Good Breeder Center

FTBT Lesson 4: Before & While Breeding Your Dog

From at least 90 days prior to breeding through breeding

By Good Dog Team

These courses are for educational and informational purposes only and are not a substitute for professional veterinary advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your veterinarian before making decisions about your dog's health, including administering supplements, changing their diet, or implementing training techniques that could affect their wellbeing.

In This Lesson

Before and During Breeding Video

Before and During Breeding Body Condition and Weight

It is essential that your dog is at a good reproductive weight going into a breeding. Use the Tissue Tent Test below to confirm whether your dog is too light, too heavy or just right. If your dog is either over or under weight, then tackle that issue now. If it is underweight, then put it on an "all-life stages" food and increase the amount or calories until its weight is where it should be. If it is overweight, then start taking weight off now using the info below.

Assessing Body Condition

Watch this video to learn how to assess your dog's body condition. Learn to use one (or all) of three methods to evaluate your dog's body condition:


The Knuckle Test

You can use the knuckle test to monitor your dog’s weight although the Tissue Tent Test is more accurate. Here’s how to do it:

1. Make a fist with your right hand.

2. Using your left hand, rub your fingers over the knuckles of your right hand. You can clearly feel each individual knuckle, with little fat between them.

3. Now open your right hand and again run your fingers over your knuckles. You can feel each bone but not as distinctly as before. Most likely, you can feel a small fat pad between the knuckles.

4. Finally, turn your right hand over and run the fingers of your left hand over the undersides of your knuckles. No longer can you feel bones and instead, you feel rounded muscles with little indentations between the fingers.

5. Now run your hand over your dog’s ribcage at this broadest point.

6. Which of your hand positions does your dog feel like?

  • If it feels like your knuckles on a closed fist, your dog is athletically thin. This is fine as long as your dog doesn’t get any thinner.
  • If her ribs feel like the top of your open hand, your dog is at an appropriate weight but you need to make sure it doesn’t put any more weight on.
  • If it feels like the underside of your hand, your dog is overweight and needs to get some weight off.

Getting Weight Off Your Dog

Her are eight actions you can take to get weight off your dog.  

1. Know the calories in your dog's food

2. Weigh or measure every meal

3. Have the right measuring tool

4. Include the calories in supplements in your calculations

5. Count the calories in training and other treats

6. Offer low-calorie recreational chews

7. Supplement weight-loss dog foods

8. Use the Pumpkin or Canned-Food diet (see video below)

The Pumpkin and Canned Food Diets

These two diets can help your dog get the excess weight off before breeding.

Pre-Breeding Nutrition

Optimal nutrition is important for breeding dogs, which helps maximize the number and health of pups. We recommend an AAFCO All-Life Stages food or the equivalent with 29+% protein, 18% or more fat, a calcium:phosphorus ratio between 1:1 and 1.4:1. Bitches should have some starches in their diets once they come in season. Read the charts below for details on a reproductive diet.

Nutrients for Breeding (before she's in season)

Nutrients for Breeding (during breeding / in season)

Pre-Breeding Fitness and Exercise

Before breeding your dog, you should assess its fitness and do strength, balance, proprioception, and flexibility exercises. These exercises will improve your dog's breeding success and fertility. Fit stud dogs will have more viable sperm and will be able to successfully breed more bitches. Fit bitches will ovulate more eggs, carry and whelp litters more easily, produce a more appropriate amount of milk, and will mother their pups better.

You have already evaluated your dog's body condition. Now it's time to assess muscle tone and strength.

Watch the videos below to learn to assess each of these in your dog. Then go to the next section to take the Body Condition & Fitness Assessment and get your dog's first exercise schedule.

Assessing Muscle Tone

In this video, you will discover which muscles are important to assess and how to do that.

Assessing Core, Rear and Front Strength

In this video you'll learn how to evaluate your dog’s front, rear and core muscle strength through three simple exercises.

Learn How to Stand A Dog For Evaluation

If you are not familiar with stacking a dog, watch this how-to video and teach your dog to stack.

Safe Pre-Breeding Skill Training

If you train your dog in a sport or activity, all skill training activities are appropriate before and while breeding your dog.

Skill Activity Risk Chart

Evaluate Your Dog

It’s time to take the next step in your dog’s fitness program by assessing your dog’s muscle tone and strength! You don't have to assess your dog to get your dog's exercise programs but there are some real benefits of assessing your dog’s fitness!

Assessing regularly enables you to:

  • get an establish a baseline for your dog’s fitness
  • see how your dog is progressing
  • adapt your dog’s exercise routine as it changes
  • catch subtle injuries early before they become long-term problems

Complete and submit the online form below. If you want to print or download the assessment form ahead of time to have with you during the assessment, do so now. Then come back to this page to input your dog's results into the form.

Fit To Be Tied Monthly Exercise Schedules for Non-Breeding and Recovery ONLY

Below are your dog's exercise schedules for months 1 through 9. We recommend doing each month's exercises for at least 28 days before moving onto the next month. Remember to go back to Lesson 3 to determine what stage of the breeding cycle your dog is currently in!

If you would like to assess your dog's fitness and condition, fill out the form below the exercise schedules. Do not perform the assessment on pregnant or lactating bitches.

FTBT-Month 1 Exercises
FTBT-Month 2 Exercises
FTBT-Month 3 Exercises
FTBT-Month 4 Exercises
FTBT-Month 5 Exercises
FTBT-Month 6 Exercises
FTBT-Month 7 Exercises
FTBT-Month 8 Exercises
FTBT-Month 9 Exercises

Fit To Be Tied Exercises Videos

Fit To Be Tied Lessons