I was talking to my newly pregnant daughter last night and she was saying that some people try to choose the sex of their baby by the timing of intercourse.
Is this possible in dogs? I knew a friend of the family always used to say it was, and said a late mating would give more bitches, but the litter she had when she tried had 6 dogs and no bitches!
has anyone else tried this and was it successful?

The sex of the babies (both human and canine ;-) ) is determined by the father. It shouldnt make any difference to the sexes wether a mating is done later or earlier.

Like men, individual dogs can also be more likely to throw one sex more often than the other.

I could be wrong though, as this is just what I know. ;-) :-)

the theory was to do with the sperm. apparently female sperm live longer than male so an early mating would mean more female sperm surviving to fertilise the eggs. Just wondered if it was the same for dogs?

It's possible, but humans are capable of mating at any stage in their cycle - bitches aren't.

Professor Morton told me the same thing Dogmad when I was at his having collections taken from my boy. He said that male sperm swim faster but don't live as long, and that older dogs were more likely to sire mainly bitches as apparently young dogs (and men) have more male swimmers. My last litter I done one mating the first day my girl would stand using an 11 year old dog, 3 bitches and 1 dog :-) but could just have been luck :-)

that was it! male sperm swim faster and don't live as long then so would be more likely to fertilise an egg that was ready,  where a female sperm would be able to live for a day or so to fertilise an egg that was not quite ready.
reading that it seems my friend had got it the wrong way round if she wanted bitches.

I used a male dog of 11 a few years back and got an equal amount so don't think it's quite right myself :)

I used a 9 year old male twice and had 5 dogs and 1 bitch in the first litter and 6 dogs in the second.

Gametes are exactly the same apart from the pair of chromosomes that determines the sex, flagella are the same. So think any difference is down to how many X's and produced and how many Y's??

> The sex of the babies (both human and canine ;-) ) is determined by the father. It shouldnt make any difference to the sexes wether a mating is done later or earlier

not entirely- the androgens within a womans blood stream can effect the sex of the baby. interesting stuff.

also the timing of intercourse can effect it- girl sperm are like paula radcliffe and can swim for ages but slowly, boy sperm are linford christy and are sprinted but as such tire faster. therefore if you want a boy have sex during ovulation, if you want a girl have sex before- the boy sperm will have fallen behind.

>also the timing of intercourse can effect it- girl sperm are like paula radcliffe and can swim for ages but slowly, boy sperm are linford christy and are sprinted but as such tire faster.

So now when women are trying for babies all I'm going to see is litte Paula Radcliffe's and Linford Christy's

Interesting stuff! :-D This is why I love this forum so much :-)