Hi again, just thought I'd let you know, no luck as yet with mating. the bitch is doing all possible but he ain't showing the slightest interest.

Hi Mandi, again, as I said to your other post, I am very willing to help, but what breed and where are you (in case anyone is close enough to help)different breeds can be difficult for different reasons, and need differing sorts of help.
Gwen

Hi I have Dobermanns, and i'm in devon.
Iam pretty sure nothing has yet happened, as i said I have kept them in earshot, but as people suggested I have tried to go out of sight. The bitch is now walking like shes on egg shells and ican see no reason for it, but this is how her mother went after she'd been mated. but if they did mate it must have very quick and without a tie. The bitch is happy eating and going to the toilet but just looks stiff!!

What day is she now?
Nutkin

Mandi, Sorry did not pick up your post earlier - as nutkins says, what day is the bitch now? Is she still "walking on eggshells"? If my memory is correct, I think you thought she should be ready last weekend, so possibly everything is finished now?
Gwen

Hi the bitch is day 20 today, so I am now assuming that she's gone over, although I have heard of bitches succesfully being mated on day 23 and 24 and still producing a large litter. She was only walking on eggshells for a little while by that evening she was dying to get back with him again. And is still trying to show him what to do.

Although this mate is very very unlikley to be successful, i need to try and solve the problem, as I will try to mate him to her mother when she comes into season which should be early Nov. He is very slow at maturing physically, I am now wondering if this could be lack of maturity, but I would really have thought that by this age (he'll be 2 on 01.01.03) that his mating instinct would have kicked in by now. I now some Dobes that have been used at 9 months.

I did ask my vet for his opinion as I attempted to mate him to the older bitch on her last season and he did not prove willing he said then that it was probably his lack of maturity. And as her season was finnishing he went off his food, whinged constantly and was frantic to get to her so we thought that he would be ready for this mating.

I am seriously confused. The only other reason I can think of is that he has such a great respect for me (which is brilliant most of the time) to the point that he won't play tug of war with me, as soon as I start to pull on the toy he lets go, as if to say ok you have it. He wouldn't dream of arguing for anything.

I was reading somewhere that a dog should mate a bitch before 18 months to be a sucessful stud dog. Now I am not saying this is right. But they do say the earlier the better, so long as the hips are scored, eyes tested etc. Which cant be done before one year of age anyway.
One other thought is that maybe your bitch did not ovulate in her season, which would explain why he was not interested. I never think its a good idea to leave a dog and bitch together as you will be thinking to yourself now,'I wonder if they did it'.
Nutkin