[situation] Currently on the Isle of Man - dog heaven once they're here, but no other pure deerhounds on the island. Our bitch is family pet (Rosie - aka Fingon Nemphlar) and is 5 in May. Season due in March (starting to exhibit the pre-cursor signals)

Would love a litter - but is she too old? Would need to use frozen sperm due to the ferry journey (and girl not being a great traveller)

BUT

if she is considered too old would have to look at a rescue - but there isn't much in the hound line on the island - and it would be unfair to impose a stressful ferry trip on the animal.

advice/comments welcome

Simon

Hi, I don't think 5 is too old, but I have heard using frozen can be a bit tricky. I'm sure someone else here must have some experience of this. Do you have any prospective homes on the island ?

Hi Simon, My name is Sally, we have six Deerhounds and have had 4 litters to date.

I would not advise breeding from a 5 year old bitch if she is a maiden bitch. We tried it
and it was the whelping from hell. The bitch took 48 hours to whelp, 4 trips to the vet
and then she ended up having a caeserian to get the last 2 puppies out. 13 puppies were
born, only seven survived, most were born dead, The bitch had very little milk to start
off with so we were having to bottle feed for about five days until the milk eventually
came on her.

Of course every bitch is different and no two whelpings are the same, so yours could be
easy peasy but I personally would never attempt it again.

If the bitch has had a litter before then that is a different story.

I don't think a rescue would find it too stressful on a ferry, doesn't the dog stay in the
car? Most rescue Deerhounds are not rescues in the true sense of the word, most do not
come in ill-treated, malnourished etc. Most rescues are rehomers because owners
circumstances have changed, so most of the hounds are quite well adjusted.
That could be a route to pursue, speak to Sue Reynolds, Deerhound puppy and rescue
co-ordinator for the Deerhound Club.

simonmac2 wrote:


You are hesitant to import a hound puppy to the Isle of Man? Are there any special travel restrictions for dogs, quarantine and such? The ferry looks a little larger than a jet-ski, but I've never used it. Is it that bad? When I went to get my IW puppy two years ago, we made a quite nice ferry trip on some old thing from the sixties.

Regarding getting your own litter of puppies; I know nothing about AI but deerhounds may get quite large litters, and deers are not dogs that are suitable for just everyone. Are there enough potential good homes on the isle for a whole deerhoound litter, except for the one or two you will keep yourself. Otherwise a number of your puppies would need to take that ferry the other way.

Hi Simon and welcome to the site.

Your question has triggered several other questions.
Is she of good enough quality in terms of structural soundness, trueness to type etc to warrant breeding from?
Using frozen semen could be very problematic as in where are you going to get it from and what about choice of dog as you would be very limited in the number of geneticly suitable dogs in the UK or anywhere else and then you have to persuade the owner!
What about the pups assuming she conceived? Considering that they could be in double figures, how many would you want to keep for youself? Are there many potential DH homes in the I.O.M.,and would prospective owners from the mainland be prepared to travel to see them?
As for her age, she's certainly not a spring chicken in DH terms, but if she had already
been bred from it might not be an issue, but as she hasn't,caution would be advised.

I know nothing about breeding, but when travelling to Ireland, the dogs have to be booked into kennels aboard the ferry. You cannot leave them in your cars.
They are downstairs and you can see them on CCTV. They are standard cages, but you have to tell them you are booking in a large breed and they get bigger cages. The dogs just sleep, which DH's are good at! not sure about the journey to IOM but to Ireland it is 3 1/2 hours and the dogs are fine and none the wiser.
This is with Stenna line.

I didn't know that you were allowed to use frozen seamen in the UK, or is the IOM a separate case on it's own. I have tried using it several times over here but have never had any success, alghough I know of other people who have got puppies from it. By the way do know that the bitch has to have the semen surgically inserted involving a full anesthetic.

On the age of the bitch, we had a bitch who had her one and only litter at 7. This was not our choice, she had been mated to a couple of dogs earlier but not conceived, but when we finally put her to a dog she approved of. she produced a litter of 7 healthy pups. Yes we did have to have a caesarean but she raised the litter with no problems.

PS I am quite sure that DH bitches can choose who they conceive to as her mother did exactly the same thing.

Thanks for all the comments.

on the ferry topic - the iom ferries are not at the stenna standard our girl had to stay in the car on the journey over (and all passengers have to leave the vehicles) so she was hot and stressed when we got here. There is 1 ferry, where they are allowed up in to (but it wasn't running when we needed it)

homing a litter - yes, we have the concerns about appropriate homing. We could probably find excellent "pet" homes for a couple...

structually our girl is good, but I think, you have all confirmed the need to contact Sue Reynolds and offer a new home to a DH.

Thanks again for all replies.

Simon