Has anyone had any recent experience of using frozen semen and its success rate? If so which company did you use?

Over the years have read of successes in dog papers, but in my own breed it has been abysmally unsuccessful.  Only two litters 30 years apart the last being born August 1998, 6 puppies, (AI done by Gary England, the whole collection of 6 straws were used as previous attempts using the semen with less had failed.

The lady who I travelled to in USA to mate my bitch had a litter from semen from Scandinavia last year, I think there were 4 pups, the average breed litter size is almost 6, though anything up to 14 has been known.

In my years of breeding since 1995 I have reared litters of between 3 and 9 puppies averaging just shy of 6 per litter.  The smallest litter carried was 4 and largest 11 (the latter a slow labour, emergency vets refusing oxytocin until 3 hours had passed, and loss of 4 of the litter).

I would always advise where at all possible take the bitch abroad to the stud.  It will more than likely work out cheaper and has a much higher chance of success.

I have tried three times with two bitches and two different repro specialists and all failed
Have known a couple of successes when GIl Avris was at tweed house but now retried.
A friend recently has a sucessful litter and she used Sean at willows vet group Warrington http://www.caninereproductionservices.co.uk

I have already had one failed attempt with chilled from Canada, and now I am being offered frozen from the breeder to use on a different female. I really do not want to take my female to Canada. There seems to be very little choice in the South.

I have had someone else recommend fit and fertile which are partners ( I think) with the Willows vet group, but its probably easier for me to travel to a really good clinic in Holland.
I am hoping also to find a company that can collect and store frozen semen for the future.

I sent frozen seman to Finland. The breeder had 2 litters using it but it was surgically implanted.

This does seem to be the issue here, all the good results from breeders I know abroad have all been done surgically, which the BVA and KC do not like.

Seems it's OK to do routine invasive surgery to prevent breeding, but not to help breeders widen the gene pools of their breeds.

Not to mention the vets who insist that minor things must be done under a GA, when a local would do the job (sorting out a sebaceous cyst for example), or for Hip Scoring when sedation and heavy narcosis are acceptable.

Speaking great sense again Barbara.
The vet profession in general are a rather conflicted lot I find.

This is the third forum I have asked the same question, and the responses have been very similar. We seem to be fairly backward over our approach in the Uk and if the entry requirements change for puppies entering the UK it is going to be even harder to get new blood for our breeds so importing and exporting semen will be more vital.
Should our Kennel Club with the AHT be setting this up as a business arm?.

My last litter who are now 2 years old was from Frozen semen on a maiden bitch and she was quite old for a first litter.  I've previously brought in chilled and had no success at Innovis but used Fit and Fertile/Willows for the frozen.  I have large breed and they can easily have litters of 12+ but I've always had litters of 8 which I think is perfect :-)
My frozen AI litter she had 8 but only 6 survived which I was more than happy with.  1 pup still born (only bitch in the litter) and another that looked as though it had died beforehand. 
I should have had enough semen for 2 bitches but for some reason it was very low when defrosted.  Other frozen semen from the same dog sent to other countries was fine and much better when defrosted so not sure if it happened during the freeze or transit.  I decided to use everything I had in the one mating and my bitch showed no signs at all so I was very surprised to find she was in pup.

Im wondering if I also answered you on another forum on FB? lol

Having spoken to a repro vet really frozen semen and implantation it's all about how you thaw it and it's got to be done in the right way and not get too warm too quick otherwise you can kill off the sperm. So find a repro vet who knows what they are doing and has good results. I thought with frozen it was surgically implanted?

No to comply with KC rules it needs to be non surgical via trans cervical insemination unless you have prior permission from general committee to use surgical imp,ant

> to comply with KC rules it needs to be non surgical via trans surgical  insemination

I know you meant trans cervical.

Have used fit and fertile for semen collect and export. Very easy to deal with and first unit semen used in Australia produced a litter of 15.

It's only been since 2012 that younger puppies have been able to be imported.

Prior to that we had to bring dogs through Quarantine or pay to have pups kept to 10+ months at great expense.

Have done both to widen gene pool and twice mated bitches abroad.

In a numerically small breed such importations are always an investment in the breed, the cost of which can never be recouped.

Thanks klb.

I understand fully that I will never recoup the costs as I bought two females in under the old system, and had 4 failures with overseas matings but that is the past and you live and learn and I will speak to fit and fertile tomorrow, although Holland is probably nearer :)

Unfortunately AI using frozen semen seems to be the least certain and most expensive method of bringing in new blood

There are some terrific vets in Ireland who have great success with frozen semen.

My friend in Australia uses AI a lot due to distance and has never had a failure.
I've tried with 3 bitches (2 frozen 1 fresh) all failed. These bitches either had or went on to have litters from normal matings. I think we lag behind other countries doing this.

When you ask details you will nearly always  find that the successes are with surgical implantation (which our BVA and KC are against), very rarely transcervical.

Transcervical x 2 failures.

Friend has just had success with surgical implantation with UK Clone.

We have recently had a healthy litter of five pups by transcervical insemination.     We used Hector Heathcote  (UK Clone), using frozen from a recently deparated sire.     The dam was very difficult to get in whelp at earlier attempts.