first litter

[Rosalyn Ancrum]

Hi ,

I was looking on a few sites and people were saying that a female's first litter is normally smaller.  Is this correct?  We are hopefully waiting on contact from our chosen breeder. She says this will be a first time mom but didn't indicate the litter may be smaller.

[Ginny Nightingale]

I don't think that is a hard and fast rule--one dog I bred had 10, 9 and 11 in her three litters and another had 5, 3 and 5 and a third had 8 each time--seems like it is more the capacity of the dog and not the number of litters.

[Rosalyn Ancrum]

Thanks Ginny!  We are just hoping there is a little girl in the litter for my daughter. She is so excited . I would hate for her to be  disappointed especially since she put down her deposit and did her application.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Our Riley's breeder takes less reservations than her dog's previous litter if they have had one then starts a wait list.  I have heard that dogs will often have larger subsequent litters but not always true as Ginny illustrated.

I believe Riley's mom had 7 her previous litter and 8 this time (Bernese mountain dog).

[Adina P]

When you have your sight set on a certain puppy, it can feel disappointing, but 13 years ago when I put a deposit down for my late Rosco (who passed yesterday), I wanted a cream female.  The litter had only 4 pups.  Luckily I was first in line.  The cream girl was super shy--total deal breaker.  The other girl was super hyper--also a deal breaker.  What was left were two boys who were more middle of the road in energy.  Rosco won my heart because he was so red and looked totally different than the rest.  Like a little old man.  And he turned into a fabulous dog. Anyway, my point  is that personality and temperament are KEY and this is a good lesson for your daughter on how to choose a puppy.   You both might still be able to get your dream doggy even if it's not a female.  Now in the end, it still might be better to wait based on the pups that are born, but you won't know yet....

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I second what Adina said. I only ever had female dogs until our Vern. He is such a wonderful and loving dog and all the things I thought about male dogs....they hump, etc. never proved true with our Vern. These will be my last dogs, but if it wasn't, I would choose only by temperament and not sex. Good luck!

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

In our case we wanted a female for the size range.  Male Bernese can be up to 120 lbs... females generally top out at less than 90.  The size differences are more dramatic with the standard/large breed doodles.

That being said we would have been open to a male if that's all that was available.  Riley's parents were both 60-70 lbs, I think she'll top out closer to 75-80 maybe though.

[Rosalyn Ancrum]

Hi ,

My daughter is pretty flexible in her choices  such as color and size. It's just that she prefers a female puppy.  We've always  had females while  her dad and most of her friends have males.  Originally she wanted a male but she changed her mind after caring for a few male dogs. I grew up with  mostly male dogs as a child but I've had both.    All of our females are always spayed because  we believe that breeding should be left to the "professionals". There's nothing wrong with males.  I guess it's just personal preference.  Ironically, we normally give our females names that are considered masculine  with the exception of my "Khloe" -my boyish yorkie.  I agree there is no perfect puppy.