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STOP BREEDING DOGS!

04/08/2018 01:34:00 .

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In one week SAWS had six different people dumping 10-15 dogs each. Nearly all the dogs were mangy and thin. The usual excuse was, “I can’t afford to keep them.” Someone who brought 15 dogs still had five dogs at home.

A general rule of thumb is that a mammal will produce half as many offspring as the number of teats on the mother. In the wild, dogs breed seasonally and in one pack only the alpha pair breeds. The rest of the pack protects and feeds the pups. However, selective breeding of dogs over thousands of years to create the 500 breeds registered today has altered dogs’ breeding patterns. Early breeders, large litters and continuous breeding are favoured by breeders.

We have created canine breeding machines. Domestic dogs breed early and continuously. Dogs start breeding at 6-12 months (this can be delayed in some large breeds). Gestation is 60 days. The female reproductive cycle is 6 months, so she breeds twice a year. An average litter consists of about 6 puppies. Toy dogs generally produce from 1-4 puppies per litter while larger breeds may average 14 pups. The world’s largest litter was 24 puppies and 16-18 per litter is not uncommon.

Put all those figures together and this is what you get:
1 female dog and her offspring can produce 67 000 dogs in 6 years.
Now do you understand why we have a stray dog problem in Swaziland and why rabies is on the rise? This is the reason that one litter is too many. This is the reason that there is NO EXCUSE for breeding dogs until we have reduced the stray population to zero. Strays spread diseases, they cause traffic accidents, they fight and harm working and pet dogs and people, they spill garbage in their search for food.
Dogs cannot practice birth control. We have bred the natural birth control system out of them. All dogs must be sterilized by 6 months of age. If you can’t afford to sterilize a dog, don’t keep a dog.
Sterilizing has NO negative effects on males or females. Sterilized dogs do NOT get fat and lazy.
They get fat and lazy with incorrect feeding or insufficient exercise. A neutered dog is NOT less of a guard dog. Dogs protect the pack. If they breed among themselves, they will protect their own family, not yours. To create a natural guard dog, sterilize it and treat it as part of your family/pack. It then assumes the natural role of subservient dog which protects the alpha pair and the pups (i.e. all the humans).
Sterilizing a male dog does not cause him any suffering. However, a breeding dog either suffers a life of frustration if locked up and not allowed to breed, or becomes a roamer, getting into fights and contracting and often dying of a variety of horrible STIs. Females breed into exhaustion and illness and die early.
Pregnancy, and most particularly, lactation, makes heavy demands on the body of the bitch. After two consecutive whelping’s, all bitches should have an interval of at least a year before the next to recuperate. Ignore this rule and you risk your bitch developing major health problems, especially reproductive issues and dog breeding problems.
If you want to reproduce a good dog, you should be aware that there is absolutely no guarantee that any of the puppies will inherit a particular characteristic. In fact the whole litter might get only the worst characteristics of your dog and its mate. The most important factor in creating a dog’s temperament is its home environment.
If you cannot afford to pay the whole price for neutering your dogs, SAWS will be able to help you. They have a project where you only pay a reduced amount according to what you earn.

Please contact SAWS for details.