Hi everyone, can anyone offer advise or their own experience?

My good friend has a small breed bitch and about 12 months ago decided she woulkd love a litter from her, she found a nice stud not far from her.

She took the bitch for 2 matings 2days apart about 10 months ago, the dogs did not tie although were together for a while and the bitch was very happy about it.  as you can imagine noting came of it.

5 weeks ago she took the bitch back to the stud and the stud owner offered to have the bitch left there for a few days to stay with the stud and hope for the best,  she also told my friend that the stud never ties but has produced good litters.

After 2 days my friend picked her bitch up and has been praying ever since, until yesterday when the scan confirmed that once again there is no puppies.

I have never had a bitch that wont take so I cant offer her any advise but would be really interested to see if any of you guys have been through something similar or have had a bitch that wouldnt take or does anyone know of any reason this is happening.

Thankyou, any imput is great

It could be that the dog and bitch just aren't compatible. I mated a proven bitch on three successive seasons, after ovulation testing, to a proven stud dog, who was still siring litters with other bitches. We had good ties each time, 1 the first season, 2 the second season and three the third season, but she never became pregnant. On the fourth season I used a full brother to the original stud dog, and two ties resulted in a very nice litter.

I would suggest she tests the bitch for ovulation and considers using a different dog.

Has the dog produced puppies since the first mating took place?

Did your friend blood test to see if her bitch was actually ready?

She didnt do blood tests but did use the ovulation pads and that showed everything was good to go.

The stud has had puppies without tieing since the 1st mating but with one of the stud owners bitch's.

from what ive read about ovulation pads there not that good!!
xx

Have you checked to see if the bitch has an underlying infection of any kind?

> She didnt do blood tests but did use the ovulation pads and that showed everything was good to go.
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They are a waste of time (I'm not the only person to have wasted money on them!)

> The stud has had puppies without tieing since the 1st mating but with one of the stud owners bitch's.

I don't charge a stud fee unless a satisfactory tie is achieved, and I would not expect to pay anyone myself for a slip mating.  Whether the sire had pups without a tie or not. 

Definitely change the choice of sire (the best is not always the nearest, so your friend may need to be prepared to travel.) 

If your friend is talking about trying again next time, are we talking about a 4 year old bitch to have tried this long?  Because, depending on which toy breed, some are definitely not suited to pregnancy for the first time after 3 years of age.  One of my breeds certainly, needs mating at the second season (I am not talking without experience here.)

I had a bitch a few years ago who never took so I brought in a boy so that I could mate her everyday she stood for her next season. She promptly came into season early and he was not tested and so we borrowed a friends boy and she was mated everyday that she stood for on that season. She took and has 7 pups. The next time we mated her she took like any normal bitch just 2 matings and 10 puppies.
So I guess just keep trying and maybe find a stud owner who will let you have more matings if she will stand.
Good luck