# Number of dogs, number of litters?



## norac (Mar 19, 2009)

I have recently joined the forum and have been enjoying learning more about Havanese, which we're considering for our next dog. 

As I've been browsing websites of breeders (for Hav and Cotons --also considering), and it seems to me that many breeders have a lot of dogs (8 - 12) and some have quite a few litters a year (2 or 3 up to eight or even more). 

How many dogs is it reasonable for a breeder to have and give sufficient time and attention to? How many litters is reasonable for a year? How many litters would a bitch have? 

I realize that it's not an absolute number but I'm just trying to understand better. 

I have some other questions as well but will post separately. Thanks.


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## MopTop Havanese (Sep 25, 2006)

You are going to get different answers/opinions from every breeder.
Personally my dogs are not baby-making machines. Sometimes I skip a heat inbetween litters, sometimes I will do a back-to-back litter. I have had a max of 2 litters a year. (heats are every 6 months, so there is a potential for one dog to have 2 litters a year).
I don't have my dogs so they can pump out puppies. I have my dogs because I love them. They are part of my family and involved in our everyday activities. Raising a litter is alot of work. If I can't put 100% into a litter, I won't have one.
For some breeders, this is their 'business'- for others a fun hobby. For every breeder their choices are going to be different.


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## Carefulove (Mar 20, 2009)

Most breeders I have asked breed their females 3-4 times max and I read that somewhere as well. But then again, I am not a breeder.


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## DAJsMom (Oct 27, 2006)

I am not a breeder, but I also think the number of litters that is reasonable can vary between breeders. Dusty's breeder rarely has more than one litter a year. Another local breeder (who shows, health tests, all that, and who I have met personally) had I think four litters at once when I met her. I thought it was a lot, but all her dogs seemed healthy and with great personalities, the puppies were well socialized. But she had a lot of help with caring for the pups and lots of people in and out to help socialize. All the litters were right there in her family room. The place was happy and clean, but busy. I couldn't really find fault with it. She did say it would be a while after that before she had any more puppies! It may have been that her girls all came into season at once that year. I don't know. We didn't get a puppy from her because we were not ready to make a decision and still trying to decide if we could handle a dog in our lives. I just think that the number of litters is one of many things to consider when looking at breeders.


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## Petaluna (May 9, 2008)

I am not a breeder either, but I think I agree with Joelle. I visited breeders on both ends of the spectrum that way and some in between. I think it varies with the situation. 

One breeder I met last year had more puppies than I was confident she could handle, given what I saw with her set-up, her health, and what I was afraid I couldn't see. I didn't get a good feeling about it, so I didn't get a dog from her. 

On the flip side, the breeder I'm buying my May puppy from currently has 3 litters, but one is at her daughter's (they both breed and show, and will take turns watching puppies when the other cannot be there), and she only works 2 days a week, so she is with the puppies almost full time, and is very focused on their proper development. The part about how often to breed a female - that I can't comment on, since I don't know much about what is appropriate or healthy for them.


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## norac (Mar 19, 2009)

Thanks everyone for the comments. I kind of figured that there would be individual variation. We are in no rush and have lots of time to learn more about the breed and breeders. There will certainly be more questions coming from me...


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## jillnors2 (Apr 12, 2007)

I think a lot of breeders don't want to admit how many dogs they have! I know one breeder I talked to had 15 dogs and kept getting 'puppy backs' and had about 4 litters a year...I don't know how anyone could care for so many dogs.


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## Havtahava (Aug 20, 2006)

You'd be surprised Jill, especially when they don't work outside the house and there is more than one person (human) living there. Unfortunately, unlike working outside the house, you don't ever get a day off.

Edited to add: I don't have anywhere near 15 dogs, but when I had two litters (8 puppies) and a couple of my puppies here for boarding, it got a little nutty. Frankly, 8-12 week old puppies are a heck of a lot more work than multiple adults.


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## jillnors2 (Apr 12, 2007)

I just know with 2 dogs- my dogs get a walk every single day and each one has a class once a week so they are very well socialized -and there's no way to do that with 15 dogs. Not necessarily a bad thing but definately different.


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## Hav a lot of pets (Apr 4, 2008)

"Frankly, 8-12 week old puppies are a heck of a lot more work than multiple adults."

Kimberly,

That is hysterical but true.


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## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

We have 12 dogs but have a pretty efficient setup and most are in puppy cuts. The others have pretty easy care coats anyway. They don't live in expens or kennel runs. We aren't sideline breeders (work another job and have puppies as a sideline) but we still only have about three litters a year. 

It has to be pretty unusual circumstances for us to have more than one litter at the time. We can give one litter the maximum amount of training and socialization and like to limit the number of litters to about three a year so we can have some other life as well. Also for the ones we want to keep, we like to have full time to devote to them after their littermates leave.

The number of litters per bitch varies with the individual but we usually retire one by six or seven years old and we skip cycles most of the time. There are a lot of retired people living around us on the lake and when the right home comes along one of our retired ones goes to get individual pampering. 

We often have three girls in heat at the same time and only breed one. They usually come in heat in groups when they live in a pack and that saves us from always having to separate the pack. We do have various yards for when we do have to separate them.

We don't stay on the show circuit either. When one finishes, they don't keep showing. We've never specialed a dog and most of the time just show in shows that we can drive to within a couple of hours from home.


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## JASHavanese (Apr 24, 2007)

norac said:


> How many litters is reasonable for a year? How many litters would a bitch have?
> QUOTE]
> 
> There's a post in here somewhere that I wrote over a year ago. Someone posted that vet schools said to breed 5-6 litters so I called all of the vet schools, read them the post that was written, and posted their response here in the forum (which didn't match the post that said to breed that much)
> I like having one litter a year but last year days after one of my girls went out of heat, darned if she and my male tie. I already had a planned litter in the tummy of my other bitch. I don't even want to think of another litter for a loooooong time! We had 3 litters from one girl, always skipping a heat, and she's spayed now, and one oops litter from another girl.


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