First time breeding question...

[Jimmy S]

A friend has a bitch that has come into estrus. She checked with her Vet and was told thather femaleshould be available to breed within the next 5 days. She has always wanted my male as the sire.

We plan to meetin 2-3 daysand have the dogs bred. We are both new at this. She has been given advice from her Vet and feels comfortable with the information. We will discussthat informationbefore I actually bring my male to her place for the mating. Hopefullyher femalewill be receptive for mating at that time.

We both take this seriously and want to enusre the mating process is not only successful but more importantly a healthy experiencefor both dogs. It will be a (somewhat) supervised from beginning to end.

If you have experience in this matter, is there any advise you can share? Both dogs are AKC Springer Spaniels. The bitch is about 1 1/2 yrs old and weighs about 39 pounds. My male is 5 yrs old and weighs 58 pounds....For a Springer he is a big boy.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.....Jimmy

Edit Note: **** = Female

[the bees knees]

Have faith in your boy...He knows what to do!
Nature will run its course.

[bryant1]

As long asthere issupervision, there is nothing else really left to do. Watch over them as a buddy of mine had a jip that wasn't quite ready, and the male was very aggressive toward her. He was biting at her head and she was considerably smaller than him, needless to say, no breeding between those two anymore.

[springerDIVA]

I am involved in (field) English Springers and have years of experience with them. I would strongly recommend that you wait at least until the female is 3 years of age. And both have male and female tested for the following conditions:
PROGRESSIVE RETINAL ATROPHY-this must be done by a vet specializing in opthamology. Because the sire and dam don't have it doesn't mean that they can't produce it. The test is called CERF.
PFK-liver enzyme disorder that tends to present in males more than females
Hip Dysplasia-either PENN Hip or OFA certifications are recommended, while they're out we do elbows since ours dogs are jumping and pounding the ground-a lot.
It's your responsiblity as a breeder to make sure that both sire and dam are sound specimens of the breed.
For more information check
http://www.essfta.org/essfta/breedersguidelines.htm

If you need assistance with locating additional information please let me know I will be happy to assist you. And with a female that small I would supervise with a male that large he is large for a dog of this breed.