Hello from southern Lewis County, NY !

[KathyC]

I'd love to see pictures of your dogs too.
Finding a good stud is usually hard, but I'll tell you what I know. To help keep the puppies within the size mentioned in the standard, I would advise breeding her to a smaller male. That also helps to ensure that the puppies won't be too big for her to whelp.
The stud should compliment any faults that you female has in regards to matching the breed standard and visa-versa.
You should require that the stud be completely health tested and a good representative of his breed, as well as of a good temperament.
Also, he should be an experienced stud, which will help a lot since your female has never been bred before.
Also, during the breeding, the stud and female should be supervised. It isn't completely safe to let them do it on their own. I won't go into details for obvious reasons, but there is a part of it called the "tie". They should not be separated during the tie, because that could injure the male, female, or both. The "tie" usually lasts for about 15 minutes, but can be as long as an hour.
Also, when she has her puppies, please do not let customers take them home until they are at least 8 weeks old. Puppies need at least the first two months of life with their mother.
Some places you can research:
http://www.dogster.com/forums/Puppy_and_Puppies_Place/thread/461986
(A thread I started on Dogster. It's about finding a reputable breeder, but you'll find some useful info in there.)

http://www.chelsea-collies.com/newborn.html
(This article, though about Collies, should be extremely helpful to you.)

Also, you should prepare a whelping box after you breed her and before she has the puppies, similar to this one (the picture is from a friend of mine, I do not claim it in any way):
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk295/twilighteyesPuppies/Keggers/Keggerpregnantinwhelpingbox.jpg


Hope that helps you get started on your research.

Thank you so much !
I have had pups before, but not shelties. I would never let them go too early.
I will look into it when I finish hilling the potatoes

 

[BarbV]

Welcome to Sheltie Nations! I just love this website.

I'm going to be abit of a nay-sayer here and suggest that you not breed your dog, unless you truly considering in going full-time into the breeding business. It's not a part-time job!

I can appreciate that you are asking the right questions regarding what to breed your darling girl to, but you really should not breed just because you think it would be nice to have some pups from your girl.

And it should never be about the money! Most high quality breeders will tell you that they either lose money or break-even once they deal with vet bills throughout pregnancy and post-birth, registration papers, diet, etc. They breed dogs to perpetuate the breed in its best form - and then sell off the ones that don't meet - on non-breeding contracts!

I'm seeing so much playing around with "designer breeds" that I'm really starting to worry about the dog-breeding industry. Pretty soon we're gonna find miniature-miniature collies (aka mini-Shelties - yeah, I've seen some advertised). A toy version of a sheltie really does not sit well with me.

Sorry for preaching.....perhaps I've spent too much time on Yahoo! and the dumb questions that peope ask - it makes me jaded.

 

[KathyC]

Welcome to Sheltie Nations! I just love this website.

I'm going to be abit of a nay-sayer here and suggest that you not breed your dog, unless you truly considering in going full-time into the breeding business. It's not a part-time job!

I can appreciate that you are asking the right questions regarding what to breed your darling girl to, but you really should not breed just because you think it would be nice to have some pups from your girl.

And it should never be about the money! Most high quality breeders will tell you that they either lose money or break-even once they deal with vet bills throughout pregnancy and post-birth, registration papers, diet, etc. They breed dogs to perpetuate the breed in its best form - and then sell off the ones that don't meet - on non-breeding contracts!

I'm seeing so much playing around with "designer breeds" that I'm really starting to worry about the dog-breeding industry. Pretty soon we're gonna find miniature-miniature collies (aka mini-Shelties - yeah, I've seen some advertised). A toy version of a sheltie really does not sit well with me.

Sorry for preaching.....perhaps I've spent too much time on Yahoo! and the dumb questions that peope ask - it makes me jaded.

yea, I'm thinking not to breed her - for her sake. She's lean and fast and I wouldn't want to slow her down for anything at this point. If the day comes when I would like to devote quite a bit of my time with pups, etc... I'll get a little girl and boy couple who are smaller, can be lifemates and go from there. It's one of the things I would like to do - but now is not the time. Maybe when the grandkids are old enough to go to school, in the meantime, I will study and research. Thanks for everyone's input