older dog breeding

[schultz's honor]

Simple question, how old can you safely breed a female dog?
We have an eight year old dam that we have always wanted to have a pup out of her.
Due to different life responsibilities she has not been bred yet, but life has finally eased up and we are thinking of breeding her. She is now coming into heat and need to know if she is now too old.
As I said earlier, she is eight tears old.
Is she too old to breed?
Thanks in advance for your input.

[Misskiwi67]

For older dogs that have had litters, risk increases slightly. For dogs that have NOT had a litter, the risk is significantly higher. Risk of trouble is 20% on the first litter, goes up with age after 6 years old.

If it hasn't been a priority before, why risk it now?? I'd spay her and start looking for the next pup to train.

[hicntry]

I bred dogs tight. That being said, the only actually deformed pup was out of a females slightly short of 10 years old. The only one I ever saw and I definitely attribute it to the age of the female.

[KJ]

Both Misskiwi67 and hicntry gave good advise.

Breeding a maiden bitch at 8 years old is asking for trouble. Likely a small litter and much higher risk of having whelping problems.

On the other hand, we have bred a few bitches at 9 with no problems. The difference was that these bitches have previously whelped multiple litters, including the year before. They were also in good physical condition.

Bitches that are bred early and often tend to have fewer whelping problems than bitches that are bred rarely or later in life. I cringe at putting that in print, but it's true.