pregnant bitches

Question
My 12 month old bitch (jack russell) is i think pregnant. lots have people have been telling me she is far too young to have puppies. she has mated with my other jack russell so it wasn@t that we put them together to make them breed, they just did. surely if she was not old enough to breed then nature would not allow it? Also i noticed after mating that her nipples were really bruised! they have since healed and are now just big, why do you think that was?

Answer
Eleven-year-old girls can get pregnant, too, but it doesn't mean they are ready to become mothers.

Your bitch is too young, but she may do okay. Many, though, are not mentally ready at that age, so be prepared to clean puppies and otherwise take over a lot of the work that she would normally do if she decides to throw the job back into your lap.

I have never had a bitch with bruised nipples so I cannot imagine what that could be from. The only thing I can think of is that since the breeding was appparently unsupervised that the male was pounding on her in the wrong spot for too long a time. If that was the case, he was probably more sore than she was.