, weight, coat type and if - and it's a big if - they inherit the 'right' characteristics from each parent they can make better assistance dogs than the purebreds. Ideally we want them to have the resilience and intelligence of the Poodle and the people-orientedness and trainability of the Cocker, but obviously that does not always happen, even after years of looking into and developing the lines that are used to produce them. 

Interesting, I din't realise poodles were so intelligent, never really been a Poodle person Thanks

What i meant was the whole season show and how long it was and what you had to do for her in that time was enough to put my mind set to spaying her plus the fact that unbread/unspayed females are more llikely to get cancer as most animals are :<

One of the first things that went through my mind when the thoughts of breeding came into it was what if she didnt want to raise her pups herself the cost of c sections and extra vet bill for the check ups and test I think im probably looking at lots of cash their to keep on hand not to mention the regular bills of dog ownership fortunately for me mum insures Millie with pet plan but the deal is I have to pay for all her regular bills under the £75 thing (because it only covers the cost on bills over £75 and most bills are never this much.

Yes I believe their is a certain romantic aspect of what breeding is all about that people just don't consider its easy to look at your own pups/dogs and think awww id like them to have pups one day I think thats my thinking at this stage but before id ever put into place id consider every aspect pro and con before finnally going for it as it isn't cheap by any stretch and of coure requires complete responsibility and dedication to creating what you want in a pup and whats good for the breed and up holding the ideal and what not.

I understand that you want to find out about breeding from your dog and all that entails the good and the bad, what I don't understand is why cross breed?

[LynneB]

What i meant was the whole season show and how long it was and what you had to do for her in that time was enough to put my mind set to spaying her plus the fact that unbread/unspayed females are more llikely to get cancer as most animals are :<

One of the first things that went through my mind when the thoughts of breeding came into it was what if she didnt want to raise her pups herself the cost of c sections and extra vet bill for the check ups and test I think im probably looking at lots of cash their to keep on hand not to mention the regular bills of dog ownership fortunately for me mum insures Millie with pet plan but the deal is I have to pay for all her regular bills under the £75 thing (because it only covers the cost on bills over £75 and most bills are never this much.

Yes I believe their is a certain romantic aspect of what breeding is all about that people just don't consider its easy to look at your own pups/dogs and think awww id like them to have pups one day I think thats my thinking at this stage but before id ever put into place id consider every aspect pro and con before finnally going for it as it isn't cheap by any stretch and of coure requires complete responsibility and dedication to creating what you want in a pup and whats good for the breed and up holding the ideal and what not.

Insurance does not cover any aspects of breeding.

I will be breeding Phoebe at her next season, she is 2 years old and both my dogs are tested clear for PRA and FN, they also have clear eye certificates. The reason for the breeding is the desire to improve and hopefully have a nice show dog. Their pedigrees have aslo been checked to make sure that they can be matched with no problems. These is the sort of things that responsible breeders have to take into account. Is your girl health tested?? That is the first thing that should be done and believe me it is not cheap.
You cannot possible know how crossbreeds can turn out. Maybe you should speak to a responsible breeder before you make any decisions.

[Emma xx]

Maybe you should speak to a responsible breeder before you make any decisions.

I'm not going to get involved in this as i have NO idea about breeding, but i think you will find it very hard to find a truly responsible breeder who will want to help you due to the fact you are planning on breeding a cross breed. In my opinion, any responsible breeder should only want to help people who want to improve their breed and this is not what you are planning to do.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do, monstersspaniel

[LynneB]

Maybe you should speak to a responsible breeder before you make any decisions.

I'm not going to get involved in this as i have NO idea about breeding, but i think you will find it very hard to find a truly responsible breeder who will want to help you due to the fact you are planning on breeding a cross breed. In my opinion, any responsible breeder should only want to help people who want to improve their breed and this is not what you are planning to do.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do, monstersspaniel

Exactly my point

[Monstersspaniel]

Poodles are one of the most intelegent breeds!

my reasons for cross breeding, I like the cockerpoo mix but I found considering they were a cross breed that they were being sold for far too much im sure most hadnt had the propper tests or the years of breeding experience that pedigre breeders do. I had originally looking into getting a cross before i considered a pedigree but like with the cockerpoo found it was profit gaining business making designer dogs that were mongeralls so then looked into pedigree dogs and thats how the family and I settled on a cocker spaniel the parents had experience with spaniels and my dad liked cockers or springers that what we liked more.

They are a lot of money and I think I would have justify a good price if i did decide to go into breeding the cocker cross I wouldnt breed without insuring the stud was clear of health problems as i know my pup is ^^


id also have to do the explaining to potential owners that dogs require dedication of care and that what they will have will be a cross breed i think of most people new a designer dog was not a pedigre to begin with they probably wouldnt be as popular.

[LynneB]

Poodles are one of the most intelegent breeds!

my reasons for cross breeding, I like the cockerpoo mix but I found considering they were a cross breed that they were being sold for far too much im sure most hadnt had the propper tests or the years of breeding experience that pedigre breeders do. I had originally looking into getting a cross before i considered a pedigree but like with the cockerpoo found it was profit gaining business making designer dogs that were mongeralls so then looked into pedigree dogs and thats how the family and I settled on a cocker spaniel the parents had experience with spaniels and my dad liked cockers or springers that what we liked more.

They are a lot of money and I think I would have justify a good price if i did decide to go into breeding the cocker cross I wouldnt breed without insuring the stud was clear of health problems as i know my pup is ^^





id also have to do the explaining to potential owners that dogs require dedication of care and that what they will have will be a cross breed i think of most people new a designer dog was not a pedigre to begin with they probably wouldnt be as popular.

How do you know your pup is clear of health problems???

 Please do not take this the wrong way but I think you are being naive if you think that most people would not have a designer dog if they knew it wasn't a pedigree.
3rd paragraph....are you doing this for the money, because believe me, there is none

[Mel]

Personally I'm fed up with poodle owners trying to get me to mate Tali with their dogs.

Dogs have feelings and are not some commodity to use as breeding machines, especially for designer dogs.

Yes every breeder has to start somewhere and may find after one or a few litters breeding is not for them.

Btw, not all uncastrated/unspayed animals die of cancer. You need to understand your breeds much better.

[Hurtwood Dogs]

It's good that you are researching all of this

You've had some really useful information from good people who breed as responsibly as possible and have a lot of experience - definitely take everything they've said on board

I've never bred from my dogs and never would, even though like you, I had a 'romantic fantasy' about having pups from my first cocker when I first got him. Basically because I loved him so much and he was so utterly beautiful in my eyes... He came from a line of very successful show dogs and who's breeder had been breeding, showing and judging for years and is still today (11 years on from then) absolutely passionate about cockers. The reality was, that even with all this experience behind his breeding, he was actually a little too tall for his breed.

However, for me THE biggest reason I wouldn't bred from my dogs is that I couldn't cope with loosing one of them if it went wrong. If my bitch wasn't spayed and I decided to put her through having a litter and she died or suffered serious medical complications or stress - it would because I'd done it to her, and that's not something I can cope with.

Aside all the other risks, I also wouldn't breed because I can't cope with the thought that I couldn't guarantee that one of the pups wouldn't be joining the thousands of very healthy dogs of all ages - both cross breeds and pedigree dogs - that are in rescues and pounds throughout the UK through no fault of their own, waiting to see if they will ever be offered a home or waiting to be destroyed in mass euthanasia sessions.