[Christine van Duuren]

I have a 10 month old Dachshund puppy who has just gone into heat. I have a 2-year old male Dachshund. I am trying to prevent her from getting pregnant this young. I was just informed by a friend that it is dangerous for a dog to get pregnant on their first heat-cycle. If she does get pregnant, I need someone to tell me what is dangerous, and what steps I could take to ensure that this pregnancy goes safe and smoothly. Please get back to me urgently

[labman]

They will go to lengths you won't believe to get together. Choosing to keep an intact female carries an obligation to protect her from accidental breedings. You have a responsibility to stay one step ahead of them. Likely this means keeping one or the other in a crate the second, third and fourth weeks after she starts her discharge to make sure she doesn't get bred. I really get tired of the people coming her with weak excuses for letting their under age female get bred. No, preventing it isn't easy. People need to think about this stuff at 6 months when they fail to have her spayed.

Breeding quality dogs is a tough, expensive project. It is almost impossible to make money doing it right. For more discussion on this, see Woodhaven Labradors Articles

The dog world would be better off if you called the vet today and made an appointment to have him neutered. How carefully have you checked out his line for problems such a allergies and back problems? In what way is he an outstanding member of the breed able to sire quality puppies? You could mention spaying her too, but the vet would likely want to put off now that she is in heat.

You only recently learned it is dangerous for for a female to be bred in her first heat cycle? Let mention we don't need more breeders, especially ones that haven't given significant amount of time learning what all it takes to do it right or don't care to. Many of the questions here that take up time I might better spend elsewhere are from people that have bought poorly bred or cared for puppies and are struggling with housebreaking and other issues that don't need to be so difficult. I doubt there are good numbers on the millions of dogs we slaughter for lack of homes on how many come from accidental breedings, puppy mills, and backyard breeders.

[LuvmyRoxy]

Well I have to say that I have read that when a pup gets pregnant to young she has immature eggs, also we need to realize that they are still babies themselves, it's like a 12 or 13yr old getting pregnant after her first cycle... Not a good Idea right... I have a little puppy, I am not sure of her age but she is believed to be around 6-7 months I had scheduled her to get spayed and then she went into heat... The vet will still do the surgery but they just say it is a little more costly... I would say that if you are not a breeder then you should consider getting your girl spayed... If you are, well to be honest you should just keep them separated at all times... you realize she will be in heat for 6-8 weeks on her first cycle... That's quite some time...