Bruce H
Well-known member
Back in June, 2006 in the "Five Months in the Life of a Breeder" forum, I posted about our ruby girl Isis getting pregnant and then losing both puppies. It was titled "And sometimes we have bad luck". I posted that because I wanted people to understand that breeding a litter is not always as easy as it was with Anna and Star, the two girls I did the "Five Months..." on.
Well, I have kind of a sad update (for me anyway) on Isis. We tried and tried to get her pregnant again, but were never able to. We tried 3 different, proven sires; just never took. So we finally had to make a very difficult decision. There are only so many dogs that we can manage between Kris and I. We decided to spay and place her while she was still young enough (5 years old) that people would be interested in her. We had her to the cardiologist earlier this year at the U of MN and she was clear, so we took her in and had her spayed.
We had the surgery done at the U because there were some potential complications and we wanted only best should something go wrong (nothing did). On the bright side, the surgeon/instructor at the U fell in love with her while she was there and we ended up placing Isis with her. That was about a month ago; we have heard from Isis's new family and she is doing great.
I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I guess I wanted to post this to reiterate what I have always said. Don't go into breeding thinking that you'll make money or that a girl will just automatically get pregnant if you breed her. Doesn't always work that way. Missed breedings or, in the case of Isis, not being able to get pregnant is a fact of life. And imagine if Isis had been a puppy mill dog; if she was lucky, she would have been sold to anyone who had a few dollars... or worse, just put down.
I really miss Isis. She was the ball fetching queen in our house. No one could beat her! But she is very happy now in her new home and has a 10 year old lab as a buddy. Placing puppies is always hard, but placing one of our adults like Isis is a thousand times harder. So anyone thinking about going into breeding needs to think long and hard about it. There are tremendous rewards, but there are some real downsides too.
Well, I have kind of a sad update (for me anyway) on Isis. We tried and tried to get her pregnant again, but were never able to. We tried 3 different, proven sires; just never took. So we finally had to make a very difficult decision. There are only so many dogs that we can manage between Kris and I. We decided to spay and place her while she was still young enough (5 years old) that people would be interested in her. We had her to the cardiologist earlier this year at the U of MN and she was clear, so we took her in and had her spayed.
We had the surgery done at the U because there were some potential complications and we wanted only best should something go wrong (nothing did). On the bright side, the surgeon/instructor at the U fell in love with her while she was there and we ended up placing Isis with her. That was about a month ago; we have heard from Isis's new family and she is doing great.
I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I guess I wanted to post this to reiterate what I have always said. Don't go into breeding thinking that you'll make money or that a girl will just automatically get pregnant if you breed her. Doesn't always work that way. Missed breedings or, in the case of Isis, not being able to get pregnant is a fact of life. And imagine if Isis had been a puppy mill dog; if she was lucky, she would have been sold to anyone who had a few dollars... or worse, just put down.
I really miss Isis. She was the ball fetching queen in our house. No one could beat her! But she is very happy now in her new home and has a 10 year old lab as a buddy. Placing puppies is always hard, but placing one of our adults like Isis is a thousand times harder. So anyone thinking about going into breeding needs to think long and hard about it. There are tremendous rewards, but there are some real downsides too.