Are there any recommended tests that determine the fertile time when planning a mating.Im not a breeder i only own and show so cant help my friend out with this question but this will be her first litter,planned for a very long time but the sire in question is no longer available and the only one she is willing to use is quite a distance away( the original sire was very close) so now she has the new worry of getting the timing wrong.I understand there are a few methods but it would be good to hera from breeders personal experiences and how successful their chosen method was( or wasnt) so i can pass the info on to my friend,many thanks.

Idexx or Fit and Fertile are the two places where I'd go.  Had both of mine done by Fit and Fertile. Carmen missed previously so had her bloods taken and took her on day mentioned got 3 pups which was big for her.  Recently mated her daughter, knew when it would be too early so didn't have her bloods taken a second time as I knew fairly well how the readings worked.  She was mated on days 16, 17 and 18 and is due quite a few next week.

Thanks,what day did you take the blood sample and how many days after did it tell you to mate her,my friend has no computer so i am trying to gather as much info as possible,thanks

I have just been through this with my bitch, I tested her with fit and fertile. I did a few tests as her progesterone level's dipped at one point.
I took the final lot of blood in on the Wednesday morning, by 2pm that day tehy said she was ready and I had till Friday to mate her. Took her to the stud the next day and had a mating. Will have to wait and see if there are any pups

what days did you send your tests/

You really need to have some idea of your bitches cycles, but whiteout any other indicators to show a bitch might be a very early ovulator they often advise a baseline test taken at 8 days and then depending on result, how often to retest.

Had bloods done on day 9 and they were really low so was told wouldn't be for at least another 5 days if she doubled each day.  I did take bloods a second time but unfortunately between the vets and the post office I lost them, so just hoped for the best.  She wasnt ready on the day I took her so was mated 2 days after.  To be safe I would get your friend to have her dog done at least twice dependant on the results.

I drove my blood to them as they were only about 20-30 miles away.
I took the first on day 8 because I was unsure if I had missed her first day because I was at the hospital and didn't check her. (stupidly)
Her blood was 1.0ng and they told me to retest 4 days later, I did and she had dipped to 0.8ng so had to test again 5 days later.
It had risen drastically and they thought she would be ready thrusday-saturday but wanted me to test again 2 days later to ensure she had not dipped again, she had not. Thursday we went for a mating.

Its unusual to have to test as much as I had to but I didn't mind as I wanted to be sure.

Hi, just to let you know that one of my girls does not follow the usual route of doubling every 48 hours.  She went from 3.1 nmol to 48 nmol in 5 days.  Typically this was over a bank holiday weekend hence the 5 days gap in testing. Needless to say we ended up missing her.