Information about our multiple sired breedingsThe American Kennel Club allows for registration of litters that have more than one sire; effective September 1 1998. A puppy have only one father. However, there may be more than one father in a litter but an individual puppy can only have one father, and all would of course have the same mother. How will the litter be registered? The puppies must first have parentage DNA testing done before registering the litter. To do DNA testing cheek cells are collected from the inside of the mouth using a swab and sent into the AKC for DNA testing. Puppies as young as a few days old can be tested. The results come back in roughly 6 to 8 weeks. Why breed to more than one sire? The biggest reason is to gain knowledge of what each sire is capable of producing with a particular dam/bloodline without having to wait for separate heats and possibly taking more than a year to find out. This method allows us to evaluate the different combinations at the same time, assuming there are puppies by all sires. A multi-sire litter may enable a more successful advance of development in a breeding program without having to breed two or more separate litters. Besides obtaining a nice selection of puppies to choose from with less time spent it also helps maintain genetic diversity. Another reason for multi-sired litters is to help ensure that there will be puppies. In addition to being disappointing a missed breeding also means having to wait nearly a years time before being able to try to breed the female again.
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