This is a question I get asked often, but up until today I have been giving a ball park estimate of 1-2 litters a year. Today, on a whim, I decided to go to AKC and look up every litter I have produced while breeding Standard Poodles. Here is the data, with some information on who I kept, bred, and who was removed from the program.
31 Oct 2002: Tori x Merlot – Fostered Jackie but was spayed due to teeth issues.
31 Dec 2002: Sadie x Major – Co-owned Macy
16 Apr 2004: Sadie x Merlot – Fostered Remy, Co-owned Rain. Remy was spayed due to stressy temperament.
12 Jun 2005: Macy x Been – Kept Cami, but was spayed due to stressy temperament. Fostered Gracie – but was spayed due to two litter mates developing Addison’s.
14 Jan 2007: Rain x Levi – Fostered Georgie
10 Jan 2008: Rain x Flash – Fostered Zelda
11 Mar 2008 Charm x Levi – Kept nothing. Addison’s and Auto Immune issues in litter.
10 Jun 2009: Bree x Drexel – Co-owned River
21 Feb 2011: Bree x Bret – Fostered Quincy
26 Mar 2012: Georgie x River – Fostered Hazel but broke her leg and could not be shown / bred.
18 Jan 2012: Zelda x River – Co-owned Libby
15 Nov 2013: Jazz x River – Fostered Cadence. Melody, and Dylan. Melody and Dylan never bred because Cadence had to have C-section.
28 Mar 2014 Ziva x Jordon – Kept nothing, two pups later developed entropion
09 Mar 2015: Ziva x Cory – Co-own Ista. Never bred due to health issues in later litter.
01 Jan 2017: Ziva x Cory – Kept nothing. One puppy with entropion at 8 weeks.
17 Jul 2017: Cadence x Tango – Kept nothing.
05 Oct 2017: Jazz x Tag – Fostered Jingle. Co-own Newt
07 Jan 2018: Libby x Clooney – Kept nothing, small litter
14 Oct 2018: Libby x Ashes – Co-own Ember
I bought my first Standard Poodle in 1999, but did not have my first litter until 2002. This means I have 16 years breeding experience.
19 litters divided by 16 years = 1.1875
I’ve placed 3 litters that I didn’t own the mother in order to help out friends. Billie’s litter I whelped, but the rest I took as older pups.
02 Nov 2015: Billie x Cash – Fostered Mabel
27 Aug 2016: Tyra x Dash – Kept Cody (arrived here at 9 weeks)
12 April 2018: Bessie x Hank – Kept nothing. (arrived here at 12 weeks)
If you add in these extra 3 litters, it brings my total to: 1.375
River and Cody are totally bored with mom working on the computer. Naps are far better than data!
Interesting stuff. I might do a spreadsheet at some point and add in all health issues, litter size, males vs females per litter. Maybe after I am not brushing two show coats! Time to get off and groom a dog.
~Becky