Our puppy’s dad mum has killed another dog

[Oakley628]

I feel sick with worry. Our pup is 7 months old, we got him from friends of a friend. A lovely farming family, both parents lovely natured etc. Mum is 10 years old and has attacked the smaller family dog who’s had to be put down. They’d lived together for 10 years with no issue.

I’m now very worried about our pup. We also have 2 cats. They’ve all been getting on great. We are able to keep them separate and we’ve never left them alone together anyway.

Not angry with you OP I should say ! With the owner of the other dogs.
Your puppy is gorgeous.

An aunt of mine used to have a lovely dog who one day just turned and had to be fended off with a folding table. She was put down and the post mortem revealed that she had a brain tumour. There are lots of reasons an elderly dog might get into a fight, illness, injury that the other dog aggravated, other dog may have started something it couldn't finish. It isnt always a case of aggression.

Ok I’m going to leave this thread here now because no one actually knows the full situation only the bare bones of what I’ve written. It’s not fair to fill in blanks and cast judgement.

I was looking for reassurance about my pup which I’ve had. I don’t want to start a heated debate over a topic which actually has very little to do with me.

I’m sorry if anyone thinks I was irresponsible to have our puppy. I don’t regret him for one second though. I can’t apologise for anything else described in this thread.

I’d respectfully ask for this thread to be left alone now.

You can ask for what you want.
This is a good warning for people to choose carefully where they get pets from.
And maybe to consider animal welfare rather than just what they want.

You can ask for what you want. This is a good warning for people to choose carefully where they get pets from. And maybe to consider animal welfare rather than just what they want

This. In buckets.

no one actually knows the full situation only the bare bones of what I’ve written. It’s not fair to fill in blanks and cast don’t want to start a heated debate over a topic which actually has very little to do with me

It has everything to do with you OP! You did choose to get a puppy from family that let a ten year old dog get pregnant which as much as it has no reflection on the way the puppy will behave , although you thought it might unbelievably! The full situation is pretty clear and you haven't drip fed...

You made the choice to use people that allowed a Dog to stay unfixed and then have a litter at ten years old. There is no such thing as an accidental litter. It's irresponsible and they had years!

Don't shrug your part in this off like it's nothing to do with you. Oh and you don't get to dictate when people stop commenting.

As if this person is the only dog owner to not have their bitch spayed

The argument for spaying v not spaying has been going on for decades and will continue for many more.

Yes they were irresponsible, a female in heat should be supervised carefully - maybe they thought that at 10 years she would stop having seasons, a common misconception.
Maybe they didn’t realise the dog and bitch had mated until it was too late.

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Sometimes, accidents do actually happen and people aren’t as wise to things as you would want (ie the implications of a 10years old having a litter) .

It happened. The puppies got homes. OPs dog is unlikely to have a hidden aggressive trait.

Gosh people do get vicious . Tbh on a farm, with a bitch that doesn’t wander, I imagine many don’t bother with spaying. We didn’t, and had had no problems until a new family moved into a farm a couple of hills away, complete with uncastrated dog. It was only because the children came running in saying “there’s a horrid dog in Dottie’s stable, on her bed” that we realised the deed had no doubt been done. Being semi-responsible Dottie had the morning-after-the night-before pill and was spayed, but if the male dog had been more subtle we wouldn’t have known until Dottie gained weight, and no doubt would have had to have the puppies, and from memory she was 9 or 10 when this took place. Dottie was such a lovely dog we never had any idea when she was on heat, her behaviour never changed, and being an outdoor dog there were no obvious signs, and we had never had any male dog visitors before.

So accidents do happen, it’s not the best, but it’s hardly the OP’s fault. Incidentally every cat/dog here now is either castrated or spayed, there will be absolutely no unwanted pregnancies.

The risk of pyometra in an unspayed bitch is extremely high. About a 25% chance, plus a very increased risk of mammary tumours. My dog has a heart condition which meant I had to research very carefully whether to put her through a GA or not, but her odds of dying from surgery were far smaller than the odds of her dying as a consequence of being left fertile. Having litters reduces the mammary tumour risk but not the risk of pyometra.
Also living rurally and having family who live remotely, I have experience of just how far a male will go to get to a female in season.

Why's a ten year old bitch breeding? Post birth hormonal trauma?

Are you in Eire op?
All the farmers I know (England/Wales) have pure breed dogs because they are there to go a job (eg sheep-herding, gun-dog, guard-dog etc). They tend to be pure-breed collies, labs or spaniels.

I do feel sad for the 10 year old bitch having her first litter at that age, what a shock and I assume very difficult for her.