age to retire?

i have heard many differing opinions on this, including my vets opinion. what is the general age a bitch should be retired from having litters? in my vets opinion, she should have her last litter by the age of 6 and be spayed to prevent health problems. im wondering what the opinions of long time dog breeders and raisers cuz i know that things often differ in practice. the reason im wondering is this, my babygurl is going to be 5 this summer, she is pregnant now with her 3rd litter, i was hoping to have definately one more next year and maybe one a couple years after from a repeat breeding of this next one depending on the way her next litter turns out. the litter she is gravid with now is one for me personally, and i will not be repeating this breeding, but the next planned one should be spectacular and those pups will be going out into the world with other kennels to prove themselves in whatever they are put to.
i am wondering if she will be too old for the next one or the one in 2 years?

 

In my opinion it depends entirely on the bitch herself. If your female is happy, healhy, and hasn't had problems in the past I don't see a problem with it. I have a female that is fixing to drop pups that is 6 years old, this is her 3rd litter, and depending on how she does this time will determine if she is ever bred again. We'd like to do one last breeding but only if her health isn't at risk. Now on the other hand we have another female that is 6 1/2 years old that will be bred one last time then retire to a relaxing life puppy free, because on her last pregnancy she had some trouble and a C-Section was performed. She recovered from it, but unfortunately no pups made it, so we are doing one last breeding then she's done.

As long as you don't over breed your female, popping out litters every 6 months, take care of her during her pregnancy, whelping, and when she doesn't have pups she will be able to have healthy litters of pups after 6 years old. It sounds harsh but your female's health has to be top priority and when decisions have to be made choosing between your female and her pups, it should be a quick one and always be her.

 

i would never risk babygurls health for anything, she always comes first. and she is very healthy, and has had 2 healthy litters. never any problems, plus by the time the pups are 12-16 weeks old you cant even tell she even had a litter, thats how quick she recovers. i will just play it by ear....i will definately be breeding her one more time, next year, but after that will depend on how she does. thank you Lady

 

i have a bolio gyp thats had 5 litters shes spayed now ..........just for the reason of this thread we didnt want her to be overdone.......we love her to much so id say 5 is about right unless shes throwing ch and gr chs then id say 6 or 7 hehehehehehehehheheh jmho

 

I would go with what the Vet says. Babygurl needs to recover after she has the pups. If she does a good job recovering after this litter I would just monitor her health in general. She can give U one more Litter but it all depends, sometimes just retiring is best for Babygurl.

 

Swamper is right U dont want to over do it. It will have negative health affects in the future if U over do it. Like U said Babygurl comes first.