May 1 is National Purebred Dog Day, a day set aside to celebrate the wide range of sizes, shapes, and personalities of purebred dogs. It’s important to remember that behind every well bred purebred dog is a breeder who planned the breeding, supported a bitch through pregnancy, whelped and cared for the litter and their mother, and did everything possible to give the puppies a great start in life.  That person has probably done this for multiple generations of the dogs in your dog’s pedigree. Breeding dogs is difficult, expensive, often heartbreaking and breeders usually have little to no support from the community. Today I want to share Bee’s story, because I hope it will be helpful to other breeders.

Bee was born in May 2024 following a chilled semen breeding and a surgical insemination on my 4th attempt at breeding Ginny. For the first time, we saw evidence of conception at Ginny’s pregnancy ultrasound and I was thrilled to finally have a chance for a puppy from her. After several days of ultrasounds to determine the perfect time for scheduled c-section (on a holiday weekend naturally), my perfect singleton girl was born.  Ginny took a few days to adjust to motherhood, but soon she had a very content chubby baby. Unfortunately that’s where the trouble began.

By the time Bee was approaching 3 weeks, I knew she was heavy for her age and slow to get on her feet. I was also fairly sure that neurologically she was absolutely fine, since her eyes opened on schedule and she was responding to sounds and interaction.  Because I keep detailed records including video of every litter, I realized we had an issue when she wasn’t walking by 3 weeks, so we headed to my great repro vet, Country Companion Animal Hospital.  The vets confirmed that Bee had swimmer syndrome.  Fortunately we caught it early and her chest hadn’t flattened yet, which can lead to breathing problems.  We went  home with her back legs splinted and a brace to keep her from lying on her chest to encourage mobility. Her recheck appointment was set for a week later and the vet completely broke my heart when she said that if there wasn’t improvement by then we might have to make a quality of life decision. 

When I got home I reached out to some trusted breeder friends and got some more ideas.  I added a foam egg crate under her bedding in the pen (tip- acoustical panels are less expensive than mattress toppers and fit perfectly in a 4 x 4 whelping box), used the  Assisi loop lounge I had for my older dogs with her daily, and held her in a standing position on a surface with really good traction several times each day until she could support her own weight. Walking her with a sling was the other suggestion, but by the time she could stand she starting walking on her own.  

I should also mention that during the week this was going on, we were also dealing with a legal fight with a distant “neighbor” who doesn’t think anyone should have more than one dog, I had gotten an unpleasant surprise on a DNA test for Primary Open Angle Glaucoma for a dog who should have been clear, and was given a very harsh reminder from a club I had volunteered countless hours for that money and power will always be valued over hard work and integrity. At the same time, Alice was in season and I had to make the decision about whether to proceed with my plan to breed her in light of everything else that was happening. I’m glad that I did, but Michelle and Kari came very close to never coming into the world because I was way past what I could handle. 

Over the week, with all of the interventions in place, Bee started to improve. For the first time I’m sharing the videos of that week because it’s taken me this long to be able to watch them myself.  Finding swimmer puppy success stories was helpful for me, I hope it will also help other breeders.

Everyone who has bred dogs for any length of time has a heartbreaking story and they don’t always work out this well.  If you love dogs, please think about how you present dog breeding to the world.  Most of us are people who love our dogs more than anything and are doing the best we can with what can be a really hard job. A job that, by the way, most of us are spending far more on than we will every earn in puppy sales. When you tear down breeders for decisions you know nothing about, you are hurting dogs.  When you allow mixed breed shelter dogs to be misrepresented as rare breeds, you are telling the world that our breeds and our dogs don’t need protection. Lying is harmful, always. No exceptions, no excuses. Everyone has a breaking point and when good people are pushed out of our breeds and our sport, it’s the dogs who lose.