What would be the purpose of the breeding? if you want to breed her to keep one of her puppies, then I suggest you either go back to the breeder of your bitch or find another breeder with dogs from similar lines. With Labradors, as they are so numerous, you would have little trouble locating a pup from similar breeding lines as your bitch. Unless of your bitch is unregistered as you seem to be unsure about this. When you purchased your puppy, you should have been given her full KC registration papers. You can then (with these papers) transfer ownership of the pup from the breeder to you. Unless you have these documents, she is NOT KC registered. It sounds to me like her breeder is trying to make excuses...either you have the official papers for your bitch or you don't. If your bitch is unregistered, you cannot register any puppies she has with the KC.

I really can't state this fact enough that unless you genuinely know what you are doing and have a bitch of the highest quality, you will struggle to sell the puppies. I am not being rude, just honest. Good breeders have waiting lists for their puppies. There is a reason that people are willing to wait for a puppy from a good breeder. As I said, there is great deal of choice for puppy buyers to purchase a Lab from excellent lines. You have to ask yourself what you would do if half the puppies don't sell, which is a very real possibility. Could you cope with 4, 5, 6...20 week old Lab pups that couldn't sell that are teething and ruining your house?

Hey guys - we all had to start somewhere !

I have been breeding the occasional, quality litter of English Setters for 11 years now. I know where they all live and keep in contact with their owners - it is lovely to extend your circle of friends by welcoming people into your doggy family. It is also lovely to keep a dog you have bred yourself.

I have to say that it is vital that both parents have up to date health certificates because I dont know about you, but I feel responsible for the welfare of every puppy I have bred and would not want to feel that I had either deliberately or ignorantly bred a puppy with serious health problems when it could so easily be avoided - plus the new owner might well sue you !! All these health problems are not visible to the naked eye and your bitch may well appear perfectly normal but still be either a sufferer or a carrier.

Any puppies borm to a KC unregistered bitch would be what I call a 'pocket money' litter - sold cheaply at pocket money prices for pocket money. But this does not mean you should risk not having the health tests - for the above reasons.

My last litter was out of Delyth who has had a sucessful show career and has gained her Stud Book Number and the Sire is a Show Champion. I only decided to have the litter when I had orders for 4 puppies. Delyth had a terrible time and nearly died but for the efforts of a team of vets at my local Vet hospital. She had primary inertia and the puppies were born by caesarian. The placentas would not detach from the uterus and she had to be spayed. As a result of a hormone imbalance she ate some strange things (as some women do in pregnancy) and had to have major surgery at the same time as all this to remove hessian and other foreign bodies from her digestive system.

I had to hand feed 5 puppies whilst she recovered in hospital. All in all this litter cost me over £3,000 - so I didnt even break even.

Then all the puppies have to be health tested and It always costs me most of my holidays from work to bring up a litter.

So you see it is a labour of love and commitment and holds quite a lot of risk for the bitch.

Back to the beginning. My first litter was 11 years ago and Poppy was a lovely girl with good blood lines and clear health tests - she was also 'pick' of her particular litter. She was mated to a Show Champion and I hoped for a show quality litter. However, it was a pet quality litter. I kept 2 dog puppies to show - I still have them here - Fleet and Flash. Neither did much in the ring - They have clear health tests but I have not used either at stud because they are just not good enough in spite of being fantastic pets.

I learned from this that I needed a better quality bitch and after 5 months research I put my name down for a litter with the breeder of my choice and eventually, along came Thalice who has produced some real quality stock.

So my advice is, if you want to breed, get yourself a better quality bitch from a proper breeder. Tell them what you want to do and they should sell you a quality brood/show/working bitch and they will support you with help and advice and where to go for a suitable stud dog. Love your girl for what she is a beautiful pet, buy yourself a copy of 'The Book of the Bitch' and most of all enjoy her.

Thalice's Mum