false pregancy

Question
i work at a kennnel that breeds dogs. we have chi to labs. during the month of dec we had 24 dogs due to come in to have puppies. out of the 24 we had 20 showing signs of pregancy. we had 2 dogs get milk but no puppies. the daschund has milk still after 12 days, the chi had milk for two weeks. the chi had a discharge of bright red blood but nothing else. is it normal for dogs to go thru false pregancy. this is the first for us.

Answer
Hello Pat

I have a personal and moral issues with puppy mills. I'm of the opinion that a puppy mill can be a either a small or a large operation.  

If a kennel is breeding that many dogs and mixing different breeds, I would think they would at least be knowledgeable in every aspect of breeding and understand complication that can arise both to the dams and the pups.   A large kennel operation should at the very least have a certified vet or tech on hand.

But since that doesn't seem to be the case in this situation, yes false pregnancy is very common in dogs.

And as a side note, spay and neutering can be done on pups as early as 7 weeks.