Posted on 01/21/2005 6:26:56 AM PST by Rodney King
A Neapolitan mastiff in Manea, United Kingdom, has broken a world record by giving birth to a litter of 24 mastiff puppies, according to a report.
Breeders Damian Ward and his girlfriend, Anne Kellegher, had only been expecting their two-year-old mastiff, Tia, to give birth to a maximum of 10 puppies after a scan from a local veterinarian.
When Tia grew so large she could barely move, the couple took the dog to the vets, who decided that an immediate caesarean was vital. Two hours later, Tia had given birth to the record 24 puppies.
Four of the puppies were too weak and died but the remaining 20 are thriving.
All but three of the pups are up for sale. They are worth more than $1,800 each.
Tia's achievement is now likely to set two records in the Guinness World Records -- the biggest litter and that of the most surviving puppies.
A Guinness World Records spokesman said the current record stands at 23.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
I'm a easy target for a dog, that I do know... My husband is just now learning how vulnerable we are to the needy opportunists of the world ;~D
Wow. What breed of dog do you have?
It's part husky. The barking was the first I knew that 'mom' was up to something. When the process was done, including the cleanup--took about an hour, I weighed each pup in the fish scales. Looked like each one had a different 'dad'. Cute, but a handful already.
The issue here was not promiscuous breeding but a biological novelty that was in itself remarkable, animal husbandry is one of the oldest practices of survival and all of veterinary science sprang from it.
Around here, we usually try to avoid invoking personalities and making brash insults.
No you have a political tint to EVERYTHING you see.
To you I am a protester and I have an agenda, when in realtiy I was just expressing my opinion.
>>>Around here, we usually try to avoid invoking personalities and making brash insults<<<
Oh you mean like your little snide remark to me about 'troublemakers' being put to sleep?
If it's a small local pound, such as the one in my parents' small home county, that's one thing. The nicer dogs are even fostered out with employees, they cull the vicious ones and the ones with debilitating health problems, so your chances of getting a problem dog go way down.
Now if you live in or near a big city, they cycle them through on a weekly basis (and euthanize most) and make no attempt to assess the dogs. Everybody knows this, so the breed rescue societies make DAILY trips to the pound and try to save the dogs that are obvious purebreds or breed type. So in addition to having no attempt to cull sick or vicious dogs, the cream of the crop are skimmed by the breed rescues. . . . then you really ARE rolling the dice with what's left. And that is the pound situation that I've dealt with most of my life.
I sometimes forget that not everybody lives in or near a corrupt big city. Sorry!
I love Labs and have rescued 3 Lab mix dogs over the years.
I got them all as puppies and have not regretted a second or a dollar I spent on them.
I adopted from a rural shelter and they had an abundance of puppies.
You don't have to settle for an adult dog with behavior problems.
Mamma dog probably has her Mammaries dragging on the ground.
He's one lucky guy. Glad that Gidget has a playmate.
They may well have HAD different dads - superfecundation is pretty common in dogs.
What a lucky bitch! ;-)
I think someone taught him to sit up and beg at one time... he keeps beginning to sit up. I haven't been encouraging that ;~D
I'm working on "sit pretty" on the haunches with the forepaws held up at the chest - but it's not easy. We're "shaping" with the clicker. I really ought to carry the clicker with me at all times so I can "shape" if she does it spontaneously. There are a lot of cute things she does naturally that I would love to train in . . . in between training her for agility trials AND hunt tests . . .
BTW, wish us luck. Two-day AKC agility trial tomorrow . . . if she gets one qualifying score on either day in Standard or Jumpers she will pick up her Novice titles. . . then she'll have letters after her name and get even more full of herself than she is now . . . :-D
Good luck of course!
I met one of the 'dads', saw him just one time. It was a big, super-intelligent dog of no particular breed, part wolf, I am sure. One of the pups, one I kept, resembled him after about six months--big, super smart, very well-mannered and obedient, but at first the pup was positively ugly so I couldn't even give him away. All the pretty pups were given away, but nobody wanted the best one after all.
Sometimes that happens. I had a kitten who looked like a bat when she was tiny.
She still looks kinda like a bat, but a cute bat.
You thought that was meant for you?
I love Mastiffs...but like you said, if you get near, you are sure to get slimed!
Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.