None of my local vets do in house progesterone tests so I need to use a company. I have looked at petmate who offer results by 2.30pm next day or Idexx. Anyone had experience  of using either to offer an opinion. Cant find much on idexx website only that its about£45 for 3 kits.. does this include the testing result too? I know the vet will need to draw bloods

Your vet should know all about how to do this, even if they don't do the actual test.  Idexx is what most people use.

Your vet will draw the blood and deal with all the paperwork, have the 'kit' or whatever and send it to Idexx.  You shouldn't need to do anything beyond phone your vet and say 'I'd like to book a blood test'.  If you do, I'd find another vet - it doesn't bode well for future help relating to breeding or whelping if they are this out of things on progesterone tests!

Thanks  I am struggling  with them as vets.. they refuse to dock the pups  despite  them being intended to work and told me the progesterone test may take a few days for results hence why I looked externally for something quicker!  I just  feel like they are against supporting breeding

You can get the blood drawn at your vets and then post it yourself to the lab. That will usually get you the result the next day. Or try and find out if ther is a local lab that does the testing. I have one near me so I can get results the same day as the blood is taken.

I'd try to find a better vet who is more receptive to breeders.  Maybe if you say what town you are in/near, someone on here could recommend one...?

I book an appointment at the vets with the nurse at 9.00 am to draw the blood and use the testing kit I order free from IDEXX.

I bring the blood vial home with me, parcel it into the box that comes with the testing kit along with the cheque for payment and identifying paperwork.

I take it to the post office and ask them for next day delivery - I always request before 1.00 pm.

Larry calls the next day with the results - same day the blood is delivered - I did chase when I first used them to confirm they received the package because it was getting late in the day, and he hadn’t called, after 6.00 pm, but I don’t bother now, he always phones once his testing is complete.

In one case he called mid afternoon and told me to mate her now......excellent service, I can’t fault it.

My vet does it all for me sometimes, instead of me sending to IDEXX myself - all I do is take the bitch at 9.00 am for the blood draw and they send it off calling me the next day with the results.

It costs me an extra £15.00 per test for the vet to do it all.

Thanks all... I have had  to get  a kit online for idexx as I am now told my vets lab dont test progesterone at all nor does my next nearest vet.   My vet will just draw the blood for me. 

I am in Bedworth  Warwickshire  so if anyone knows of a good local vet  to support the breeding and dock the pups  any recommendations  gratefully  received. Thank you

At the risk of sounding ignorant, but I thought docking is illegal in this country....

It is legal to dock "working" dogs. Though in my opinion I see no reason to chop of a perfectly good tail.

Thanks all. Yes docking is legal  providing  dogs going to working homes.

I had a similar view about docking and my girl isn't but on her  first shoot she split her tail in the undergrowth. Its always wagging.. thats the problem! 4 months  to heal and nearly ended in amputation which is far more invasive and traumatic  in an older dogs as its a major op.. therefore  I can see why its done  for workers.

Romans77, I'd suggest you join some of the working spaniel or HPR groups on FB - this question comes up a lot and there are many people who recommend vets in these groups.

Re docking i would chat with other local breeders who work their dogs and need to dock. For instance the nearest one to me is very rural as i was trying to find a vet who would simply remove rear dew claws and that is legal for any pups but none in my city do it so asked a friend who has her pups docked as knew if they did that they'd do rear dew claws.
Incidentally the vet told me only 2 in my county do it and 1 in the next so it sounds very limited and you may need to travel some distance for tail docking

It is legal to dock "working" dogs. Though in my opinion I see no reason to chop of a perfectly good tail.

Sorry to hijack this thread, but this is something I feel very strongly about so I feel that I do need to comment.
It is ignorance like this that resulted in the docking ban in Scotland which later had to be overturned.
I think that no surgical proceedure should be done without cause, but in some cases tail docking is needed.
I rescued an undocked cocker/sprocker spaniel type bitch. Her tail was so badly damaged that it had to be amputated. Unfortunately, the operarion was unsuccesful and she had return for a second surgery which left her with a tiny stump, and in total 3 weeks of cage rest. This, in my opinion is direly inhumane compared to a simple tail docking proceedure at a couple of days old.