Two sires for one pregnancy?

[Cynthia Whitfield]

I was looking at a breeder's page and one of her girl's liters was sired by two different male labradoodles. I didn't know about this practice before. I'm guessing the idea is to have a wider variety of colors. What do you think of this?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Personally, I don't think much of it. It's usually an accident. 

[Ginny Nightingale]

It happens all the time and can easily be done on purpose--sometimes one male is not "proven" in that he has not sired a litter yet and may have not had a collection and a sperm count done....so by using two different males over several days, you can assure that the proven male will provide sperm.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Why not just use the proven male, then, and wait to use the unproven male until he has had a collection and sperm count done?

[Cynthia Whitfield]

We'll in this case, both sires were proven. That's why I thought maybe the breeder was looking for a greater variety of colors. One sire is black, the other is a medium apricot, and the mother is creme. She had a liter of eight puppies, some cream, some black, with the black labradoodle sire last year.

[Ginny Nightingale]

Oh, that makes sense--and to answer Karen's question, it is sometimes very hard to collect from a male that has never had experience with a natural breeding and the natural breeding has to come first....we just had that happen and the vet couldn't get anywhere with the male even though the female was in the room--after they had a natural breeding, it was a whole different story....so, it is a case of which comes first, the chicken or the egg...so to speak!

[F, Calla & Luca]

I think this is sometimes done to increase the chances for a pregnancy too. Perhaps one male was not àvailable for the second go round?

[Stella]

But then how would you know who had fathered which puppy? I would want to know exactly who had parented my puppy for purposes of temperament, size, genetic health etc.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

You have to do DNA testing to know. The AKC requires it for registration of multiple sire litters as well. 

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I think I saw something like this on Law and Order:SVU once :)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

LOL

[Stella]

Ha ha!! You're making me laugh!!