[Cris81]

Hi Everyone,

I am new to this so please have pacience with me. I have a little male AKC maltese, his name is Athen and is about 1yr and half. I'm looking for anyone that knows of a female AKC maltese for breeding. Could anyone please advice. Thank you, I'll be posting a pic of him soon. Have a great weekend

 

[Ladysmom]

Good advice from JMM on a recent discussion here on breeding a male dog (Quinn Poser):

In order for him to be ready to mate you need to:

1. Show him to his championship or send him out with a handler to finish.

2. Test his bile acids, certify his knees with OFA, have an annual eye exam by a veterinary ophthalmologist, and have a thyroid panel done for starters. Any other health problems like allergies may also preclude him from being a candidate for breeding.

3. He should be at least 2 years old. There is no rush to breed a male. I would probably wait longer unless you are breeding a litter to keep yourself to see what he produces early on.

4. If this is your first stud dog, you should have all bitches he is bred to, including any of your own, pre-approved by his breeder. It takes years to really learn about canine structure and get a decent grasp on genetics. Be sure you keep under your mentor's wing for a while. The breeder also knows a lot about what is behind him and you need to learn about that to select good matches for him.

5. Breeding a stud is not to be taken lightly. If your dog produces a health problem, you are responsible for it as is the bitch's owner. The stud fee does not waive your responsibility for what your dog produces. Are you prepared to assist with the costs of expensive surgery or reimbursing the purchase price of a pup? If you breed him to your own bitch, you are solely responsible for this. Liver shunt surgery can cost $3,000 or more!

 

[msmagnolia]

Excellent advice JMM and LadysMom. Cris81, you can do lots of research on this board about the decision to breed or not to breed.

 

[pico's parent]

Cris81,

Welcome to Spoiled Maltese. I am especially delighted you joined because I am in San Antonio, too and have been hoping to hear from other SA SM owner's for a Maltese Meetup here!

In response to your request for a bitch to mate your boy to, most of us have heard or experienced the problems resulting from hobby breeders, backyard breeders and other amateur breeding programs PLUS the puppymill horror stories. The advice from JMM as relayed by Lady'sMom is excellent and I hope you take it seriously.

My Pico resulted from a backyard breeder. A family member who bred her bitch so she could have a couple more babies for herself. She gave one of them to my granddaughter, who quickly discovered a puppy is a major responsibility that neither she nor her Mom and Dad really had the time for. Lucky for me because I just love Pico BUT.....he has MVD which means $30/month for medication plus expensive prescription diet. So far, no luxating patellar or other issues so maybe that's all we'll have to deal with but breeding Maltese, or any purebred, requires a lot of knowledge and experience plus $$$$.

You have sufficient time to do this research and be mentored before your boy is ready to stud out and you will be grateful that you took some care before breeding. If not, down the road when you learn what you should have known, you will regret the mistake.

OK. Lecture over. I'd love to meet your furboy. My Pico is 4.5 lbs and almost 4 years old now. You can see his picture here and we all are looking forward to seeing a picture of Athen.

 

[Cris81]

Thanks everyone for all your advice. I will greatly take it.