So You Want to Be a Breeder?
By Yana Miklos
So you want to breed your Bully bitch? You know what to expect if everything
goes right: Your little girl will present you with tiny littl’ Bully
bundles of joy. She will lovingly nurse them and care for them until
they are old enough to be weaned.
But, have you thought about what happens if something goes wrong? Below I have
listed a few of the problems that I have personal knowledge of. Everything
listed has happened to me or to my friends. These are not isolated incidents.
I’m sure other breeders could add more to this list.
First of all, do you have time to spend 24 hours a day for two weeks with the
puppies and mama? Can you wake up every two, later three hours, and feed the
puppies for the first two weeks? Do you have enough money for a Cesarean section
and other tests?
What if during the breeding...
1) The stud dog you have chosen is carrying a venereal disease/Brucelossis
and gives it to your bitch. She may not conceive and will abort the puppies
later on if she gets Brucelossis. For that reason every male and the bitch
should have tests done before they are bred.
2) The stud dog you decide to breed your darling to is not experienced. Once
the two dogs are joined tightly in a tie, he decides to chase the neighbors’ cat
out of his yard. He bolts, ripping his penis loose and causing your bitch to
hemorrhage from within. Many Bullies are bred from artificial insemination.
3) Your sweet, gentle girl decides she doesn’t want the attention of
this chosen male. She snaps at him and rips his cheek open. She can also turn
around and bite one or two of his testicles OFF. (For that reason both should
wear a muzzle, especially the bitches.) Or he will be too afraid of her as
she may turn into a very aggressive beast (and many do), and you will have
to go to a vet who knows how to do artificial insemination (AI) and hope that
the boy can be collected from. You will need forms from the AKC, and these
forms will have to be filled by the veterinarian who will do the AI.
4) If you leave or ship your girls to the stud, make sure the owner of the
Bully stud is knowledgeable in breeding Bull Terriers. For successful breeding
you should do progesterone tests to ensure you are breeding at right time.
You can also have the chilled semen shipped to you. You will need a reproductive
specialist to perform the AI. If you do that, you pay for all the tests; collection
of the semen; shipping by Fedex or plane; boxes, containers, and actual AI.
What if during birth...
1) The puppies are too large for your bitch’s hips because they have
big heads. Do you know how to help your bitch? Better dogs you breed, better
heads you have.
2) The puppies drown in their sacks before they are born. You can save them,
but do you know how?
3) The first puppy is large. When it starts coming, your bitch starts screaming.
Before you can stop her, she reaches around, grabs the puppy in her teeth,
and yanks it out, killing it instantly.
4) A puppy gets stuck. Neither your bitch nor you can get it out. You have
to race her to the vet at 2am on New Years Eve. Did you make sure the vet is
on call for an emergency C section? C sections on the 4th of July, New Year’s
Eve, New Years day, and Christmas are not cheap. Have your credit card ready.
We always have puppies on Saturday or Sunday.
5) If you trying natural birth, many things can go wrong. Mama tries to help
puppy out by clamping her teeth over one of the back legs. The puppy is stuck.
Mama pulls on the leg hard, leaving a wiggling stump of bone.
6) A dead puppy gets stuck in the birth canal, but your bitch is well into
hard labor. She contracts so hard trying to give birth that her uterus ruptures
and she bleeds to death on the way to the vet, or if lucky she gets spayed.
You better know how long you can wait...read books!
7) The puppies die in her just a week or so before the due day and by the time
they should be born, the bitch’s uterus is full of horrible black stuff
that even the vet is afraid to open and spay her. If they do an emergency procedure
like this one, it is very expensive and there are no guarantees the bitch will
survive.
What if directly after birth...
1) The mother has no idea what to do with a newborn puppy. She delivers them
and walks away. They will drown in their sacks.
2) The mother thinks her puppies are some strange live objects and tries to
kill them.
3) The mother gets too enthusiastic in her removal of the placenta and umbilical
cord and rips the cord out, leaving a big hole in the abdomen. Afterward she
disembowels the puppy.
If when you think you are in the clear, after the birth…
1) One or more of the puppies inhaled fluid during birth, pneumonia develops,
and the puppy dies.
2) The mother’s milk goes bad. You lose three of your four puppies before
you discover what is wrong. You end up bottle feeding the remaining pup every
two hours, day and night. After three days the puppy fades from infection and
dies. Also, if you do not know, you can overfeed the puppies and actually kill
them by feeding them too much.
3) The puppies develop fading puppy syndrome. No one really knows why these
puppies die (infection, bad heart, etc). One day they look good and next day
they start fading and stop eating (no matter what you do) and die. Some beautiful,
plump puppies can die when two to three weeks old. For no apparent reason these
beautiful chunky pups just die. It is heartbreaking.
4) Your bitch develops mastitis and her breast ruptures.
5) Your bitch develops a uterine infection from a retained placenta. Her temperature
soars to 105. Many times the bitch must be spayed. Many do not make it and
die as the infection spreads into their body. The infected milk will kill the
puppies if they continue to consume it. The temperature of the bitch should
be taken for week or so to make sure all is well.
6) All the puppies are fine. Following the birth (about one to two days later)
your bitch develops “false eclampsia” and goes crazy—barking,
being very aggressive toward everyone, and wants to kill the puppies or lies
on them, causing them to be smothered. Only a minute and puppies are gone.
You can never leave the whelping box unattended. She will have to be put on
an injectable calcium supplement.
7) Around age of 6 weeks you discover that all or some of your puppies are
developing into the “zingers” (Zing deficiency), and you will have
to put them down because they will die for sure later on (before they are about
one year old) in a horrible condition.
8) At five weeks of age you find out that some of the puppies are deaf. Do
you have the heart to euthanize them? Do you think you can find a good home
for them? Can you find people who will be able to handle a deaf Bull Terrier?
1) You give a puppy to a friend. Their fence blows down, so they tie the puppy outside while they go to work. A roving dog comes along and kills the puppy. Your friend calls you to tell you about the poor little puppy and asks when you are having more puppies.
2) You sell a puppy to an acquaintance. The next time you see them, you ask how the puppy is doing. They tell you that he soiled their new carpet, so they took him to the pound. You call the pound. They tell you puppy was euthanized two days ago.
3) You sell a puppy. Six months later they move. They ask you to take it back. You take him back. The dog they return is so shy and ill mannered from lack of socialization and training that he takes you a year of work, providing socializing and training to be able to give him away.
4) 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 is determined that the puppy has a heart murmur or kidney problem. (Your vet found nothing when he checked the puppy before she was sold.) They want a new puppy. As a breeder you are responsible for the puppy’s genetic health. What is your guarantee?
5) Rescue representative calls you. There is a puppy in a pond in a different state than you live in. The dog is from your breeding. You should come, get it, and place it in a good home.
6) You sell a puppy. You call the owners a month later to see how things are. How is the puppy doing? Oh, he was put outside and froze to death.
So you gotta ask yourself: Do I want to be a breeder of Bull Terriers?
