| It
seems there are many theories on "when" is the best time to breed a bitch for
the first time. Forty years ago my father brought home our first Boxer, along with his
unique approach to breeding. He was raised on a farm and had a farmer's way of looking at
breeding. Farmers tend to be very practical. With that in mind, my father felt that if the
life expectancy in Boxers was eight to ten years, then you want to breed when your oldest
stock is getting ready to die. This means you breed your bitch for the first time when she
is 5 years young! At the age of five her mother is ten and should be getting ready to die.
This replaces your stock without over-burdening your resources. But since we have always
bred for temperament and longevity, my father had another reason – also deeply rooted
in farming – for waiting to breed. With all the adult onset diseases Boxers have, by
the age of five you generally have a very good idea if your bitch is healthy. And if she
is healthy she should be a good candidate for breeding. Now remember this was long before
we had all the tests available to us today! My father’s ‘idea’ was to let
nature weed out the weaker members of the breed. He also believed that even if you
didn’t show, you bred to the standard. I showed horses for many years so I did not
show dogs, but we still bred to the Boxer standard. I recently read an article in which the author recommended waiting to
breed until your bitch was three. The parents would be six, giving you a good idea of
their adult health. My father's theory takes this a step further. Breeding at five, the
parents are now ten - how healthy are they? Do you want to include the five-year-old in
your breeding program if the parents are horribly ill?
Another consideration: my dogs are very
slow to mature. The mother of my current litter was four years old before she completely
dropped her chest. Think about what might have happened had I bred her to a dog looking to
increase the chest on my dogs. I have learned that it takes time to know what your dog is
really going to be when it is fully mature. By waiting to breed, I give my girls every
opportunity to show me where I really need to improve my line.
My father’s other ‘idea’ was
to breed your bitch only ONCE! And that’s what I’ve done since 1970. Every time
I breed, I am as nervous as when I was pregnant with my ‘pink’ kid. I am worried
about the health of my ‘girl’ and her puppies. My feeling is if I get my bitch
-- and remember, this is a family member in which I have now invested five years of love
and attention -- through her pregnancy and delivery and she and her babies are healthy, it
is time to say Thank You and move on (I give her lots of pats, hugs and kisses and have
her spayed). After my last litter I got a lot of pressure about doing a repeat breeding.
My first question was Why? I always got Well, she is a good producer. My answer was No,
she produced a good litter. My girls only come in heat every ten or eleven months. This
means in order not to breed on back-to-back heats, my bitch would have been seven years
old when she had her second litter!
Now that you are all riled up, let me tell
you how this has worked in my family of dogs. As I write this I have a 14 year old plus
Boxer bitch sleeping in her crate right now. Her name is Tia. Her daughter, Missy, just
turned eight years young. The eight-year-old’s ‘kids’ just turned three.
You might have noticed there are 6 years between the 14-year-old and the eight-year-old.
Well we moved and my husband threw out a bunch of papers that had been sitting on top of a
file too long (or so he felt). Included in this pile were Tia’s registration, and our
son’s birth certificate and health records (Norm didn’t have his glasses on
(that was the last time he cleaned up without glasses!) I thought Tia was 5 when I bred
her. She was six years, four months old when she delivered her FIRST and only litter! We
have had many 14- or 15-year-olds and even a 17-year-old. Tia’s mom was almost 15
when I put her down. The 17-year-old was put down when his hindquarters finally gave out!
At the age of 14 he had to have surgery to remove an eye after he had a tangle with a cat!
If your goal in breeding is to set records,
then a couple of things would have to change. You’d have to endure a large drought of
puppies while you waited for your bitches to age. So you might have to increase your
number of bitches to maintain your records. And if you were to decide to do this, you
might want to increase the age of breeding on your bitches slowly. But with over 3000
Boxers being registered every month, do you really want to continue to play the
"numbers game"?
What I do is not perfect but it has worked
for us for 40 years, and has worked for us in the show ring, too. We have always bred for
temperament and longevity -- everything else is a bonus! -- but if you are interested in
how we are doing in the quality department, please check out our ad for two of the
"pups" from our last litter in the Nov/Dec 1998 issue of the Boxer Review.
We believe that is proof aplenty of the value of "waiting to breed"! |
