Our bitch is awkward with her seasons she shows brown discharge from 14 days before she shows red. As she is not text book we mated her from when she would stand so as not to miss her (day 9 after start of red discharge) she stood well but we did not achieve a tie until day 13 thinking she was now fertile we tried again day 14 but she had gone off season and was very definately not going to be mated but the male was still eager. Is this normal as all my other bitches have been day 11 and 13 matings resulting in pups. Would anybody rate our chances of catching her? Any opinions would be appreciated.

Strange one. Usually as you know, the discharge is red, then goes pinky/clear and thats the time to get the male in. My bitch is very late and is not ready until day 16+ but equally some bitches can be early. You have two options as far as I can see and it depends on how much you want to have pups from this bitch. If you are not that bothered, I would let nature get on with it and let the male mate her as and when he wants, if they persist in not achieving a tie each time, you could hold them together for 10 mins or so, I have heard this method can work. If you really want pups from her, you could buy one of those ovulation detectors, but they are a little expensive, 200 quid I think.

However the cost will be recoverable if she has a good sized litter its only the cost of one pup these days!

Yes I know the discharge colour did baffle me, the day she actually tied the blood was actually a little heavier and a darker red than it had been all season as she had been very light but this morning (day 15) there does not seem to be anything she is much less swolen and she is growling at our male if he even looks at her, so there does not seem any point in letting her run with the stud dog this time at least. As for the ovulation detector I have been looking at them but was unsure as to how successful they are it is a lot of money to pay for something that will not be very reliable has anybody had sucess?

I have used the ovulation detector with success in more ways than one.

I have a stud dog and bitches so when the girls are ready I use it on them - very helpful when the experienced dog says Na not interested you think omg she's ready NOW and he say no she's not - don't have that nuerosis to deal with anymore especially when it's someone else's bitch come for attention lol.

The breed norm is 3 - 4, my bitches have 5 - 6 since using the detector and so have the visiting ladies one was renouned for her previous singleton litters - she had 6 after a visit to our house! It has been succesful in the increase in numbers of bitch puppies produced again breed norm is more dogs than bitches the worst we've done since using the detector is a litter of equal numbers ie 3 dogs and 3 bitches.

My main reason for going into parternship with my friend when we got one was to safeguard my own dogs from infection. Any bitch with a reading of or higher than 1000 will not be mated by a dog from my house as this is an indication of infection. When you think something like Brucelloisi (sp!) can sterilise your animals it's worth every penny as you can test the bitches when they arrive, it's a lot cheaper than the vet tests too.

Could she be affected with a bleeding/clotting disorder?

Christine

I have been considering buying one for a while, what make do you use, how much and from where?