pregnant female

Question
Hi Cindi,
I am a small GSD breeder, producing only one to two litters per year from good quality imported breeding stock. My question is... our female due Feb1/08 has recently had her ears go down, she is 16 months old and this is her first litter, she is very large girl..we raised her and held her back to keep for breeding, her ears have been perfectly normal until now, doing the typical up/down cycle but have been up completely since about 6months .... my vet has not ever seen this happen before and is concerned it maybe reflecting a calcium deficiency... or an extremely large litter, Sophie was in a litter of 11 herself. Have you ever heard of this? I am very nervous about calcium supplements
but now I am concerned for the puppies health as well. We will be xraying shortly to determine how many puppies as we
sometime elect to do c-section on large litters. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. thank you.
kathy

Answer
Hi Kathy
I'm afraid I'm likely to offend you with my answer.But since you asked for my opinion I have to give you an honest one. I don't agree with breeding a sixteen month old female to begin with. That's akin to a thirteen year old girl giving birth. I tend to agree with your vet , it is likely a calcium deficiency. I also do not understand elective csections. If you have dogs that are too immature to whelp a litter naturally (and how can you know that when they are not allowed to labor) then they shouldn't be bred. This is a breed that should and does free whelp. Small breeder or not, your dogs should be fully tested and fully mature prior to breeding. I've not heard of a bitch whose ears went down during pregnancy but then again I don't honestly know anyone who breeds such a young dog either.
Good luck
Cindi