As part of my farm I'm going to breed labs in 2018. I've owned adult rescued labs my whole life & worked for 10yrs @ a fox hunting club tending the fox hounds. I have extensive knowledge breeding & whelping to senior dog care & everything in between.
I love labs & love gun hunting/ training retrieving infinantly more than horseback hunting & training scent detection so I've decided to breed labs. I do have some questions for experienced breeders out there.
1. How do lab puppies do w temp regulation during the summer? We suspended summer breeding of our hounds bc it was too difficult to keep Aug. puppies cool in Georgia. Same issues w lab puppies?
2. In the days after whelping do bitches tend to aggressively protect pups? I know all dogs are individual but Georgia bloodhounds have (imo) a higher propensity to be over protective in those first weeks than their English/ Irish/ American hound counterparts. Are lab mothers more chill/ aggressive or is it highly individual?
3. I've heard that labs have a propensity to whelp more "runts" per litter than the avg bitch of other breeds. Any truth fill this?
Thanks for your help, guys.