just out of curiosity...AND I REALLY MEAN THIS, before people shout at me for an ignorant owner. what is the optimum number to mate a dog per season to hope for the best out come of puppies (i know that other things need to be taken into account such as fertility, time of mating etc) but old school, for instance when my grandad bred dogs in his youth, he used to do as many matings as the bitch would allow and as many as the dog could perform. nowadays, people get 2 matings 2 days apart, is this because it is optimum for safety of bitch and pups or because of another reason.

anything you could tell me would be great.

i dont do any more than 3 mating ,and i do it over 3days ,we have a boy here that lets us know when our girls are ready ,but saying that our girls try to mate each other when its the right time too :) weve never had a miss and alway got big litters with our springer when we breed them ,now our new breed her 1st litter she only had 4 and shes a large breed but we only got 1 mating !! ,but since talking with her breeder and finding out her mum and litter sisters mated later in there season around day 18/19 with large litters 9 to 13 !!!! if and when i do her i will see how that goes ......the reason i only do it over 3 day is the difference in the size of pups , but i think some will do it over 4 day but no more then that xx

On average most bitches are unlike to be receptive/fertile for more than five days.

Some bitches will stand from about a day before ovulation, but fertilisation cannot occur until about two days later after the ova have undergone division, and these then remain viable fro roughly 2 days.  The eggs are released over about 1 or two days.

So you can see that the optimum time for sperm to meet eggs is from two to four days after ovulation, so if you hit the right time two matings two days apart should cover all bases,a nd in fact some dogs and bitches will not mate outside this time.

A bitch that is mated early to a very fertile stud could still conceive if mated five days before ovulation as sperm can survive up to a week, but the chances are obviously reduced.

It is also pointless mating a bitch after the eggs have died at more than four days from ovulation.

It would seem most people err on the side of mating too early.

Personally I am quite Happy if my bitch is staying with the stud to let her mate for up to five days if the first mating seems to be early, but otherwise over a three day period, especially when the male has said no not yet, and the bitch is saying yes.

As for worrying about different puppy ages, the fertilised eggs all implant about the same time and size of pups is more to do with relative position and efficiency of placentas than a difference in age.

the reason i only do it over 3 day is the difference in the size of pups

just out of interest what do you mean by this?

some people say that as long as you get a good tie then one mating is fine

hi hayley bare with me as im not very good at explaning myself very well lol ...ok i was told if a bitch was left to mate over a long time ...ie aweek some bitches would if left to it ,you then have aweek of differnt dates for whelp so say your girl mated from the 1st of oct till the 7th then pups could be due from the 3rd to 10th dec,but if mum is full of pups and went into labour early ,or could be born late because of not knowing dates as having a full week of mating ,ive also seen a litter born of 9 born on day 61 ,6 of the pups looked fine but 3 looked very early ,very small and not much coat on them and eyes didnt look right ,they didnt make it died 12h after being born ,the date of being born was taken from 1st mating ,so i can only go on what ive seen and then told this could be why , so thats why i only mate over 3days , hope that makes some sense :) x

> some people say that as long as you get a good tie then one mating is fine

Yep, have to agree.  I've had 14 pups in each litter just from one mating from my 2 girls!

The thing is even if you only have a couple of matings on not the ideal dates you could have a bitch whelp when you think she is late, as a bitch will whelp to the right time from conception regardless of when mated and normal litters can vary by a week anyway. 

I have had bitches whelp 5 days early to a single mating and also the same bitch 4 days late to a single mating.

I knew with the first that she was probably towards the end of the fertile period (only got a slip two days before).

On her last litter we mated her on what we thought was day 17, but then her season went on for another 10 days ans on palpating at 4 weeks the Vet was certain the gestation was not as far on as that, so we were not concerned when she went past the due date(our breed usually go early if anything).

Also regards variable ages of pups.  Bitches ovulate over approximately a 48 hour period so pups cannot be more than that difference in age, and as we know perfectly viable pups can be born a week plus or minus.

Diffferences in development are more likely to be nutritional/environmental.

thanks for that brainless ,found that very interesting :) x

ah, i see what you mean now, thanks :-)