Hi Cheryl, I'm sure your friend has had enough criticism but in truth accidents can and do happen. Right now she needs to consider finding homes for the puppies and because of the closeness of the breeding she should consider early spay/neuter. There is no reason the puppies will be any different in appearance than others but if the parents carry and share a genetic fault then these puppies are at increased risk for actually having the fault rather than just being a carrier. I am not familiar with the usual things that GSD breeders check for but would assume hips and elbows are needing to be xrayed and officially evaluated, the male she can do now and the female can be done shortly after whelping. If both parents are dysplastic then she needs to be very tough with herself and seek the guidance of an experienced GSD breeder to evaluate the puppies and any that show obvious signs of crippling dysplasia or other abnormalities need to have their futures seriously considered.
If the parents are both registered for breeding then the litter can be registered, if not then they are deemed non-purebred and she cannot expect to ask the usual price for a GSD puppy. Hopefully both parents have good to excellent temperaments as there are enough skittish GSDs about. Placement of the puppies are going to be the hardest part because the world is full of people looking for a cheap guard-dog, if she is not a breeder of standing then she must seek help from her GSD community. When experienced Berner breeders deliberately make close breedings to evaluate their dogs they have to be prepared to sometimes make some very tough decisions. This type of breeding is used to highlight good as well as bad faults so that in the future a breeder can decide how often one would want to see a certain dog in a pedigree. ie one would limit the appearance of a PRA or SAS carrier and increase the presence of a dog with longevity and the ability to pass on good hips and elbows and temperament. If the pedigrees of her two dogs are reasonably diverse she might be lucky but if they are very linebred and there is a risk element she may not be. Either way this is not a planned pregnancy and the important thing is to educate herself about raising a litter with optimum conditions, culling the obviously defective and with early spay/neuter seek out some nice family homes. Most important is for her to take her time when interviewing buyers and making sure they are a good home for a GSD and it may take her more than eight weeks:-) All the best Rose T. -----Original Message----- From: Cheryl Otis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: February 21, 2003 11:05 AM To: Bernese Mountain Dog Mailing List Subject: Accidental breeding between litter mates A co-worker has had an accidental breeding between her 5 year old German Shepard bitch and a full brother to the bitch. To make matters worse she was unaware that her bitch was pregnant until it was to late. She knows this is totally un-responsible and is absolutely appalled at herself for letting it happen. She is a person who loves her dog like I love my Berners and even though I am also appalled by it, I think she need a supportive friend right now instead of someone to critize her. So I'm trying to gather information. What I am wondering is what are the consequences of this happening, will the puppies be normal, will they have genetic shortcoming? It has also brought up the question of how do animals in the wild avoid this, or do they? Thank you in advance, there is a huge amount of knowledge and experience on this list and I appreciate the information. Kind Regards, Cheryl, Tessa & Tanner Portland, Or. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/
