I'm calling on the experience of breeders who have used ovulation testing at home, as to which they thought was most accurate and produced good results ie a pregnant bitch.
I am considering investing in a Draminski, but as most of you will know they are very expensive, if anyone has had any good experiences with Matetel etc I'd love to know (and so would my pocket!)

I've had no successful results with anything ( and I've spent considerable amounts on kits and lab work) .....other than a good stud dog.

Mine gives one sniff and when he says - Yes - it's time to get in the car. He's not been wrong yet.
Before I had him I would pop round to a friend with an experienced dog and he was just as good.

Everyone I have known with a Draminski has sold it.

I used Pre-Mate Ovulation Cytology .sent u a link

Matel was useless for me - but I did get a refund. It is probably good for those breeds that drool a lot though.
Premate blood testing has been successful for me as has an ovulation scan.

Have heard a no of people have bought the draminski and never used it.

Have to say that blood tests from vet and off to Idexx is the best only cost £50 in total and got three pups from a bitch who had missed three previous times.

Blood tests work best for us too.

matetel worked for me if used correctly .

Matetel is very good, if getting the right amount of saliva....so I think this entirely depends on your dog and your efficiency at gaining a good sample.

Some really useful comments, thank you very much.

Mate Tel is as good as the operator, as with most things.  If you can get someone to copy you the instructions, you can use a strong magnifying glass of reasonable microscope.
You need long thin ferns to indicate ovulation, not short fat ones! :) :)

Swabs done by the vet proved successful for us.  Fingers crossed, in 9 weeks it will also be successful for a friend who has traveled to our vet after our success.

However we did have a swabed earlier then planned after entire male (never used at stud) started going crcazy for her and she flicked her tail round.  So two reliable tests really :)

We have a Draminski, bought in January 2001 and have had good results with it.  Suggest you practice with it before using it on the bitch you want to mate so you can get used to it.  Just make a graph with the readings and you'll see when to mate.  Last year tried the ovulation pads just to see what they were like, didn't like them, they're extremely sharp at the corners, if you have a small breed be very careful.  Also tried a Matetel, our girls see you coming with it and swallow!  We found you need quite a bit of saliva to get a reading, hopeless if they have a dry mouth! Our Vet doesn't do the Premate test so we've found the Draminski suits us best. 

If you cannot get enough saliva from your bitch you can't get an accurate reading - simple as that ! 

Exactly!!!! That's why I said "We found you need quite a bit of saliva to get a reading" 

Just get yourself a cheap microscope from Toys r Us, wash your hands, get a saliva sample on your finger put it on the slide and wait for it to dry....works exactly the same as MateTel with same results, just easier to get a sample.

The Draminski is far superior, we'll just stick with that.

I like Draminski too, I have their small animal scanner, always get excellent pictures with that, even when the bitch is only just 3 weeks.

How does  this type of test work ?

What would you be looking for in a saliva sample ie as in to get a proper reading . I thought you would need to have some sort of indicator type thing like a pregnancy test to see results. Westcoast mentioned  "ferns" what are these exactly and what would you see if a bitch was ovulating .

Is the MateTel just a microscope too ?

Have never seen  or known any one use one so am interested on how the testing works .

Just an another question  if some dogs are scanned to see if they are pregnant and nothing can be seen on the scan, then they end up having a litter, how does an ovulation scan work as I thought that this would be quite difficult to detect  as scans can be unpredictable.

Is it done with the same scanner ?

Also if a dog is scanned and the vet does not see anything, and a litter is produced.Why does the scanner not pick this up ? Can they really hide that well inside or is it a case of the scanner is not that great,  how they place the bitch for the scan or how much area of the stomach the scanner is used on. Could it be that the vet  has just not placed the scanner in the correct position or taken enough time to have a good old look around?
I was just thinking of being scanned when I was pregnant , my stomach was covered in gel as they moved the "probe ?"or whatever you call it all over the place and pressed quite hard before a good picture came up

Sorry everyone I am just full of questions tonight Feel like an over active inquisitive child :) still if you dont ask you will never learn Eh!

This is the result I got a while back from one of my girls, http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/crazycockers/SnipImage.jpg  it shows the ferning we were looking for.

With regards to the scan and not finding pups but still ending up pregnant, well when scanning early it does take time to have a good look, sometimes vets just don't have this as they are thinking about their next patient, plus a lot of vets just are experienced enough in scanning and will 'sometimes' miss finding pups.

That is really interesting SharonM thanks for that very helpfull . And this is what is seen when the bitch is ovulating. I allways thought it would be more complicated but I am sure it takes a bit of skill to do it and recognise what you should be looking for

Did you use a kit or was it just done as mentioned a magnifying glass or a cheap microscope.

Mine was done on a microscope, but had the same results on the MateTel