Testing your female… Test don’t guess

Progesterone testing is difference between success and failure.

The success of a mating is down to exactly ‘when’ a female is mated…… If a stud dog is proven and his sperm is tested to be of standard in terms of quality, amount and mobility then the main objective is to breed with the female in her most fertile window and this is undoubtedly the main factor that determines whether or not the female gets pregnant.

The size of the litter is not dependant on the stud dog as any proven stud dog will flood the female with millions and millions of sperm, it’s all to to with the quality of the eggs the female released , the amount and at what stage of the cycle the females eggs are at.

Luckily these days we have all the means to to make sure we breed in the optimum window of fertility and maximise conception rates…..

K9 Fertility clinic

We all know day 1 of a females heat cycle is the day the first spots of blood are spotted, and we all know that a female ‘should be’ most fertile around days 11 -15 and if bred within them days then of course, there should be a good chance the female will catch and fall pregnant.

But that ‘should be’ attitude to breeding is leaving a lot to chance, guessing and relying on every bitch being typical.

In reality, there are many factors which affect when any one bitch might ovulate (release eggs) such as condition of female, weather because if its hot we have seen bitches delay ovulation until much later into heat cycle day 17/18 even , seasonal differences in terms of time of year, whether or not the bitch lives with other dogs, whether the bitch is a house dog or kennel dog, basically many different factors can mean we see variations as to when a bitch ovulates.

Below is a progesterone chart, this shows exactly when a female should be bred.

Anytime from 40 nmol.

if you notice the bitch releases eggs at around 20 nmol but that this stage, although the eggs have been released the outer layer of the eggs is hard and difficult for the sperm to penetrate, the sperm will try but most will just bounce off run out of energy and die. Over the next few days the eggs will mature and at around 40nmol the the outer layer will soften making it easier for the sperm to penetrate and successfully fertilise the eggs and get the bitch pregnant. As the progesterone levels rise, 50nmol / 60nmol / 70nmol/ 80nmol over the coming days the eggs further mature, the outer layer further softens and the sperms job becomes easier fertilising the eggs………. hit this window with fresh sperm and you not only maximise the chance of your bitch conceiving but also maximise the size of any potential litter.

testing, testing, testing and hitting the sweet point with the freshest of semen = success

So the bitch falling pregnant and how many she has is not down to an already proven stud, but the quality, quantity of the females eggs and importantly at what sage of the cycle the female is exposed to the best quality semen. Semen can live for 4/5 days in a female but the amount will dwindle each day. For example, if someone decided not to test and to breed their female on days 11 & 13 but the female didn’t ovulate until day 12 then at that stage the eggs would be very hard and many of the sperm would be wasted…….. but as the eggs soften over the coming days, although the sperm is dwindling and dying off as each day passes there maybe enough sperm survive to fertilise some eggs as they soften and the bitch may still get pregnant but possibly with a smaller litter 1 or 2 but also more likely to miss altogether as the sperm are fewer in numbers.

This is why progesterone testing is so important, do this and the likelihood of your bitch conceiving is maximised.

It i all worth it when it pays off with a successful scan and a litter on th way.

Here is an example of why testing and removing guess work really pays off !!

We recently had a customer come to us for a mating, day 11 assuming this was the start of a tyipical fertility window……..We advised rather than mating do a test and only go ahead with mating dependant on results……. it turned out bitch was only 10 nmol and hadn't even ovulated, it had been warm weather so possibly a factor, but if we had of mated blind, without testing there is good chance this female would have missed…… we waited 3 days, and on day 14 retested and she was 50 nmol which is perfect, eggs softened and fresh semen added at the optimum point, eggs will further soften over next 2 days at which point a second was mating done, this will absolutely maximise chances of a successful pregnancy and is the difference between success and failure. ( update this customer had 8 healthy pups )