To all those who really want to breed their Rat Terriers.

 I believe that people who even only want to have one litter with their dogs are able to improve the rat terrier and can provide the fancy with lovely pups.

This said, the same standards for testing of the parent dogs and care and rearing of pups can be applied to professional and occasional breeders of rat terriers.

I know I am going all professor on everybody but this is important to our dogs! Please folks, check out the health threads and training threads to see what kind of problems are happening with our dogs and what kind of devestation emotionally can happen when people do not get the quality of puppies that any caring breeder should be providing! Even pets need to be healthy,  physically and emotionally!

 Loving caring breeders will try their best to breed the absolute best puppies that they are capable of providing for the fancy! The "fancy" being the old fasioned word for Rattie lovers everywhere!  So test your dogs before you breed, do your best to have healthy happy puppies and parent dogs, and enjoy the ratties for a long lifetime in your homes.

All the enjoyment and new freinds that you make while breeding rat terriers will make it all worthwhile to you and enrich your life beyond your expectations.

Thanks, Susan

Very well said!  Not only does this apply to Rat Terriers, but to any breed of dog.  Nothing irks me more than people who want to breed their female to just any old male just to "Have puppies"---without doing a little research on health and temperment issues, they are doing nothing more than overpopulating the already overpopulated dog world.

Irregardless of the uterus.....the dogs body can only sustain other lives so much.  It drains there body and in order to get their health back to optimum you need to give them some time.  Breeding one cycle after another, human or dog, deprives the mother greatly.   Top expert or not, I do not agree with this nor would I support it.

Pardon me for disagreeing but Dr. Van Hutchinson sounds like a person who thinks these dogs are items.. not living beings.

Every pregnancy takes vital nutrients out of the body in order to support the pregnancy. No matter what the mammal is... if it's bred EVERY cycle - eventually it will die.

Of COURSE the uterus is healthier during pregnancy... the nutrients stripped from the rest of the body are used to keep the uterus and babies healthy.

Good and wise words Susan.

They need to also realize, that testing does not mean that there will NEVER be a problem, but, at least the testing breeding is doing their best.  It must, IN TIME, increase the odds of better and healthier babies.

Testing will not be the be all and end all overnight. The more we test, the better our breed will get. Not only test, but submit them to OFA. The good and the bad results. Breeders that test and use this data base learn from it all and it helps them make wiser choices in their programs. It can and will get better..the more dogs submitted the better it will get.

KnD has dogs with issues listed. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Everybody has issues, but, not everybody shares them. Not everybody knows about them..as they do not test..so, how would they know?

This site may help... Understanding OFA and CHIC www.kndkennels.com/ofainfo.html

I also believe a big part of being a responsible breeder, is to, spay and neuter all pet puppies. No matter the breed or how they came to be (meaning mutts). This is the only way to be certain that your babies will NOT end up in a puppy mill or another statistic contributing to over populated shelters etc. .. JMO of course and many disagree with it..

Hi Squiggie,

May I ask.. Where did you get this information and when was the studies done? or did he do studies at all? Time frame in a study is a big factor.

I will add. We have bred dogs back to back before.. but not continuously no matter what. I am speaking from experiance and my own opinions. We, would NEVER breed a dog before 2.Now that we know the importance of testing.  All testing has to be done before we breed now and they cannot be completed until a dog is 2. Not all dogs can handle being bred back to back. It depends on the dog. Some of our dogs, like I said, we can. They handle carrying and whelping the babies much better then others do. Twice is still our limit. ALL NEED A BREAK at some point and I don't care who or what the experts are and say. Not all dogs should be bred at 2 even. It may take some more time to mature than the others. We have a dog here that is now bred for her first time and she is 4. She needed to mature a bit and the timing had to be right.

I haven't read your whole post below but I glanced and saw something about breeding prime is 6-10 years?? I think that's what it said?? Agin JMO.. but at 10 it's time to think about retiring that baby that has been loyal and served you well.  They need to become a grandma dog, couch potato, getting fat for other reasons. She has earned it.

 (nothing better than a dandy uterus!)  haha

(sorry... couldn't resist, Mary Beth!)

   Well, it's better than a not-dandy uterus!  I don't know about the uterus being healthy though if a human or animal has repeated pregnancies for years...doesn't the human uterus start sliding down after a while - then comes the incontinence, etc.?  And cows sometimes "slip the calf bed"  - meaning the uterus slides out with the calf!

I just have to agree with everyone else here on this.  This is ONE person, he is not the almighty reproduction god.  Nobody knows it all and in this case I think he is mistaken.  If you are talking the health of the puppies, then I guess maybe he could have a leg to stand on.....but a mother is involved in the whole thing too and to let her suffer for the sake of making $ on puppies heat after heat, year after year,  should be considered abuse because this type of breeding is called a puppymill. 

My big concerns about this gentleman is.... I have been to seminars on reproduction and their seminars consisted of, how many puppies you can get out of a litter and many times. Not a word on health testing, the health of your breeding dogs or how to keep them healthy.

I must add. I have not been to this man seminars nor do I know him. He may not be like the ones I've seen at all, but, all of the ones I've been to, have been the same.  How man puppies can you get out of that bitch.  I go to these seminars because, I take what I can use. I might not agree with it all, but, they do at times also have good advise on whelping littters etc.

Why are "you" upset that we question the "expert"?  People should question and not take what anyone says as fact. No matter who they are. You should question me, like I question him and YOU. You should also question him or anyone else that "KNOWS IT".

People need to ask.... EVERYONE..self proclaimed experts, your vet, your mentors and anyone you think that has had experience on the subject.

People can find anything they want on the enternet to say what they want it to. i.e.... BARF or raw feeding. Some claim it is the best and only way. Others claim it is bad and you'll slowly kill your dog.

Question around and do what works for them/you. If YOUR expert gives you what you need and want ..well, more power to you. But those us of that have seen things that are in this subject,  and want to question his or anyone's methods then we can. We have that right too.

I take a high offence to you saying that I, me, does not care about backyard breeders. YOUR WRONG and you do NOT have the right to lay cliam to my thoughts.

That is all I have to say on this subject ...

Hi, just wanted to add that there are a lot of irresponsible owners as well as breeders.  Education is a must I think.  Monte

Hey, I heard on here when I first started that everyone was friendly and there would be no yelling.

Having bred dogs for many years, I don't know everything either, but have my opinions and such too.  After reading many books on breeding and genetics, etc.  I have read and talked to several vets about continuous breeding, heat after heat.  The vets I talked to said if the dogs are in good health it is fine.  Having said that, who and why would you unless you have a reason for it.  People in the great usa can make $$ from breeding if they want to it is a free country even if people don't agree with it.  Some people are puppy mills, some people are uninformed, some people are informed and want to.  I preferred not to as we only bred about 4 bitches a year even tho we had more, we didn't need more puppies for our breeding program.  Lots of ways to look at things. 

I also believe that Dr. Hutch. is a very well regarded expert in his field.  Monte

Oh gosh, I forgot why I came to this forum.   I am looking for another small rat puppy about 3-4 months old, mini or toy.  We live in Washington state, does anyone know a good reputable breeder?  thanks  Monte