Hiya,

I have been reading a lot of your posts and was wondering....,

A bitch is in season and it only has a small period of time for it to get mated, why dont the owners arrange for the dogs to stay together for the length of the season so they can mate rather than pinning all your hopes that a mating or slip mating on a certain day/s works and she has been caught?? It just seems a bit too simple though and I am really sure that there are many good reasons why this doesnt happen.

I am not a breeder at all my only female was spayed at 6 months, just a curiosity!!

Thanks

I certainly wouldn't let one of my stud dogs go to stay with someone else for 2 or 3 weeks.

I will have bitches stay here, no problem.  And, in most cases, I am probably better to judge that a bitch is ready.  But lots of folk wouldn't leave their bitch with someone else.

Does that answer your question?  Remember, if you want to use the best sire for your litter, it isn't going to be the dog next door, and could be hours away.

> why dont the owners arrange for the dogs to stay together for the length of the season so they can mate rather than pinning all your hopes that a mating or slip mating on a certain day/s works and she has been caught??

Often they do, well not the whole season but from the earliest likely time until they have been mated several times.

I have twice stayed over a week when mating my bitches abroad.

One very kind stud dog owner had my girl for a month as she had a split season.

At other times I have had the stud dog stay with me or the bitch has stayed away with the stud dog owner.  This used to be normal practise. 

Many people may not now have the facilities to have a bitch come to stay or be willing to allow their dog to stay with the bitch owner, and some bitches would not do well away from home and their owner, ditto for the male who may not 'work' so well in a strange place.

Good breeders are less likely to use a convenient local dog, so long distances to travel are very likely, so with the cost of fuel many prefer to spend the money on ensuring the journey is not wasted by pin pointing ovulation.

Snap :0

Sadly one of my friends did this, dog got out on the first day and was killed by a car.  I now blood test my girls and await the results to take my dogs.

I wouldn't leave my bitch in the care of someone else, and I wouldn't want the responsibility of looking after someone else's bitch. I've gone and stayed near a distant stud dog to save all the driving if it's just too far from home to comfortably do in a day, or I just trail to and fro.

A bitch is in season and it only has a small period of time for it to get mated, why dont the owners arrange for the dogs to stay together for the length of the season so they can mate rather than pinning all your hopes that a mating or slip mating on a certain day/s works and she has been caught??

The bitch is still only going to accept mating for a few days and the rest of the time you'd most likely have to keep them apart as some bitches could turn aggressive towards the dog before they are ready. Once ready for mating you would also still have to keep them apart at times as otherwise the number of matings can get out of control -I know of a dog and a bitch that stayed together and mated 13 times. Plus matings need to be supervised for safety reasons, so again the pair needs to be kept apart when you cannot watch them. So in many ways it is far easier to just have the bitch turn up twice on the right days.

ooo thanks guys, its a big breeding world out there!! LOL