Can A Litter Of Puppies Have More Than One Father?

117 Comments

1. I gave 3 chihuahuas. The female is black and white smooth coat. The two males are tan long haired and a red Merle longhaired. Both have bred with the female.
   It will be interesting to see what the pups turn out like. I will most definitely know who each pup’s father is.

2. hello, i have a purebreed husky stud by (2dogs) a male purebreed husky and a mixed breed labrador. will there be a purebreed husky in the litter?

3. Currently, my french bulldog just had 2 puppies. We weren’t sure if my pit or my frenchie got her. It does appear that both did. We have a tail less pup who favors my frenchie in color(dark brindle) and a gray and white pup with a long tail like my pit(twin to him) We are going to get a DNA test even though the Vet that delivered them said it seems we have 1 of each.

4. Thanks for sharing your story! Eventually I’ll go back to fostering litters of puppies and I’m sure I’ll run into this phenomenon again.

5. I just got a new puppy today and it is 100% true. Mom was a lab. There was a purebred male bloodhound involved and a male pit involved. Half of the puppies came out lab/pit and the other half lab/bloodhound. I opted for a bloodhound girl that looked the most like her daddy 🙂

6. I had a female dog which is a mixed breed of shih tzu and terrier and she gave birth to 5 puppies. The three puppies really look the same. Their color is white with black and brown spots and their sizes are the same but the 2 other dogs looked different. One is plain white and the other one is color plain brown on the body and black on the face but they are much bigger than the other 3 dogs. I also know for a fact that my dog mated with a pure shih tzu which is also our dog and another terrier dog. That’s why I also looked for answers if others have experienced the same situation like ours.

7. my female gsd had tied up with one short and one long coat male which coat will the puppies have

8. snoppy just whelped seven and

   all the puppies have different colour and shapes,although a few of them seem to have striking personality but the difference still stands

9. Hey i have a puppy from a batch of three fathers 1 is a blue trick pure breed with papers n also 2 black n tan hound dogs.. The mother was boarder collie… I have pictures off all puppies n fathers n mother…. My experience with having a batch of puppies with different experience for sure they all looked like the fathers that they came from only 3 out of 7 where completely different colours from the other 4 where black n tan…

10. We have a 5 month old rottie cross who we believed to be crossed with a Anatolian shepherd. But he’s far to short legged, more like a dashound cross!!
    He’s Black and Tan rottie colouring, short, and stocky. some of the other pups we thorn colour with longer legs. I didn’t know a litter of pups could have more than one father…. I do now and think this is definatley the case with our little one who is just lovely the way he is !

11. I love seeing pictures of litter mates that look completely different from one and other. It’s so interesting that pup’s can have multiple fathers.

12. I adopted 2 litter mates according to the shelter, but their hair and frames are so different that it’s not hard to imagine they have different fathers. I’m just curious.

13. Yes, I know a pitbull mix who mated with 3 different males (Hawaii beach dogs). She had some puppies that looked pure pit, some that looked like rotties and some that were little furballs, which came from the golden retriever. Cutest little hodgepodge litter I’ve ever seen!

14. What cuties!!! Puppies r so innocent. I never realized the gift of animals, until Opiate Detox. Of all bad experiences in my life, from being molested as a child to childbirth to a crushed leg caught under a van when the jack broke to abuse from my husband to facial shingles…, the worst was opiate withdrawals at age 45. Whiplash put me on opiates 5yrs, to deal with the shingles pain and spine damage it caused. Opiate addiction was not a choice. 5th day in detox, was the 1st day i could sit up and join therapy group. My first group: a 100lb service dog walks in, his owner introduces this big baby, his leash is removed, he walks past 10 people, he plops on the floor on top of my feet, he dozes off into a nap for a few minutes. Unlike humans, he didnt ask if i needed love, he didnt think i was ugy and he didnt judge me. For the first time in a week, as he layed at my feet and looked in my eyes, i didnt think of killing myself to end the physical and emotional pains of withdrawals. For the first time in a week, I smiled both physically and emotionally. I can tell your puppies hav beautiful spirits. Iam sure they bring a smile to everyone they meet.

15. We’re not experts, but from our understanding of biology, yes she could have chihuahua and terrier puppies.

16. Eurasiers don’t have any wolf in them – they are not a wolf hybrid. It is a breed originally created by crossing Keeshonds with Chows, and then the resulting “hybrids” with Samoyeds. The original name for Keeshond was “wolf-spitz” – but the inclusion of wolf in their name is referring to the wolf-grey colour of their coat, not any actual wolf content in them.

    If you want another dog similar look for a keeshond, samoyed or chow mix, or a blend of all three since these were the breeds used to create Eurasiers in the first place.

17. It’s normally impossible for a puppy to inherit traits from 2 males unless genetic engineering was involved. It’s 1 sperm per egg. Even if 2 sperms managed to get inside the same ovum, there would be 3 sets of chromosomes so they wouldn’t be able to pair up (there’d be 1 pair and 1 extra set left over). In order to properly undergo mitosis the chromosomes must be paired in the centre of the cell – then they are pulled apart by the action of microtubules and microfilaments – which separates an equal number of chromosomes (1 half of each pair) into each cell. If the chromosomes aren’t properly lined up and paired mitosis normally fails. Occasionally, an extra chromosome (produced through a fault in meiosis – the production of the gametes) can get through mitosis in a zygote without the division failing – these result in serious genetic defects like Downs Syndrome, or rare intersex conditions like XXY males.

    There is something called a chimera – which is extremely rare and highly unlikely to be causing the colouration you’re seeing. In chimeras some of their cells have one DNA sequence, and some cells have another DNA sequence (in a normal animal, all cells have exactly the same DNA sequence). Normally chimeras are produced in laboratories for research purposes but there are a few instances of natural chimeras being produced too. In animals, chimeras are produced through the fusion of two zygotes – shortly after their conception. If the 2 zygotes came from 2 fathers, then the animal produced would contain genetic material from 2 fathers (but each cell in the animal would still only contain DNA from 1 father and 1 mother).

    Even though it’s possible that your puppies are chimeras, it’s HIGHLY unlikely (and nothing about the colour of the pups suggests it), and far more likely that they are just expressing recessive genes that aren’t visible in the phenotype of the known parent(s). What you described on one of the puppies sounds like brindle points – which are quite common, it’s a combination of the tan point gene (which is recessive to sable and agouti colouration) and brindle gene (which is recessive to solid/self colour), so you wouldn’t see it in the parents necessarily. You said the mother was black and tan – so she’s definitely carrying the tan point gene. The tan areas on a black and tan dog are modified by the brindle gene to show brindle colouration there instead of tan colouration. Therefore the father must have been carrying the brindle gene – even if he wasn’t expressing it (but since 4 of the 5 pups came out as brindle and the other was brindle -pointed I suspect he was homozygous for brindle). As long as the pups don’t also inherit the dominant solid allele (which the mother did not have or she couldn’t have been tan point), they can express a brindle colouration with only 1 brindle allele.

    With this theory, 50% of the pups should have been brindle and 50% should have been brindle-pointed. You got a result skewed towards brindle (80% brindle and 20% brindle-pointed) but this isn’t unusual with the small litters dogs and other mammals have and is just a random occurrence of chance / chaos (like a coin flip coming up heads 4 times in a row and then tails only once).

    The fact that the pups look like Rottweilers could be coincidence, or the father could have been a big mix with the inclusion of a Rottweiler in there somewhere.

    Sorry for the long post, I got interested in the theory behind your anecdote (also my science knowledge is probably really rusty).

18. Our chihuahua got “got” by two chihuahuas and a terrier. Could she have chihuahua puppies and terrier puppies?

19. These puppies are a mysterious breed. We know mom is a blue nosed bully beauty. But no idea what dad(s) were!

20. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I remember talking to our rescue coordinator and her mentioning that it was possible that their were multiple fathers in one litter, but also the many varieties of colors, shapes, and sizes could be attributed to several generations of mixed breeding.

21. i am in Ghana, Africa,where we have a lot of free range dogs. Most of our sires give birth to litters of pups with very different colors. Your post made me ponder over it and remembered that,the sires mate with so many different studs because they are free range. I believe litters of pups can have more than one father.

22. Thanks for stopping by. Good luck with your upcoming litter of puppies!

23. we have a lab, who is gentle and free to roam around in a big area. multiple dogs have mated with her last month, and now she’s pregnant. next month she will deliver. there is a strong suspicion that, this lab mother might have litters from more than one father. your blog was informative.. so, if something like that happens, will send you pics.

24. I’m trying to think back to my genetics classes in college. Puppies could show traits from either parent and also show some traits that neither parent expresses. For instance two black Labrador Retrievers can produce a yellow Lab puppy (both black Lab parents would have to possess the recessive yellow gene). Hmmm…that’s about all I can remember from genetics class. Thanks for sharing your story!

25. It is also possible for the pups to look nothing alike and have the same father. I know this from experience of breeding my female german shepard/ red chow mix with my male samoyed. And know that no other male dog bred with the female. Mom looked like a red gold short haired german shepard with no saddleback (black along the spine) and the father was all white and long haired fluffy typical samoyed. I ended up with three litters of pups and all were as mixed as could be. We had all black fluffy (even though neither dog had black fur, only a black face on the shep/chow mix), all white fluffy, black and white fluffy, cream fluffy, german shepard looking short hairs, all white short hairs, cream and black short hairs, and one that came out looking like a cream colored sheep. So, depending on the breeds of the dogs, you might end up with all different looking pups.

26. As far as I know it shouldn’t affect future litters of puppies, but I’m definitely not an expert in this field.

27. Does this affect next litter or future litters of puppies?

28. Stumbled across this page and its associated comments. Yes, there can be more than one father for a litter of puppies, but this really isn’t required for most of the variation you are trying to explain!

    Just because a given animal does not express a specific trait doesn’t mean it doesn’t possess the relevant allele to pass that trait on to its offspring. A basic understanding of heritability would really help.

    A simple place to start might be: http://www.doggenetics.co.uk/index.htm.

29. Hi April,

    There’s a form on our contact page at https://puppyintraining.com/contact/

    Thanks,
    Colby

30. I would like to send a couple pics of two pups I saved from the same litter. one looks like a pit bull and the other like a lab.. how can I send the photos?

31. Thanks for leaving us a comment! No problem on the length of your comment. We love hearing back from our readers and all of their different stories. Hopefully you can find out what breeds your dog is mixed. Have you tried one of the breed tests from your local vet? I’m not too sure of the accuracy, but it might be worth a shot.

    Thanks again for sharing your story!

32. Hi! I have a dog that was supposedly a chow lab mix, but I’ve seen many full grown and NONE look like her. Also, when my parents went to get her they said all the other puppies were short haired and looked like blonde labs, and mine was separated because she didn’t want a bath. And she was really fluffy. As she got older she looks like a chow-wolf mix which I have just found out is called a Eurasier. She has identical health problems and personality traits as this dog, so I am pretty sure this is the case of different fathers. It just sucks because she is the most loyal dog in the world and its hard to pinpoint a good mix/breed that would be similar to her for when she passes (I’m totally dreading that day and I try not to think about it) but I just find this very interesting because I’ve never even heard or seen that breed before so I find it odd that it may be her father. Sorry this is long! I just felt like putting in my two cents! 🙂

33. Thanks for sharing your story. Yep, it sounds like your litter had two puppies!

34. my beagle/basenji something mix lol just had 8 puppies, 2 different dads we believe. our pure bred great pyrenees and pure border collie both mated with her in 24 hrs, and today they finally arrived. some of them are big and bulky, mostly white with some light brown, which im guessing have the pyrenees as daddy. and only one of them looks like a collie, very dark brown with some white. see, this dog had pups before with just the collie, and they all looked like dad. so these pups are definitely with 2 dads.

35. Hi Tracey, from my understanding she could end up having different kinds of puppies.

36. Hi I have a female Chihuahua, I have 2 male Chihuahuas and they both got her on the same day. One is short haired and one is long haired, could she have different kinds of puppies or would the DNA take over just one?

37. Thanks for sharing the link! I’m going to check out the site. Have you had any of your dogs DNA tested at this website?

38. Have your dog DNA tested, if you live in Canada you can get it done for less then $80! through a website called DNAmydog.com

39. It’s definitely a possibility. I’m sure you’ll be able to tell the difference once she has her litter. By the way, if she does we’d love to see pics!

    Thanks for stopping by!

40. i have a pure bred pitbull and she got tied up with a chowchow and then with my pure bred pitbull can she have two different sets of puppies

41. That’s a diverse litter of puppies! Thanks for sharing!

42. I’m not an expert on this, but I’m pretty sure a single puppy cannot inherit traits from both fathers.

43. I just adopted a puppy from a litter of five who look nothing alike so I suspect multiple fathers. Here are pictures: http://m.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.531478426865767.140576.422018144478463&type=1&__user=100003873588393

44. I have an even stranger question…bear with me…
    Background: I rescued a litter of puppies along with their mother from a junkyard. The mom was a cute medium-sized black & tan dog. The puppies (who are now 8) are all HUGE dogs, so I’m guessing their size probably came from the genes of the dad (or dads).
    Here’s the thing…Four of the five are brindle all over. The fifth looks exactly like a Rottweiler, but his paws are brindle. Even though it’s possible that both the Rottweiler and the Brindle traits came from the genes of one dog, is it possible that a single puppy can inherit traits from BOTH fathers that bred with the Mom?
    Sorry if that’s too complicated!

45. Very interesting! Thanks Samantha for sharing that information!

46. Awww…those puppies are adorable. I would be interested to know if they had different fathers. Thanks for sharing!

47. A bitch can not go into labor two different times. You see what happens a bitch goes into heat for around 10-14 days (sometimes longer) but her eggs will only drop once and whatever sperm is in her on that they of the drop, will either make it to an egg or die away. From that day on she becomes pregnant. just because you see a tie on day one does not mean she is pregnant until about day 3-4-5-6 whenever she drops her eggs. So if she ties on day one the sperm will live in her for about 4-5 days and thats it. So for her to become pregnant, that litter will either be from the first tie of first day in heat or the second tie from the 14th day of being in heat. Hope this helps 🙂

48. I have a litter of pups that seems to have 2 or possibly 3 different fathers: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4880018760575.2193818.1300711111&type=1&l=7af2bb9b68

49. such an interesting article! i began Googleing about this topic lol

50. i have 2 puppies of wich their mother is a boxer and one puppy is pit mix & his sister is beagle mix. he looks like a boxer she looks like a beagle…i wanted to breed so i did research & i agree a litter can have more than 1 sire! my boyfriend still doesnt believe me but oh well!

51. Hi Sysock,

    Thanks for sharing your story. If you want to send us some pictures just go to the contact page: https://puppyintraining.com/contact/ and use the upload option.

    Thanks for stopping by!
    Colby

52. Hi Trin,

    That’s very interesting. Thanks for sharing. Did your pups show any behavioral traits of a Dingo?

    Thanks for stopping by!
    Colby

53. They are 4 months old today, 2 of them went home with a new owner, 2 others were sold, but are gonna stay with us a little while longer, because both new owners have a really old dog, both are in their last days on earth, to say it rude, they are dying, and as long as they haven’t, the pups have to stay here, no need to bring in a playfull pup with an old and sick dog.
    I’m keeping the pup that got sick right after birth, and the smallest pup will remain here also.
    As I said earlier, 2 pups are really big, the biggest pup has outgrown her mom.
    Mom’s size is 1.0 dad is 1.6 and she is 1.5, and still growing.
    You know how a bouvier pup has this periode of time, growing up, that everything looks to big on his / her body, right around 3 to 4 months old? She looks like that now!
    I know for sure that my female hasn’t even seen another male while she was om heat, but the pup is so big it’s not “normal”, and now she’s turning WHITE!!!!
    She looked like a (big) regular Yorkie-pup untill 2 to 3 weeks ago, when she started turning white, all over, not just her head, all over!!
    Her legs are really long, and twice as thick as her daddies, 3 times for mom’s legs.
    I know dad is big, for a York, but Mom is very petite, dad is a pure bred, mom doesn’t have papers but is a goodlooking Yorkie, slim, petit, right size(straight up) ears, just perfect, where did my pup get it’s size and how can she be turning white now??
    I would send a picture, but i don’t know how!!!

54. Years ago we got a gorgeous pup from a litter that was supposed to be german shepherd x rottweiler. Most of the pups came out looking exactly how you’d expect…big solid pups that looked either shepherd or rottweiler. But one pup was reddish golden with a darker coloring over her nose and ears, and white chest and feet. I fell in love with her, she was obviously from a different father. We discovered later that there was a male dingo in the area which had been seen close to the yard. This dog must have been our pups father because she grew up to look so much like a pure dingo I had to keep her registration papers on me when I took her for walks to prove she was part german shepherd.

55. I had a female Pomeranian come into my rescue from a Missouri puppy mill. She gave birth to 5 healthy pups 2 male mini Schnauzer pups, 2 female Maltese pups and she had one tiny Pomeranian pup like herself. That is when I found out that a female could have multiple fathers for her pups. I have several pics of the litter but I’m not sure where to post them. Obviously the Schnauzers and Maltese are Pomeranian mixes but you would never know it to look at them they look like pure bred Schnauzers and Maltese and the Pom is definitely a pure bred Pomeranian.

56. @Katie, I guess you never really know who the father’s might be unless you can do a DNA test. Besides that you can only speculate based on looks and personalities. It sure is interesting to have such a variety of puppies.

57. My dog had 9 Puppys, she’s a Black Lab X (With we dunno what) and the Dad was an English setter (Or what we knew)

    One puppy was golden with white all over his chest and forhead, then there were a couple of black and white puppies a few black, and then mine. She has a black head/legs/back, white spotted chest and feet, white tip on her tail, and then brown mixed in her sides, shoulders, upper legs …

    there was a shepherd running around, along with a collie … do you think either of those could be her father, and which?

    We’re just really curious as to what she is :S

58. Hi again, well my female gave birth to 6 (all females), in different sizes, it seems that she got pregnant 3 times, because there are 3×2 pups in the same size, the first 2,are really,really BIG, looks like a bouvier pup, these 2 are almost as big as mom, now (a yorkshire terrier), next 2 are just inbetween, and finally 2 really small, half the size of big sisters, one of those 2, got in trouble right after birth, had to bottle feed her, because she couldn´t suck with mom, she allmost died, 4 days old, there must have been at least a 10 day difference in age, according to the vet, and by looking at them, i would say she´s right………

59. Hi I have ? I female got stuck 2 times with the male dog but 4 days later she was stuck but with another dog would she have puppies with both males

60. The pitbull is also light brown ..

61. My dog had a litter of puppies she is a collie she bred unexpected with out Australian shepherd we think she also bred with a loose pitbull! 2 puppies look brown but she is light brown and we don’t know what to think they were just born

62. So my collie lab who is med size had five puppies n 2 of them csme out looking like my male dog ricco who sheapred n 2 more pups came out with brindle xolors and white all the top of thier heads and nose and chest than the odd one came whixh is all white except 2 black spots on his right side and on the butt part by the bottom of his tail and the brindle brown on his sides of head and eyes so this has to be a case of muptilble fathers but thier so cute cause the girl brown n white one has a brown teardrop on the top of her head.. The 3 of them almost look lile pit xause nun. Ofthem look like the mom

63. @Ash, I’m not an expert, but my guess is that they you probably have some puppies that are morkie x schnauzer mix and some that are morkie x yorkie mixes.

64. Hi! So my morkie was in heat and my pure yorkie got ahold of her but so did our pure shnauzer our gorl had 7 puppys 3 look like shnauzer mixes and the other 4 look like morkies. Do they all have a little bit of shnauzer,yorkie,morkie mix in them? Or do only some of the puppies have shnauzer and the others yorkie?

65. i took interest in finding about litters of puppies with multiple fathers bec of my bitch a pomeranian who has just deliverd 3 pups.We r really in doubt from the very start as to who the father will be bec. our 2 dogs mated her .Unintentionally the bitch was released by my husband without knowing that she is in heat ,we have a shitzui male who mated with so when we found out we brought her to the vet and on vets advice we allowed her to mate with our male pomeranian .For 5 days we allowed them to mate and just waited for the big days She delivered 3 pups and it seems to me that 2 of the 3 pups are sired by the shitzui.My children are laughing at me everytime i say this saying that itis impossible .but reading this makes it clear to me IT IS POSSIBLE

66. I had a female Pomeranian come into my rescue from a Missouri puppy mill. She gave birth to 5 healthy pups 2 male mini black Schnauzer pups, 2 female maltese pups and she had one tiny Pomeranian pup like herself. That is when I found out that a female could have multiple fathers for her pups. I have several pics of the litter but I’m not sure where to post them.

67. I just had a litter of pups from my registered German shepherd. She had gotten out and was gone for a while a few times while she was in heat. We have one huge white puppy that is easily twice the size of any other puppy (there was a great pyrenese male around) two pure black (I’ve also seen a black lab in the neighborhood), three that look shepherd and one that looks as blue heeler as he possibly could! And just yesterday I saw a blue heeler who I’d never seen before. I was amazed at how different they look!

68. My Chihuahua came in heat and I decided to breed her with my male. they were tied on 6 different occasions as well as one time with his brother. today my roomates dog got tied to her and he is a feist/pomeranian mix. What are the chances his seed took after all the previous seed before him?

69. Hi, right now i’m waiting for my female dog to give birth, she is allready passed her due-date, but the vet says we have to wait, because there is an age difference in puppy’s, half the litter is passed due date, the other half is not due for another 3 days, how?
    It seems my female got pregnant on dec. eighth, but she and the male, he’s also my dog, have been mating 2 or 3 times after that, the last time on dec.fifthteen, so there could be even four different ages, according to the vet, she has to have an operation now, because the puppy’s that she got pregnant with on the eighth, are getting to big to be born the natural way, but getting them out now, would mean that some of them would die, because they haven’t fully developed yet, i’m just so scared that they will all die, if she, the vet, waits too long !!
    I haven’t been able to sleep or eat, but i guess she knows what’s she’s doing, right??

70. I stumbled across this when I was looking into a story my grandma used to tell me about her 9 dogs she had. She told me that they all came from the same mom. She took in a stray dog from her neighborhood, and a week later it had 9 puppies, the mom look like a full blood shitzu, from what i can remember from growing up the puppies consisted of, 1 black lab, 2 springer spaniels, 1 poodle, the rest were gone before i was born. She told, andstill tells everyone that they all came from the same litter, not one looked like the next except the springer spaniels who were identical. I always thought she was just telling stories until i found this website. That is so neat to know that a single dog can have such vast differences in her litter. Thank you so much for sharing your story, you helped me see truth in hers!

71. Last fall my female went into heat with no warning sign such as bleeding. We were waiting to breed her to our Pug but we caught her and our neighbours Shit Zu male in the paddock and on the drive-way and in the bush and he got her every where. We were bracing ourselves for some weird mix of pups and when they were born she had three pups two were our Pugs and one was the neighbours Shit Zu. Our male Pug must have gotten her but we just never saw them or caught them. I have pictures of mom and dad and all the pups I can even get a picture of the neighbours dog. The one that was part Shit Zu was so cute as they all were, but I had people asking me for my information incase we bred them again or the neighbours dog got to our female, who is a French Bulldog/Pug cross. I didn’t think it could happen either till the one puppy started getting really hairy.

72. Resent it 😀 hope you get it this time. your email add is ckmorita [at] puppyintraining [dot] com rite?

73. @Vonny, I don’t believe we received the pictures. However, it may have got stuck in our spam filter. Please try sending the pics again. Thanks!

74. Dear Colby, I sent the pictures mayb a month ago, do you received it? *just checking coz worry I did the email but forget to send it, it happens to me, yes, Im that clumsy hahaha* :p

75. My border collie just had 3 puppies. When she was in heat she dug under out fence into the nighbors yard.
    The neighbor has 2 males…1 shaggy white sheepdog mix and a black chow.
    2 of the puppies are obviously chow, Theyre mostly black and have the facial structure of a chow. But theres a white puppy and idk if its the shaggy dogs’ or not. I asked my neighbor he just said it was the chows mom he picked up the genes on (she was blonde) but Im still unsure.

76. That really interesting to know. Never thought pups can have more than one fathers.

77. @Shawn, it’s my understanding that yes, it is possible to have 5 purebred pit and the other 5 pit/lab mix. It would be best to confirm this with a genetics expert.

78. Hi, my names is shawn, I recently had a litter myself that is a little iffy. The female is a purebred Pitbull terrier and she had a litter of 10. 5 solid black pups and 2 fawn 1 blue 2 black and brendal mix.(note one of the blacks also have brendal). She was left outside one day i was gone and my little brother watched a male lab mount her for over a minute. 2 days later she went to breed with another purebred male pitbull. My question is .. Is it possible that 5 may be purebred pit and the other 5 pit/lab mix? thanks very much

79. PS I have enjoyed reading everyones posts

80. I agree with maverickmagali although yes it is possible for a litter to have more than one father also when you have mixed breeds the puppies can look very dif from one another and still have the same father. I have a cav king charles x bishon and a shi tzu x Jack Russell they have had three litters of puppies together and no chance of any other father involved but amazing how very different some of the pups are from the others, all gorgeous but completly dif looking that people find it hard to beleive they are full siblings. Just like full human brother and sisters can look very dif from each other just depends what genes they pick. I hope these two pups got great homes they are both beautiful.

81. @Vonny, that’s very interesting thank you for responding. We’d love to see pics if your friend is okay with sharing pics. You can upload images through our contact form or just leave us a link to the images. Thanks!

82. I was googling if it was true and come across your web. I thought my friend was just messing with me regarding this lol ok, so I’m proved wrong :p its not my dog but the mother of my dog, Shihtzu. She just had her litters and we all were wondering all along how 2 of the puppy is not tricolour as the parents or all the puppies she had before. And the hair is different, not really soft like shihtzu hair. And she has nose, not short nosed like the shihtzus. Turn out there was a pom the house the time she was ovulation. Sorry I cannot send you pic coz the dogs (puppies and mother) are not mine but I will ask my friend if he’s ok me sharing their pictures 🙂

83. @Amay Cartman sounds very special. We’d love to see a picture of him!

84. Four years ago my husband and I rescued a puppy from a litter of very different siblings. The mother of the litter (Lady) was a border collie, but none of the puppies looke like her. Lady’s owner claimed she was bred with a 175 pound bloodhound, however the puppies didnt look like bloodhounds either. Each of the eight puppies were completely different and each seemed to its own breed. One puppy looked like a full pit bull, but each puppy had unique coloring and characteristics. The puppy we rescued looked to be a german shephard, but grew up to be anything but! We love him dearly because he has the sweetest temperment and funniest personality, but we have no idea what he is! As he has grown up, different breed characteristics have emerged. His most dominant features are those of a golden retriever, poodle, cocker spaniel, schnauzer, and chow. His vet classifies him as “shephard mix.” He has 15-inch long white hairs growing out from the sides of his hips, long hair that grows between his toes, a really bushy tail, kinky hair behind his ears, super soft white “stuff” on his tummy, and black tipped guard hairs on his back like a coyote. What color is he? Well, its more like what color is he not? We accept him for whatever he is and wouldnt trade him for anything, but when we look at him we cant help but wonder how many breeds make up his DNA. We named him “Cartman” after the chubby character from Southpark who didnt know who his father was. He is truly one of a kind!

85. @Samantha that’s a great question. Unfortunately, I’m neither a breeder nor a veterinarian so I don’t have any answer for you. I’d recommend contacting your local veterinarian or breeder to find an answer.

86. just out of curiosity, A female dog goes in heat for around 2 weeks, correct? Well say the male breeds with her at the begining of the first week and at the end of the second week. She excepts the sperm from both times and becomes pregnant. Can she go into labor one week then a few days later or a week or two later goes into labor again? I understand that if a female breeds with multiple males, that the litter can have different daddy’s but, how does that work? Can they get pregnant twice in a two week span? Know what I mean?

87. My dog, Snowy, sneaked out from the dog-sitter’s for a few hours… There must have been at least three fathers involved, because of the 7 pups this Spaniel-Spitz cross gave birth to, two looked like silky terriers (but one black and one white), another a beagle, another a Jack Russel, and the eldest was built like an English Sheep Dog with a pure white coat! The two that most resembled their mother did not survive past the first week…

88. Hi, I am looking at them right now…my chocolate doberman Sorca had 9 puppies 3 weeks ago. I am sure 2 or 3 of them have 1 father and the the rest a second father. This is why i am researching on the internet !! The 3 in quesion are much much bigger than the others and have very different looking coats and heads..Can’t wait to see how the differences progress in the next month !!

89. i asked this question on ask.com b/c we have a female husky who just had a litter 5 weeks ago, and we are relatively certain all four of our males mated with her.lol. at the time i thought only one could sire but in the 7 puppies it is quite evident that my norwegian buhund (who got to her 1st and is the only reason we hadn’t had her spayed yet) is the father of only 2. are also 2 from the austrailian shepherd, 2 from the unknown origion stray that my wife rescued last year 🙁 and one from the little 8lb terrier mix. it is quite a diverse group and also very advanced in their development. they started eating momma’s food at 3 weeks, and being that she is very protective and somewhat agressive with food she refused to let them nurse anymore and they preferred the dry food over the bottle formula so they continued to eat their own small piles of it. they like to lay across their piles to keep the others and momma from taking what is theirs. it is really quite adorable

90. I have two puppies out of the same litter. I have known them since birth. Mother a full blooded yorkie and father a chihuahua. My little female wts about 5 lbs. My male wts 15.5. They both have the long hair like a yorkie, but how can one be hugh compared to the little 5 lb pup. One in the litter died. The other 3 are about the size of a chuhuahua between 6-8 lbs. I have the smallest and the largest. Though this wasn’t planned. I love them totally plan to keep them. I just wonder is it likely they have the same fathers. Oh, the little one I can see some chihuahua in it. The larger males looks majority like a extemely large yorkie. Thanks for any assisstance or advice you can give me. Thanks you, Jeanie Maynard

91. @Amanda thanks for commenting. I’m not too sure what mix these puppies were as they were all rescued from the shelter.

92. @Deb thanks for sharing. That’s a very interesting story. I wish you did have pictures.

93. My daughter picked a “German Shepard “pup. However it’s mom met a traveling salesman Collie. They thought they were caught in time, but when she had her pups, there were 8 gorgeous Shepards and this one different little guy who kind of looked like a Collie! Now that he’s almost a year old it is very obvious what happened. I wish I had a picture of the litter.

94. Your first example looks as if they took on different features of both breeds. The fluffy one looks like he has a chow coat and lab coloration. While the non-fluffy one looks as if he took on the lab coat and chow-like coloration.
    The second one is the same way. All of them look very GSD to me, except for Boots and Blondie. Which do look sort of Lab-like. But you did say they were a mix. What were they mixed with?
    But it could be very likely that they do have multiple fathers.
    My female mix recently had a little of 7, with another mix. So there were four breeds to determine how the puppies would look. Only one was very fluffy with a curly tail, while the other six were short-haired. Another one had ears that stood, while the other six had floppy. Two were Merle, one “flux” Merle, two tri-colored, one bi-colored, a solid colored one. I know for a fact that she was only bred once by one male. But none of the puppies looked to be related to each other.
    In the case of mixes, it’s hard to tell what you’re going to get. In the case of pound puppies, if they don’t know what breeds they are mixed with, it’s anyone’s guess without a DNA test.

95. My friends dog had puppies and some came out black and white, one with short hair and a curled tail and the rest with long curly hair and a hanging tail.

96. I just adopted a puppy her siblings look like they were mixed with mabey a huskey however she doesnt and I found she look idenitcal and really mena indentical to the back lab puppy picture that i found online. just thought I would share as I found this anwer paticularly helpful with my couriosity. Thanks

97. @TayTay, I’d check with a veterinarian to see if it’s possible to have 3 dads in one litter. However, if I were to guess I’d say that yes, it probably is possible to have 3 dads in one litter.

98. My border collie ran away while she was in heat and im in an area with tons of strays. Two months later she gave birth to 10 pups. 2 looked Border Collie/ Pit Bulls 4 looked like german shepherds and 4 looked like pure border collies. is it possible there could be 3 dads to this litter? I dont know how to put pics on

99. we adopted a puppy that we were told was lab and bull mastiff, he looks like a husky mix. There were only 3 in his litter and 2 have short sleek fur while the one I got looks like a fluffy cotton ball. I got the puppy with the light eyebrows.

100. @Hortus, unfortunately I’m not to sure there is much you can do now. I would talk to your veterinarian or an experienced breeder about any possible actions you might be able to take.
     .-= Colby´s last blog ..Guide Dog Training And Hosting In The UK =-.

101. Please help we have just paid for our Pedigree Lab bitch to be sired by a pedigree lab. they were tied on both two occasions, two consecutive days. (yesterday and day before) We brought herl home today and next doors collie bit through his kennel and jumed on her…before we could stop them they were tied together. We wanted to breed the labs to sell on- what can we do?

102. @Gene, it sounds like an interesting litter thanks for sharing with us. If you would like to share pictures then please send us an email at ckmorita [at] puppyintraining [dot] com.

103. I have a pitbull, shitzu mix her name is Lola. I also have a pitbull, boxer mix named Diesel. My uncle has a pure bred rottweiler named tito and he was staying with us at the time lola was in heat. Diesel hooked up with lola twice and tito had gotten hooked once. Lola had her puppies today and the first two puppies look exactly like diesel almost identical, but the third looks like a purebred rottweiler obviously its not a purebred but looks just like one. now i’m not sure if she is all done having puppies yet but when she is i will post pictures of Lola, Diesel, Tito, and all the puppies so you can see for your self. Only problem is i’m not sure how to post the pics so if somebody can send a link to my email i can upload them.

     Thanks,
     Gene

104. @George B, I’m not sure I understand your question. Are you wondering about the size of a litter when crossing a Labrador Retriever and a German Shepherd. As far as I know you can’t determine exactly how many puppies will be in a litter. I believe there are many factors determining litter size including genetics, nutrition, and environment just to name a few. If you want to read more about litter sizes in dogs then check out this article:
     http://www.royalcanin.us/library/littersizeindogs.aspx

105. @Viviana, your Maltese’s puppies sound like a case of two different fathers. We’d love to see some pictures of the litter. Please send us a link to the images when you have a chance. Or, if you’d like email me the pictures at ckmorita [at] puppyintraining [dot] com and I’ll post them to one of our pages here on the Puppy In Training website.

106. Hi, I have a Question.
     How many will have a female Labrador litter when crossed with a German Shepherd? Kindly respond ASAP

107. Hi, I have a Question.
     How many will have a female Labrador litter when crossed with a German Shepherd?

108. I have a pure Maltese dog, but I was waiting to breed her with other Maltese.. But one day I took her out and my neighbors Chihuahua was rounding her because she was in the breeding period I never let that dog near my Maltese, he was even sleeping outside my kitchen door with no food and no water. My dad one day let the door open and the Chihuahua went inside and my dad did not notice, I came 10 min later and found the Chihuahua on top of my dog, lol. Same day I took her to breed her with the Maltese male, today she gave birth to 2 different dog, one completely white and the other looks like my neighbors Chihuahua, Is this a case of two different fathers? I will post a picture of how the dogs look, completely different. I was very skeptical about this DNA case. But now I believe it 100%

109. @Leslie, that’s very interesting. I like the way it sounds…a Morkie. We’d love to see pictures of your Morkie. You can email me attachments at ckmorita [at] puppyintraining [dot] com.

     Most people I know really haven’t heard of a litter of puppies having multiple fathers. I probably wouldn’t have heard about it had I not raised that litter of German Shepherd puppies.

110. Last May I bred my female maltese with my younger daughter’s male maltese. I thought the breeding period was over as she hadn’t allowed any interaction for 2 or 3 days. My older daughter came to visit and brought her male yorkie. You can guess what happened.

     I have a photo, not sure how to post here. The litter consists of 3 maltese and 1 morkie. They are currently three weeks old and adorable. I’ve been really surprised that everyone tells me they have never heard of this before. I grew up with my dad breeding hunting dogs and I guess I’ve always known there could be multiple fathers for a litter of puppies.

111. This may not necessarily be a case of multiple fathers, but just genetics at work. Think of puppies as fraternal twins and especially so when they are mix breeds. Just because they don’t all look like a near-perfect cross of two breeds does not mean there’s another set of DNA involved. For instance, let’s look at Koa and Sequoia. Koa has the coat and tongue of a Chow, but if you look closely, you can see that he has a muzzle that more closely resembles the muzzle of a Labrador. Sequoia has a coat closer to that of a Lab, but the shape of his head (which is sort of dome-y) and muzzle look more like a Chow’s. I’d also be willing to bet that he’s got some blue splotches on his tongue, if his tongue isn’t completely blue. Genetics are pretty much a lottery when you cross two breeds like this. It’s not always a matter of BB, Bb and bb.

112. You can have as many fathers as eggs. It’s rare but happens with people, too. Fraternal twins (which litters of puppies kind of are) have had different dads before. Maybe you need a biology refresher?

113. It sounds like you may have two fathers in the litter. Although I have seen some purebred black Labrador Retrievers with some white spotting usually on the chest. From the AKC Standard:

     “The Labrador Retriever coat colors are black, yellow and chocolate. Any other color or a combination of colors is a disqualification. A small white spot on the chest is permissible, but not desirable…”

     I’m assuming neither of your purebreds would be carrying genes that would cause white markings on the forehead.

     If you have some pictures of the litter I could post a follow-up article to this post.

114. I have a female lab, I kept her up in the pen and was not going to breed her this time. I have a black male lab which I always breed her with and I have a couple of mix males her also, however my little gilr let her out of the pen while I was gone and I did not see the conception, but all the puupies look like pure labs, except for one and he looks like one but he is black with more than normal white on his forehead and chest, I know I can’t register them, but I was wondering is this a case of two fathers?

115. Colby, yep, a CCI litter may have two fathers. I don’t know all the specifics, but I do know that several litters have pups from two different studs.

116. @Coreena, that’s very interesting. So if I’m reading correctly then it’s possible for a CCI litter to have multiple fathers.

117. CCI actually uses two sires sometimes, I believe with new studs, they use as back up studs then do DNA tests on the pups before they go to raiser homes.

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