As the popularity of Golden Retriever is increasing day by day, everyone wants this dog in their family. So, to meet this outrageous demand of these dogs, breeders are constantly searching for a healthy way of breeding Golden Retriever. Thus, the produced puppies can be active with a longer lifespan and lesser health issues.
But what is the healthy way of breeding Golden Retrievers? To breed these dogs, you need to prepare yourself first. And then search for mating partners that will produce healthier offspring. Besides this, you should understand the gene type of the breeding dogs and understand the consequences that follow after breeding.
Furthermore, frequent health checkups, consulting with the Vet, taking care of the puppies, and registering them in the AKC are a few more essential things you need to do.
Undoubtedly, I will explain each of these points in detail as you read further. But before you disclosing the healthy way of breeding Golden Retrievers, let us know a little about breeding in general.
Are you familiar with the term breeding?
Do breeding and mating mean the same thing?
What Is Breeding?
Ever since humans knew the importance of dogs in their lives, they started breeding, cross-breeding, and mix-breeding to produce the one that fits their family and work.
So, breeding is a process of producing offspring with improved qualities, attributes, and stronger genes. Furthermore, raising and grooming the produced offspring to give them a qualitative lifestyle also encompass breeding.
However, most peoples consider mating and breeding as the same. Is mating and breeding the same?
What Is The Difference Between Mating And Breeding?
Some people use mating and breeding along with each other. Thus, there is a myth that they are the same. So, you should be clear about the differences between these two terms.
Generally, breeding is a collective process of selective mating, producing, hybridizing, and raising a Golden Retriever (or pet). But the act of paring or matching sexually to breed is mating.
Thus, mating is a term that comes under breeding and deals with reproduction only. Moreover, breeding includes selecting mating partners, analysis of gene type, selective mating, grooming, and raising of puppies.
I hope now you are clear about the difference between these two terms. So, let’s talk about the best age for breeding Golden Retrievers.
What Is The Best Age For Breeding A Golden Retriever?
Unlike humans, Golden Retrievers mature sexually at a very young age. Thus, they can breed to produce the younger ones too early.
Moreover, the best age for breeding depends on the type of breed, health condition, sex, and medical history.
So, in general, smaller dogs like Goldendoodles mature before they are four months, while larger dog breeds like English Golden Retrievers mature after they are six months older.
Furthermore, a male Golden Retriever sexually matures and starts mounting in search of a mating partner at the early age of about five months. But the females need to get heat cycles to attain maturity.
Even though these breeds mature earlier, it doesn’t mean that breeding at a very young age is safe. Usually, the reproductive organs of Golden Retrievers are weak and immature at this young age. So, the best age for these breeds is after they are about two years old.
However, the best fertile age for male Golden Retriever is about 12 to 15 months. And similarly, for females, it is after the completion of three to four heat cycles (after about 18-24 months). Hence, if you are considering breeding your pal, keep the age in mind.
Besides this, since breeding is a natural process, Golden Retrievers have a natural urge to mate after a certain age.
Thus, don’t you want to know when your pal desires to breed?
What Are The Signs That Indicates Your Golden Retriever Wants To Breed?
Since breeding is a natural process of producing offspring to continue their generation, Golden Retriever will get an instinctive drive to breed even without you trying for it.
Moreover, these dogs have a natural urge to mate and breed when they are highly fertile.
However, since they cannot communicate in verbal language, they use signs to indicate that they want to breed. Thus, these signs are as follows:
Signs That Indicate Male Golden Retriever Wants To Breed
Unlike females, male Golden Retriever shows only some subtle signs to indicate its desire to breed. But if you are conscious enough, you could no doubt distinguish these signs from their usual behavior.
Moreover, the signs that these dogs show when they desire to breed are:
- Anxiety and aggression
- Excessive barking
- Mounting
- Frequent urination
- Licks the genital areas
- Escapes from the windows
- Follows the female in heat
Signs That Indicate Female Golden Retriever Wants To Breed
Since Golden Retrievers can breed after they get heat, the signs of the heat cycle contradict the desire for breeding. However, these dogs become fertile and urge for mating only after the completion of the proestrus stage.
Hence, you will notice female Retrievers showing the desire to breed after they reach 5-12 days of estrus stage.
Furthermore, the signs that indicate female Golden Retriever wants to breed are:
- Restlessness and panting
- Raising of the tail
- Vaginal discharge (either pinkish or bloody discharge)
- Opening the rare ends for copulatory tie
- Tail flagging
- Vaginal swelling
Although, breeding is a natural process. But to get the puppies according to your desire, you need to breed your pal in a way. So, you should know the healthy way of breeding Golden Retrievers.
Thus, do you know the healthy way of breeding your Golden Retriever?
If your answer is no, don’t worry. Read further to get your answer.
17 Healthy Ways Of Breeding Golden Retriever
If you want the puppies as you want, be very careful during the breeding process and selection of mating partners for your pet. Besides this, there is much more to breeding Golden Retrievers apart from just mating or copulation.
Thus, I will be disclosing some steps for the healthy way of breeding your Golden Retriever as you read further. Hence, they are as follows:
Research About Breeding Golden Retriever
Breeding the dogs to get the best out of them has always been a passion of people. Besides this, the breeding process is both challenging and exciting for breeders because you will never know the outcome until the birth of the puppies.
Furthermore, the breeding process requires a lot of science, devotion, and determination to produce Golden Retrievers that are the best for the family. So, you must prepare yourself enough before deciding to breed your pal. For this, you can follow the following ideas:
- Study the breed standard of your Golden Retriever in detail.
- Attend dog events and ask breeders questions to clear your doubts.
- Research about your pet on different websites
- Read everything you get about breeding and take all information you get in books, magazines, and articles about your dog.
Don’t Forget The Motto Of Breeding Is To Produce Better Offspring.
Further, always stick to the main objective of breeding your Golden Retriever. While you conduct research, you should search for the best ways to improve the temperaments and attributes of the offspring.
Besides this, analyze your pet. And look for a mate that eliminates its flaws and brings out the best from its puppies. Thus, evaluate the pro and cons of these breeds and focus on breeding qualitative puppies with fewer flaws.
Moreover, owners often overshadow the bad points of their pets because they love their pets a lot. So, don’t be a fool to ignore the flaws of your pet. Instead, try to note the bad attributes of your pet to find the perfect match.
Understand The Responsibility Before Taking It
Although, you might assume Golden Retriever puppies are adorable with less mess. But you have no idea how troublesome these puppies can be. Thus, grooming and caring for them is a hectic job where you need to be alert 24/7.
Besides this, breeding your pal comes with lots of responsibility. You need to feed the puppies qualitative and nutritious meals, give them comfortable shelter, manage their training schedule, and give love and attention. And it costs a lot of time, effort, and money.
Do you have much leisure time? Are you financially stable to raise Golden Retriever puppies?
Select The Best Mating Partner For Your Golden Retriever
Once you analyze the flaws of your dog and take responsibility to care for the possible puppies, you should start searching for a perfect match for your pal. However, to get the best mating partner, you can look for the following things:
- The mating partner should be a registered dog.
- Check its compatibility with your dog.
- Select a dog with a strong bloodline that can eliminate the weakness of your pal. Along with this, it should emphasize in enhancing the good qualities of your dog,
- Since the lifespan of Golden Retriever is short, you may look for a dog with longer life.
- Keep in mind the temperament and health condition of the mating dog.
- Always choose a dog with a good temperament and lesser hereditary health issues.
Study About The History And Genes Of Mating Dogs
While selecting the best mate for your pet, it is essential to research the history and genes. For healthier puppies, it is necessary to know the medical status, health risks, and genetic problems of both the mating partner in-depth.
Furthermore, study the genes and hereditary illness of the dogs in detail. For this, you can go through books, websites, articles, journals, and literature. And, after knowing all these, select the dog breeds that can balance the flaws and improve the qualities of a Golden Retriever.
Finalize The Perfect Match For Your Golden Retriever
Finally, after detailed study, health checkups, genetic screening, and some evaluation choose the partner best for your pet. Furthermore, when you select the perfect stud for your female Golden Retriever, work out on a contract with the owner of the stud.
Besides this, write the obligation, circumstances, and fees of the stud clearly to make agreements. And then, make a contract with both your and stud owner’s sign to settle the possible disputes about the health issues after mating before it occurred.
Take Your Golden Retrieve For Pre-Breeding Check-Ups
Generally, a pre-breeding checkup is the best way to know whether your Golden Retriever is ready for breeding or not. Furthermore, the checkup includes regular veterinary care, screening for genetic problems, pre-breeding tests, and nutritional checks so that you can know the fitness and health status of your pal.
Moreover, puppies of overweight dogs are more susceptible to health issues like diabetes, obesity, constipation, thyroid diseases, etc. So, you should take care of these issues. Besides this, your pal needs vaccination before mating to avoid mating problems.
Encourage Your Golden Retriever To Mate
Once you find the perfect mating partner for your pal, you should encourage them to mate. Although, mating is a natural process. But to ensure that your pal mates with the selected dog, you need to supervise and encourage it.
Moreover, the natural mating process includes three different stages:
- Introduction stage- You need to introduce your pal to its mate during this stage. If your dog resents him at first, give them a little time to get familiar. Thus, you can wait for few days before mating.
- Mounting stage- After male Golden Retrievers smell the scent of females’ heat, the drive for a mating increase in them. As a result, they start barking and mounting for females.
- Tie stage- When your pet gets familiar with its mate, it turns around and makes a copulatory tie for mating. Usually, this tie is too strong and leads to the fertilization of your pet’s egg.
Furthermore, some dogs avoid mating. Thus, for breeding, artificial insemination is a process in which a fresh or semen impregnates the female dogs. In addition, it is the most convenient method that avoids mating problems in your pet.
Watch For The Signs Of Pregnancy In Your Golden Retriever
After mating, your pet might get pregnant. Moreover, the gestational period lasts for 63 days and has three trimesters. However, these dogs don’t show signs in the first trimester.
But the prominent signs of pregnancy are:
- Fatigue and tiredness
- Decrease in mobility
- Morning sickness
- Appetite loss in first and last trimester
- Your pal is always hungry in the second trimester
- Change in behavior like sadness, depression, anxiety, etc.
- Enlarged and darker nipples
- Weight gain and growth of the abdomen
- Nesting behavior
Ensure Your Golden Retriever Is Getting Proper Nutrition
Usually, Golden Retriever gives birth to about four to six puppies in a single pregnancy. Thus, it needs 50% more nutrition than the average adult dog to ensure the proper growth and development of puppies in the womb.
Therefore, you should give a balanced meal to your pet. Also, ensure that its meal increases according to its weight. Furthermore, frequent meals are good options than single heavy meals.
Besides this, you should also include all the essential food supplements in your pet’s daily food intake. Moreover, emphasize protein sources, omega-rich food, and natural snacks while feeding your pal.
Help Your Golden Retriever During Delivery Of Puppies
Sometimes, the dogs ignore the umbilical cord and don’t remove the placental sac after the delivery of the puppies. And as a consequence, Golden Retrievers suffer from cancer.
Therefore, to mitigate the possibility of cancer, you must cut the umbilical cord and remove the sac. Besides this, your pet might experience hormonal imbalance with immense pain during delivery. So, to help your pal ease out some stress, you need to call them in a soothing, low, and soft voice to calm their anxiety and fear.
Take Ideas And Advice From The Vet
Talking to the Vet about the complications during breeding, finding solutions about each issue can be helpful to promote the healthier life of your Golden Retriever. furthermore, you need to seek the help of the Vet as immediate as possible in the following circumstances:
- Whelping and crying
- Trembling, panting, and shivering of your pet
- No signs of labor after the gestational period
- Strong contraction without delivery of puppies
- Bloody or unusual vaginal discharge before delivery
Make Sure Golden Retriever Puppies Are Happy, Healthy, And Comfortable
Taking responsibility for puppies is a hectic job. And you need to be careful about caring for, grooming, and parenting these smaller ones. Furthermore, these younger ones are susceptible to many health hazards due to weaker immune systems.
Besides this, they can’t control their body temperature and needs to be warm due to the lack of dense and longer skin coat. So, try to keep the temperature of the surroundings within 85 to 90 ºC.
Moreover, it is better to manage a temperature of 80 ºC for the one-week-old puppy. And as the pal becomes more than four weeks older, you can reduce the temperature to 75 ºC.
Along with this, you should manage a comfortable carte box for the puppies. In addition, keep the noise low in the house so that your puppy can cope easily with the surrounding. Also, make sure you spend enough time with your pal to build a strong bond with them.
AKC Registration Of Golden Retriever Puppies
After the birth of the puppies, it is essential to register the puppies with the AKC. Since these dogs have an outrageous history of development signs past to now, it is necessary to fill up the form to keep track of information. Moreover, you can register your puppy in AKC in two ways.
First of all, register the puppies online through the Online Litter Registration. Or, you can download the application, fill it and then send it to the AKC.
You can use any one of these according to your convenience. Just confirm that the registration of the puppies is complete.
Slowly Introduce Golden Retriever Puppies To Solid Foods (Weaning)
Although, younger puppies rely solely upon the mother’s milk in the first eight weeks. But they can depend on breast milk forever. So, you should start weaning your puppies with chicken broth, milk, and vegetable soup slowly.
After about two months, you can even introduce moist dog foods in its meal. Start with fluid and increase the hardness of the food slowly.
Decide Whether You Want The Puppies To Send In New Homes Or Keep
Since a Golden Retriever gives birth to about 4-6 puppies at once, keeping all these puppies and parenting them needs a lot of time and effort. Besides this, these dogs resemble the attributes of kids.
Thus, keeping many puppies in one place can be disastrous. Therefore, it is better to send some of the puppies to know their new homes. However, before giving the responsibility of your puppy to others, ask these questions:
- Why does the person want a dog? Why did he choose this breed?
- Is the person capable of fulfilling the needs of the puppies?
- Are their children? How will he introduce the puppies and kids?
- Does anyone have dog allergies?
- What is the grooming and training plan of the new owner?
- How often is someone home?
- Does the new owner want to register the puppy in the AKC?
Encourage The New Owners To Register The Puppies In The AKC
Before sending your puppy to the new owner, inform the owners to register the puppies in the AKC.
As the AKC provides support and service to owners, it is essential to register the new puppy. Furthermore, you can help the new owner in registration by following ways:
- Give the individual registration application to the new owners.
- Explain the benefits of registering the puppy with the AKC.
Can You Breed Your Golden Retriever Early As Soon As It Gets Mature?
Unlike humans, Golden Retriever matures too early. But the maturation is only sexual while the other body parts are still weak to bear a baby. Besides this, puppies are the responsibility of their mothers until eight weeks or a little more. Do you think young mothers can cope up with this responsibility?
6-7 months is too early for a Golden Retriever to hold the responsibility of puppies mentally, emotionally, and physically. Thus, breeding these dogs as soon as they mature invites a lot of complications and health hazards. Such as:
- Weaker immune system
- Injuries during mating and copulation
- Hereditary disease
- Complicated deliveries
- Miscarriages
- Prostate cancer
- Stillborn puppies
- Long labor and delivery time
Furthermore, I guess you don’t want such health issues in your pal and its puppies. Do you?
So, drop the idea of breeding your pet as soon as it matures.
Is It Ok If Your Breed Senior Golden Retriever?
As a Golden Retriever gets older, its body functions start to slow down. Besides this, with the declining body functions, immunity becomes weaker. As a result, they suffer from various medical conditions like constipation, diabetes, hip dysplasia, cancer, heart disease, ear infections, etc.
Hence, there are higher chances that the offspring produced from older dogs inherits these diseases. Besides this, after a certain age, the reproductive system of these dogs becomes too weak to bear the puppies. So, multiple miscarriages and puppies with various defects are common.
Although these breeds don’t have menopause, breeding an older dog has a higher risk of various health complications for both parents and puppies. Moreover, as male Retrievers get older, their sperm count also starts becoming low. Hence, it needs more vigor to impregnate a female and produce babies.
Besides this, the mating process requires a lot of energy. Thus, breeding Golden Retrievers after they are eight years old might cause prostate cancer, hip dysplasia, joint problems, etc.
In addition, most kennel clubs also claim that puppies born from parents below the age of eight years are healthier and happier. Thus, only those puppies can apply for registration. Therefore, you must stop breeding your Golden Retriever after it is six-year-old.
However, besides the age factor, do you know some other indications that tell you to stop breeding your Golden Retriever?
When Should You Stop Breeding Your Golden Retriever?
Although, breeding gives you adorable and friendly puppies. Yet, breeding isn’t a good idea if you want a healthier lifespan for your pal.
Moreover, breeding your Golden Retriever at the best age and in a healthier way can somehow resolve some of the health complications. But still, you should be conscious about when and how to breed your pet.
Besides this, you must also be careful about the signs of when to stop breeding.
So, to ease some of your doubts about when to stop breeding your pal, here are some signs:
- You need to stop breeding your pet after it turns six years old.
- When your pal gives birth to more than six puppies at once
- If the offspring produced has some defects like cancer, blindness, hip dysplasia, aortic stenosis, eye disease, joint problems, heart diseases, etc.
- Your pal stops showing interest in mating.
- Puppies are stillborn with hereditary diseases.
- After the gestational phase and delivery start to become complicated with multiple miscarriages, prolonged labor, pyometra, diabetes, etc.
Furthermore, these signs are clear indications that your pal is either too old or has some health issues in its genes. Thus, you shouldn’t breed your pal after seeing such signs. Instead, you can consult the Vet to handle such pets effectively to give them a healthier life.
Apart from this, you must also be careful that the breeding process is safe to ensure that the puppies that arrive are healthy, active, and happier. Thus, what should you do to keep Golden Retriever and its puppies safe while breeding?
How To Ensure Golden Retrievers Are Safe While Breeding?
Since Golden Retrievers are needy dogs, they need your help to live a healthy, happier, and active life. Moreover, inviting new puppies by sacrificing your pal isn’t a good idea and similarly, producing puppies with defects is worse. Thus, it is essential to ensure that the breeding process is safe for your Golden Retriever.
However, I have some ideas to keep the breeding process safe. And they are:
- Check the health status, gene type, and medical history of the breeding dogs.
- Study the breed type, genes, and compatibility of the two dogs before breeding them. And always go for a breed with lesser health complications and longer life.
- Give your Golden Retriever a balanced diet filled with all essential nutrients and food supplements. Also, don’t forget to use natural healthy snacks as a substitute for unhealthy treats.
- Start breeding your pet only after they reach one to years old and matures both physically and mentally.
- Supervise your pal continuously to avoid reckless mating.
- Make sure there are professionals while your pet mate. Also, keep the mating process short and closer to your pal’s fertile age.
- Consult with the Vet and seek advice for the best and safest way for breeding your Golden Retriever.
Further, I hope these ideas helped you in healthily breeding your Golden Retriever.
Summing up, getting healthy puppies after breeding these dogs isn’t as simple as it seems. Moreover, you should consider different things while breeding, your pal. Thus, along with nutritious food, adequate exercise, training, and health care facilities are also essential to get healthier and happier puppies.
I hope you are now aware of how and when to breed your pal.
Do you think this article all the essential information?
Do you want to add anything?
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