Wanting to put my girl/lola to a stud, she is 5 this year and this would be her 2nd litter.  She started bleeding x2 days ago was heavy at first but now is hardly anything.   Is that a sign of not being fertile? Should I still do the same count to 9/10 days for stud?

Thank you

The amount of blood, when it stops and starts, has nothing to do with fertility or even whether the heat is continuing. 

Some dogs even have 'silent' heats when they don't bleed at all.

However, if this is not usual for her, it may be an indication that this cycle is not going to be like her others.  She may ovulate earlier than usual.  Or she may not.  The only way of knowing, is either to run cytology and see if she is still in pro-estrus or to run a progesterone test.

Thank you ----  will book the vets now...

If you've done this before, don't you realise that although the discharge may be blood coloured through the first 10 days or so, by the time most (and this is in general) bitches are ready to mate, any discharge would have gone to a pale straw colour and be less copious.   Some drip more than others.   At what point did she accept a dog when she had her previous mating/litter?

I didn't do all the pre-testing that appears to be done these days - and frankly it's a wonder we only had one miss, and that to a male who proved not to be fertile as he missed to every other bitch that went to him - he was of interest as he was an American Ch. imported into Canada.

Yes if you have money to burn, have all the testing done, but quite honestly I don't contribute to the income of my vets, if I can avoid it.

No two seasons, or pregnancies are the same, but what happened before with your bitch, should be a yardstick.   Up to you.

> Should I still do the same count to 9/10 days for stud? <br />

I'm not sure where the day 9/10 is relevant.  Some bitches don't ovulate at the same time each and every season.  I've never progesterone tested, and I've never had a bitch miss.  I've had a bitch ovulate on day 4, and another on day 28, both with successful pregnancies.  I rely on an experienced stud dog to tell me when a bitch is ready.

In 45+ years I have never, ever seen "straw coloured" so would not take this as any indication that the time is right.  Also, the flow of blood is irrelevant.

Thank you, your right its has just thrown me a bit as last time there was lots more blood compared to this time.   I will prob stick to what I know from last time and if the stud dog isnt interested when we go then I guess we missed it.

Thanks for your help.

Our stud dog is a 3 hour round trip (found one with 0% coi and russian import) so not really an option to keep going their to check.  I will stick to what we did last time - thank you for your response.

Our stud dog is a 3 hour round trip (found one with 0% coi and russian import) so not really an option to keep going their to check.

Most people would dream of the perfect stud dog only an hour and a half away!

Hope all goes well

If you don't mind a miss or it wouldn't be the end of the world, then it's probably best not to test and just go on the average days.

If you are investing a lot of time or money or travel into reaching the stud or you have a lot personally invested in a particular breeding and can't have a miss, then you might want to throw all kinds of testing at it.

> Our stud dog is a 3 hour round trip

For me that would be local.  Don't think I have ever used a dog closer than 150 miles away.

Ideally you would board your bitch with the stud, going up the most likely earliest mating day and have her mated at least twice 48 hours apart.

If she can't board then arrange to visit twice 48 hours apart if you get a mating, and a thrid time if she doesn't get mated on first occasion.