Successful breeding of Pets?

I haven't installed the game yet, but I recall with TS2 Pets, it could take days before the pets would even attempt mating, because their friendship needed to be high enough (much like Sims and whoohoo). It seems like a huge issue with C&D is that you can't view the pets' panels to see if that is in fact the problem.

The disappearing puppies/kittens thing is disturbing. I hope that issue gets fixed.