Common Practices in Management of Breeding Dogs and Puppies: a Survey of 461 Dog Breeders

The American College of Theriogenologists (ACT) and Society for Theriogenology (SFT), in 2012, developed a position statement on management of breeding dogs, based on review of the literature available at that time.1 There were few studies identifying best practices for housing, pre-breeding examination and testing, vaccination and parasite control, and breeding management for bitches and stud dogs. Similarly, there are few studies identifying best practices for raising puppies including best whelping boxes and sources of supplemental heat, diet and age at weaning, vaccination and parasite control, and placement.

The author presented a massive open online course (MOOC) in spring of 2013. The course enrolled 8796 students. Three thousand five hundred four completed a pre-course survey and of those, 1328 (37.9%) identified themselves as dog breeders. The post-course survey was completed by 554 of those who had completed the pre-course survey. The author solicited those who had completed the postcourse survey to participate in an anonymous large-scale survey of practices regarding management of breeding dogs and puppies (Figure 1). Breeders were encouraged to pass along information about the survey to their breed clubs and other related organizations.  […]