Adding and managing your dogs

What this is for

Your dogs are the foundation of everything else in Whelpify. Litters link to a dam and a sire, puppies inherit breed and coloring from the parents you picked, and your public site builds parent profiles and pedigrees from these records. Adding your breeding dogs first makes every later step shorter.

Where to find it

In the left sidebar, open Breeding, then Dogs.

Add a dog

1. Click Add Dog.
2. Whelpify asks one question at a time. The first screen is photos, where you can choose Take a photo, Upload pictures, or Choose from library. The first picture becomes the main profile photo.
3. Click Continue to move on. If you have not answered a question, the same button reads Skip for now, and you can fill it in later.
4. Answer the name question. This is the only answer Whelpify requires, so you can move quickly and come back for the rest.
5. Keep going through gender, breed, birthday, registration number, colors, personality, adult weight, parents, health tests, status, site navigation, and a public bio.
6. On the last screen, review the summary and click Create dog.

Edit a dog later

Open Dogs and click the dog's name. Saved dogs open on an overview of every section with its current values: Identity, Photos, Traits, Pedigree, Health tests, and Profile.

1. Click the section you want to change.
2. Make your edits.
3. Click All sections to go back, or move straight to Save changes.

Nothing on your website changes until you save, and every section saves together in one step. Ctrl S saves as well.

Choose how a dog shows on your website

Open the Profile section to set what visitors see.

• Dog status decides the label on the public profile. Pick Active for a dog in rotation for breeding, Up and coming for one planned but not breeding yet, Retired for a dog no longer breeding but still part of your program, or Guardian home for a dog living with a guardian family.
• Feature in site navigation adds the dog to the Our Dogs menu on your public site.
• Public bio is the write-up families read on the profile. Personality, structure, and where the dog fits in your program all work well here.

Photos, pedigree, and health results appear on the same public profile. See pedigrees, health testing, and titles for those sections, and photos and the media library for how uploads are stored.

Find and remove dogs

The list has a search box and a status filter, and the newest edits sit at the top. Use the menu at the end of a row for Edit or Delete.

When you delete a dog that has photos or certificates attached, Whelpify asks whether to delete those files from your media library too. Anything still used somewhere else is kept.

Common questions

Do I have to add a dog before I add a litter?

No, but it helps. A litter can be saved without a dam or sire, and you can link the parents later. Linking them lets puppy records inherit breed and coloring, and it builds the pedigree on your public profiles.

Why can I not pick a certain dog as the sire?

The sire list only offers dogs saved as male, and the dam list only offers dogs saved as female. Open the dog you want to use, check the Identity section, and set the gender.

Can I add dogs that are not mine?

Yes. Many breeders add an outside stud so the pedigree is complete. Set the status that fits, and leave Feature in site navigation off if you do not want the dog in your menu.

Where do heat cycles live?

On a female dog's page there is a Heat cycles button next to her name, and there is a full board at Breeding, then Heat Cycles. See tracking heat cycles.