Our youngest bitch has just come into season.  Her breeder advised us that the optimum time for mating her mother is usually day 9-11.  Does anyone know of a vet in the Merseyside area who stocks and uses Pre-mate testing kits. Several people have told me that these test are very reliable.  However, these people do not live in this area.

I would like to get her tested asap just to get an idea of her ovulation.

Rather than use an in house test kit I would ask your vet to draw a blood for serum progesterone and send it to the lab. Blood draw am and result back by evening. I am in Lancashire and my vet send to Nation wide labs on Fylde   Test PSDR http://www.dechralabs.co.uk/our-services/tests-and-profiles/reproduction/?submit=view

This lab does lots of work for vets in north west and runs courier service to practices

I used CJ Mason at Preston prior to taking my bitch on a 1500 mile drive to Poland, so it was important to get an accurate result. He took bloods at 10.00am on the Friday, called me at 5.00pm to say he thought that the mating should take place between Tuesday and Thursday the following week. We left on Sunday evening, she was standing for the dog at 10.00pm on Monday night and on Tuesday night we did a second PG test, which showed she had just ovulated. Perfect. I should say that he charged me £48 for this! Which I think is pretty good value by anyone's standards, quite apart from the fact that he is an excellent vet. Taking her for her scan next week :-)

Edited to add: this bitch was mated on days 8 and 10 of her season