Too young???

Question
Hi, I was just wondering if you could let me know how young is too young to have puppies? I have a 7 month old female Shih Tzu and a 10 month male Shih Tzu and the female when into heat a couple of weeks ago. I have caught them in the act and now her nipples are extremely swollen. He is quite a bit bigger than her, so if she is I'm afraid the puppies will be too big for her to handle and I don't want something bad to happen to her, or I'm thinking she might be too young to know how to handle it, any advice??

Answer
Hi Sam

I agree, she may be too young to handle it and some young mothers try and kill their pups or reject them.  

If the male you were planning on using is larger than the female she should have been fully mature.  

What I would recommend is talk to your vet have him monitor your female and discuss the very real possibility of a c-section.

Good luck.