Hi Karen, I can fully understand your worries about breeding - but as the old saying goes, if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen :-) As you know, every whelping carries with it the possibility of disaster for the bitch, and for the whelps. And even a bitch who has a great record for free-whelping, and comes from a line of free-whelpers, can run into trouble. I think, looking back, I could easily have stopped after my first litter - 24 hours in the process, 5 live, 4 stillborn pups.... Then they got parvo at 5 weeks and I lost one and the others come though OK, but were only 9 lbs at 8 weeks....
But to answer your informal survey question - I have bred 26 litters. Number 27 is in the oven. This 26 litters is from 8 different bitches, and none of them had a *planned* c-section. Although looking back, my first bitch was a terribly long whelper, who came from a line of long whelpers, and had I known better, I might not have chosen to breed her. I would certainly gone in for the pups rather than let the last of them be stillborn - first litter as above, second and third litters both 3 live pups, followed by a still born many many hours later. And the third litter resulted in the bitch developing an infection, being spayed when pups were 10 days old, and then eventually bleeding out and dying when they were 23 days old. This was in the '70's, and this type of whelping record was not uncommon then. After that :-( I began including the family history of whelping on my list of criteria for any bitch I purchased. I have had a total of 6 sections out of the 26 litters: 3 times a puppy was well and truly stuck, gumming up the works. One time the bitch, well into labor, presented with a lot of green gunk *prior* to the presentation of any puppies - this to me is emergency time - and the surgery resulted in 7 live puppies, one of whom was the one clearly in distress, and surely would not have made it without assistance - he is now a svelte 120# fellow. Rather than wait to see what happens - something too often counseled by a vet - I insisted on getting them out. (Get to know your vet! If s/he understands than *you* do know your dogs, and when you tell her what you want, you mean it, whelping difficulties can be more effectively handled. Ask you vet how s/he feels about all this sort of stuff ahead of time, come to some agreement on what the plan is to be, as in the heat of the moment, stress can affect your reasoning....) The other two sections (2 different bitches) were for one puppy that we determined on xray to be way up in there, and not having any immediate plan to come out, that I elected to go in and get out, which to my surprise - 6 hours after the previously naturally delivered last pup - was a squirming, noisy, and very much alive love muffin; and in the other instance, produced two live pups. From their condition, and the work it took to get those two going, we went in with, according to the vet, about 15 or 20 minutes to spare - if we wanted them alive. They are both large, healthy, and very active adults now. I think, Karen, that the one thing I have finally learned over all these years, is what my threshold is before I call in the specialists. I am a fan of the free-breeding, free-whelping bitch, but not at the expense of her health. And I would rather get her in for some help getting out a puppy, then let things go on for so long that she either (a) exhausted and hours after, finally gets out a dead pup or two, or (b) retains the pup until infection develops, making surgery more of a risk because of her condition, and the pup is already going to be dead anyway. >From breeding generations of my own dogs, I know which bitch can go to sleep for a few hours, then wake up and continue whelping live pups. And which one needs to get them out no more than an hour apart and if she stops for two hours, then there will be no more live ones.... My personal rule of thumb with the less than speedy ones, is to wait 2 hours after the birth of a pup, then, if the bitch is showing no signs at all of active labor, I use the oxytocin. Wait another hour, and use oxytocin again. If no pup arrives within the next hour, I call the vet and go in. If, on the other hand, there is straining and world-class contractions for one hour, and no puppy arriving, we go immediately in to the vet. Getting this kind of information from the breeder of your bitch, about her dam, granddam, and siblings, can help you formulate your strategy - but then you have to wait to see what happens. That's where the gallon of coffee, and the wise counsel of a breeder-friend, not necessarily a Berner breeder, can help you get through the night :-) And if you're sitting next to the whelping box alone, then keep the phone handy - there is a network of breeders out there, all of whom say, and mean it, "call me anytime, call in the middle of the night, and call back in an hour to let me know what's happening". This kind of support is a godsend. I've gotten, and made those phone calls. Really and truly, if one isn't prepared at least intellectually, at some level, to lose the bitch - your friend, your buddy, your bed-warming Berner girl - and perhaps some of her puppies as well - then breeding her perhaps is not in both your best interests. Whew! Kinda reassures you, eh? Not! Libby Kesner and the Berner girls of Maine Voorheesville NY USA
