Hi All

My bitch is going to a maiden dog on her next season.  I have heard that maiden dogs sometimes have very low sperm counts until after they have been used the first time.  Ie It is common for them to miss to their first bitch but have no problems thereafter.  Have any of you heard of or experienced this?

I've used a maiden dog (on an experienced bitch); we had two matings 48 hours apart, and had a very nice litter as a result.

Used my own boy with my girl back in the summer, his first time and they had a good sized litter too!

Great thanks so far for your replies :-)

Both my boys were 'maidens' once! Both produced good sized litters on their first matings :-)

I have had 3 boys, 2 produced on their 1st matings...
3rd boy did nothing with 1st 2 bitches, (no ovulation tests done) **1st bitch was never mated again,so never produced a litter, 2nd bitch went on to produce a good litter from another stud following season  **

A litter of 14 with 3rd bitch (my own, and ovulation tests carried out)

I have another boy living elsewhere who was a maiden, and bitch just confirmed in whelp today

75% success rate for maidens.... luck of the draw, and timing  :-)

Luckily, I have as much access as I want to the boy so planning to stay for a week or so and go for as many matings as bitch will allow.  I have an entire male at home who is generally a good gauge as to timings!

when my boy was used 1st time he produced 13 pups! they had 3 very good mateings
xxxx

Dog I bred was used first time at 6 years old, went on to produce 5 litters each fo 6 plus (breed average is aroudn 6).

Inka's sire was jsut 17 months when I used him with a ltiter of 7.

> I have heard that maiden dogs sometimes have very low sperm counts until after they have been used the first time. 

In all my years with dogs, I have never heard this.  Just as well, as I wouldn't have believed it!  :-)

I honestly have never had a maiden boy miss.

Great news everyone, thank you!

the only real issue with maiden dogs is that they have not the experience so can either be slow on the uptake or too gung ho about their stud duties. 

For example I whodunit' rely on a maiden dogs response to a bitch for timing of a mating, where an experienced stud can be a very good indicator of the fertile time for mating.

You could encourage them to clean their pipework out a week before.  it does encourage it lol and makes sure theres a good fresh fraction going to the girl.

>You could encourage them to clean their pipework out a week before

!!  This breeding business is not for the faint-hearted is it?! :)

The stud we used was unproven. We are now expecting a litter of 3 + (toy breed) untill e have an x ray to hopefully confirm numbers