just interested in hearing people experiences of using these

If you do a search for them on this site, you'll see that the experiences aren't brilliant.

and to be honest if they were reliable then there would be veterinary articles saying so and canine fertility experts would advocate their use rather than that of invasive blood tests.

Any success I would imagine is purely coincidence as after all bitches have a high conception rate if mated anywhere during the likely fertile time

I used the ones I had left over from last year, this time alongside the blood tests in the name of research, and actually they gave a very definite reading that did coincide with when the blood tests predicted ovulation.  I used them last year, but probably not properly, as I was relying on the blood tests and then I ended up leaving the bitch with the stud so didn't get to complete my research unfortunately. 

I wouldn't have had the confidence to trust them this time without the bloods, but I do feel I have learnt to read them now, so would probably use them again as a 'double check' for myself.

I used them as we missed the last time and they worked brilliantly!

I tested her twice a day from day 6 with no problems as gave her a treat afterwards; within a couple of days she was draping herself over the back of the sofa for me to do it as soon as she spotted me coming in the room with one in my hand.

By day 10 I was getting twitchy that the colour hadn't changed so took her to the vets for a £45 blood test.
The very next day the colour of the pad changed to a very dark purple, you couldn't miss the colour change... I found you have to leave it in a bit longer than they suggest and 'fiddle' with her bits to bring down the fluid properly. By the way the colour change is only for one day so you have to test twice a day in case you miss it.

I rang the vet who said the test result had been held up; they would tell me the next morning.

The best day for mating, I was told by the pad lady, would be 2 days after the colour change. The next day the vet rang and said to retest that day as she was nearly there... bearing in mind the test had been taken 2 days before that made the pads pretty spot on.

I took her to the stud that day (1 day after the colour change) and the stud dog was interested but they didn't mate. The stud owner said his dog knows when the eggs have ripened so to go back the next day. I did this and they mated straight away and tied for almost 30 minutes. This was 2 days from the colour change.
I took her back the next day but neither of them were the slightest bit interested. Our stud owner said when this happened it usually meant that the stud knew she had taken.

We now have 9 bouncing 5...well almost 6 (doesn't the time go quickly; sigh) week old English Springer Spaniel puppies (would have been 10 but one pup was huge and sadly took too long lining up so was stillborn); I was thrilled with the pads and would definitely use them again!

I even predicted the whelping date on my facebook page as the 'Book of the Bitch' says most pups are born 63 days from ovulation... the date came out as the 2nd December from the colour change so I posted my status (when she was 4 weeks pregnant), as a joke, saying they would be born then and sure enough the pups were born on the very evening of the 2nd!!

I know vets don't recognise them but they make a lot of money out of ovulation blood testing, so they wouldn't would they.
For the cost I would say definitely give them a try, the lady selling them seems very pleasant as when I mailed her with a question she rang me within an hour with an answer! I will definitely be using them again!!

Just to add to what dogloverapril said, I found I had a colour change for more than one day. I had the tinyest speck of blue on day 14 (am), IDEXX confirmed a reading of 14.92 that afternoon, 3.45pm, and said ovulation occuring or about to occur.  Day 15 the pad had a larger area of bluey colour on it and Day 16 it was massively black/blue.  I didn't test Day 17 as only had one pad left, and she had been mated anyway, but did test again on Day 18 and the pad had gone back to its base pinky colour with just the hint of faint blue.

I would definitely use the pads with confidence with this bitch again, as I have researched them against bloods, but I would probably not trust them alone for a different bitch.  Useful supplementary tool though.

There are lots of posts if you look in the search box. I bought some, mainly 'cause I just wanted to try them, just to see. They were a complete waste of money for me, the only colour change I got was to terracotta which is basically the blood staining the pad ... otherwise there was no colour change.

However, that said, I do have a friend who swears by them. She had tried for 4 seasons to mate a bitch, waiting til the bitch indicated she was ready, around the 12 day mark, and and no pups. She decided to try the pads as she really wanted the bitch to have a litter, used them from day 1, on day 4 the pads indicated ovulation. Girly was mated and hey presto pups ... she'd been too late all the previous attempts!

I will use the remainder of the pads I have on my other girly when she comes into season, again, just to see, but I wont be buying them again.

I am also going to have a look at 'ferning' next time around, just to see :-)

i have girls with funny seasons, have always used them and never missed yet, now if my girls see me getting one out they just lay down on their side, probably because there's a treat to follow

> They were a complete waste of money for me, the only colour change I got was to terracotta which is basically the blood staining the pad ... otherwise there was no colour change.
>
>

Ditto.  They were rubbish for me.

Same here - rubbish.