Whelped only 1 puppy

Question
QUESTION: My 5 yr old Brittany whelped yesterday, but only had one puppy.  She usually has 6-8 pups in a litter.  Our stud that we used before died, so we got a new Brittany male.  He is not quite a year old when he tied the female.  Could his age have something to do with her only having one puppy.  This is her 5th litter over the last 3 or so years.  She is also acting very strange.  She keeps getting up in her box while carrying the pup in her mouth and circles around inside the box several times and lays back down again.  She is doing this about every 10-15 minutes.  I have never had her do this before.  I'm concerned that she may hurt the pup and thought about taking it from her.  Do you think it would be best to take the pup away before she hurts him?  Thanks in advance for your help

ANSWER: Hi Dena. The reason she may have had only one pup this time is because of the amount of litters she's had in such a short period of time. If a dog is bred constantly back to back, she may start to produce very few eggs. This is the body's way of protecting itself. I'm also assuming that she's not a really young dog? The older a female gets, a lot of the time she'll produce fewer eggs. She may be acting so anxious because she only has one puppy to concentrate on. When a dog has more than one puppy in a litter, she has all of them to take care of. When there's only one, it may confuse her, and she's not quite sure what to do, and the lone pup gets all of the attention, which may not be a good thing if mom's anxious or upset.  If she doesn't stop this behavior, you'll most likely have to take the pup from her if he's to make it. Try to keep her calm. Don't let a lot of people in her room. See if this helps her to calm down. If it doesn't, then you'll have to hand raise the pup to protect him. Also, try to put a few small stuffed toys in with her and the puppy. It worked for a Dane breeder friend of mine when her dog only had one puppy, and mom was acting like this. Good luck!

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QUESTION: We had planned to only breed her once a year, but was matted a couple of times when we didn't want her to be.  My question then would be how much should you be breeding a female Brittany.  And do you think we may need to retire this female and get another one to breed.  Now that I have started breeding Brittanys, I have people contacting me wanting puppies.  So we are looking into to getting more females.  I would like to make sure that we do the breeding "right".  We try our best by getting good quality breed dogs.  We haven't been doing any genetic testing, but by reading some of the stuff on this site, guess we will do that too.  We do vaccinate our dogs and puppies and screen the potential buyers before selling the puppies.  I think we are doing a pretty good job at becoming "quality breeders".  Any info you have would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks

Answer
Now, this is just my opinion. :-) I personally breed my girls 2 times. I feel that twice is plenty. Within two litters you will know if that dog is producing the type of puppies that you want. Then, you can work with the pups that the dog had. Look to the future of your breeding program. Always try to think about what the future generations will be like. If I were you, I would retire this girl, and start over. My best adice to someone who really wants to get into breeding is to sit down, and figure out where you want to go with your breeding program. Then, try to find a dog that will take you in that direction. Be prepared to start all over if it doesn't work out the way you want it to. Get a second opinion about your dogs, from someone who's not around them everyday, someone's who's not partial. :-) I would suggest buying one female, and find a really good male for her. You want quality, not quantity. Then, work from that. The second best advice I can give you is to look into what genetic problems the Brittany has, and test for that before breeding. Especially hip dysplasia. Check into your breed's parent club on the internet, and see what health issues it has. You can go to akc.org to find your parent breed club's web site. Puppy buyers now days are very interested in buying pups that come from health tested parents. You not only want to produce puppies that are beautiful and meet their breed's standard, you want to produce puppies that are healthy. You don't have to be a big show breeder to be a good, responsible breeder. You just need to love the breed, want to improve it with each generation, and try your best to offer healthy puppies from health tested parents. That's really it. I'd suggest studying your breed's AKC standard, and be honest with yourself as to how your dogs stand up to it. Visit some dog shows. Get a better insight as to what your breed is suppose to look like, and what it was bred for. I am in no way saying that you have bad dogs. Every dog has some fault, even the big show dogs. I just want you to be more informed when you buy another female, and get a really good start at this. I truely believe that you do want to be a good breeder, and everyone has to start from somewhere. Before you go to buy that next girl, study, study, study. Before you use a stud, make sure he has all of his health tests that are needed by your breed. Find a stud (he's hardly ever in a person's own backyard :-) that compliments your girl, and will help with her faults. Again, I don't mean this to be mean, but simply making sure that the pups have had their shots isn't enough now days. Buyers want healthy pups that are a really good example of their breed. If you would like anymore help with anything, or help finding more information on your breed, just let me know. I'd be happy to help.