I am new to breeding. I was wondering why when there is a singleton to two pups that people do c sections? Is it to have less a chance of loosing the pup?
Well, I am not a breeder, but I think there are a couple reasons they do it.
One or two pups may not be enough to trigger labor, the pups would just stay in past due and die.
The other reason is that when there are only one or two they may have grown so big they cannot come naturally. Larger litters usually equal smaller individual puppies.
Not that either of those things would happen every time, breeders just don't want to take that chance.
As a breeder I have had both situations mentioned by Laurel. In one case the puppy was huge and the uterus was underdeveloped around the puppy, so no way it would have come out naturally. In other case, puppy was normal sized but labor didn't set it, so took puppy before it was too late. I would rather do a c-section for a live puppy than wait and do one just to recover a dead puppy.
