Gundog Training Forum

How many of you would use the vet test to determine if your bitch is ready to travel to the chosen stud?
Are these tests accurate or do you go on your knowledge of the bitch etc?

If you've got no access to entire dogs for "testing your bitch out", if you've got a fair distance to travel to the stud dog, if it's a maiden bitch or a bitch that didn't take when mated the first time, then the blood test is a very good idea. The downside is of course cost as you'd have to (in some cases) start to test your bitch early in her season and then carry on - I think the price is normally around £60/test - but if the alternative is no litter at all then it's money well spent.

If you do the blood test then yes, it's accurate BUT I have known one person that tested her bitch and went "blindly" with the tests despite having an entire dog "indicating" earlier so when she took her bitch to the stud, there was no mating as the dog wasn't interested. Still think that you can't beat a "teaser dog" and you should always go with what that "tells you" - after all, the sperm will last a good 7 days after mating so if your bitch stands and the dog is interested, even if it's a day early (in terms of ovulation) then you should still get a nice litter of pups.

Natasha

not used them myself but have heard good results from the swabs available on ebay

romanriver wrote:not used them myself but have heard good results from the swabs available on ebay

Swabs, what are these? IMO the only ovulation test worth doing is Idexx progesterone test.

Contender wrote:Still think that you can't beat a "teaser dog" and you should always go with what that "tells you" - after all, the sperm will last a good 7 days after mating so if your bitch stands and the dog is interested, even if it's a day early (in terms of ovulation) then you should still get a nice litter of pups.

Just to point out that while sperm can survive in the female tract for 5-7 days you have a massively reduced level of viable motile sperm at the end time points.

Miesque wrote:

Contender wrote:Still think that you can't beat a "teaser dog" and you should always go with what that "tells you" - after all, the sperm will last a good 7 days after mating so if your bitch stands and the dog is interested, even if it's a day early (in terms of ovulation) then you should still get a nice litter of pups.

Just to point out that while sperm can survive in the female tract for 5-7 days you have a massively reduced level of viable motile sperm at the end time points.

Swedish research has actually found that sperm will survive up to 12 days and still be viable but I personally go with 7 days providing the stud dog is producing normal good sperm. I'll see if I can dig out the research as it's interesting reading

Natasha

Please do - I do a fair amount of AI so see a lot of semen samples and we get a massive drop off in research studies of motility around 5 days. There is survival past that but I wouldn't be banking on a pregnancy! I agree judicious use of a teaser is sensible if available, some bitches just haven't read the handbook!!

Teddy wrote:

romanriver wrote:not used them myself but have heard good results from the swabs available on ebay

Swabs, what are these? IMO the only ovulation test worth doing is Idexx progesterone test.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CANINE-OVULAT ... SwPe1T0Tdu

Thanks all, I've ordered some of the swabs and yes I do have a dog here to check, he's sired 1 litter previously so will use him to help check, but I wanted to be sure as I will be travelling a considerable distance to the stud and the bitch only comes into season infrequently and very lightly.

You can take swabs yourself and check under a microscope - there's info on the Internet and it's very interesting and extremely reliable to boot! The shape of the cells change dramatically when the bitch is ovulating



http://leerburg.com/estrus.htm