I am a new Lab Breeder. I have Mum and daughter. Mum had two litters of 10 and 10 but one was born dead, so in total 19. On her 1st letter she was a bit overwhelmed that the second litter she was a very good mum and still is . Jodie(mum) and daughter Amber live together and are fantastic with other. Amber loves to with her mum Jodie and does not like to be on her own. Jodie is now spayed. When Amber is in season she get cleaned up by her mum Jodie and also by her self Amber. Amber is very happy when Jodie cleans her. Jodie will be 7 in Nov and Amber will be 2 in Nov. Amber is having her 3rd season now. I plan to bred with her on her next season. So here is my questions. When Amber is in whelp should Jodie be around? When Amber has puppies what will Jodie do from birth to 8 weeks?
I don't have any experience in this area (others do though) but I just wanted to welcome you to the forum
Hi and welcome to the forum. I don't have any experience with this, either, but I would have thought it would be safest to remove Jodie while Amber is in whelp, and for a few weeks afterwards. Even if Amber is happy with her there, and Jodie is a good "grandma", you have the danger of two big Labradors potentially standing or rolling on the puppies, which can cause them nasty injury or even kill them. If your home environment doesn't allow for them to be separated, this might mean sending her to live with a friend for a few weeks. It's not healthy to have two dogs that can't be separated, because there will be times where it is unavoidable (maybe surgery etc and, obviously end-of-life scenarios) so you should really be doing some separation training with them. I assume your bitches, and their sires, are fully health-checked?
Hi and welcome to the forum. I agree with Snowbunny's comments regarding separating your dogs. I just wanted to check what you mean by health checked?
Hi and welcome to the forum. Sorry I have only had male dogs, but I am sure someone will be able to help you.
Hi again! Think this answers my question on your other post! What health checks do you need in Australia? Not sure if it's different to the UK. I know you are a lot stricter on the spay/neuter rules but not sure about the HD ED PRA EIC etc.
Hi there, I would have thought that after the first week that Jodie can visit the pups, as long as Amber is happy with this. She will probably be a very good baby sitter, but you will have to just go with the flow and see how they all react to each other. Very interested to read your post, as my dog is also currently in heat, and we are planning to mate her on her next season also!!
The rules about health checks are stricter in Australia than in the UK. A litter cannot be registered by the Australian Kennel Club without hip and elbow scores being done on the parents. There is a very strong culture of health testing amongst registered breeders. Most Labrador breeders would do checks for PRA and EIC even if it is not compulsory for registration of the litter.
What about CNM? I see more breeders in the USA and Canada saying they are doing the test for that as well.
Some breeders indicate that they now test for CNM, but it's not common like PRA/EIC which are pretty universal here. This is just me judging from ads put up by registered Labrador breeders (on Dogzonline, which is a pure breed dog site where reputable breeders advertise litters). I look at puppy ads all the time
It's a shame that all the relevant bodies don't follow the Deutsche Retriever Club's lead. The additional tests may reduce the number of litters born and registered initially but I would think must help to reduce health problems in the longer term - something we would all wish for.
