Hi just after some advice here what would be the maximum amount of days between matings you would do without risking a litter born with some younger and older puppies I know usually it's 24 hours and 48 hours after first mating the question is 5 days in between too long the reason I ask is I didn't manage to ovulation test my bitch this time around so going by her behaviour and colour of her discharge she was mated on her 12 th day is it ok to mate her again on her 15 th day or just hope she got pregnant on the first mating last time she produced puppies from mating her on day 15 and 16 as that's when we got a positive result with the ovulation testing I know bitches can vary from season to season so do I go ahead and mate her again or just leave it and hope she is pregnant

It doesn't work like that - the sperm 'hangs around' until the bitch is ready and then eggs are fertilised... they're not fertilised at the time of mating. 

Hi yes that's what I thought aswell but was more worried that the sperm 'died off' before the eggs rippened and was ready to be fertilised

i let them mate till the girl says thats it no more!

the sperm can live upto 6days so if your girls a flirt and lets the male to early then do it till she says so or the male isnt intersted.

Doesn't matter if bitch is mated Days 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16.

All pups will still be the same age.  No such animal as older or younger pups!

Hi so is it acceptable to mate her 5 days apart and if you mate every other day sorry forgot the name of the poster who did this did your bitch produce different age puppies

Sofie - all the eggs are fertilised at the same time so no the bitch will not produce different age pups... as long as she's ready then the sperm will last...

> did your bitch produce different age puppies

As already confirmed sofie.  It is NOT possible for a bitch to produce different age pups in the same litter.

Eggs are released over around 24 hours (ovulation) and are not ripe to be fertilised for another two days. 

After that they will only sty viable for about two days so not enough to have any real difference in maturity at birth.

What makes for different size puppies or ones that seem poorly developed is the efficiency of the individual placenta.

Some bitches will allow mating long before eggs can be fertilised, but most bitches will not allow mating after the eggs are no longer viable, hence the old advice of mating a bitch until she no longer wishes it.  Some stud dogs will also not mate a bitch until she is on the point of going over, so you may only get one mating or maybe two.

Some pairs will happily mate from the LH surge (about 2 days before ovulation) through ovulation and then the actual fertile stage so possible just over a week.

When I travelled abroad with my bitch she was mated on her 14th, 16th and and 18th day, but she whelped 65 days from the first mating (bitches reliably whelp +/- 62 days from ovulation), so probably ovulated on day 15/16, and didn't actually conceive until day 17 - 19.

A few weeks ago I tried to mate her for a second litter and the stud would not mate her days 14 - 18, showing every sign he didn't think she was ready (she was keen from day 16).  We didn't get a mating as he was not available after that.

Oh Barbara, what a complete disappointment for you.  :-(

I agree :-( but I have to say some respected breeders still think matings of 48hrs will produce older stronger pups and weaker younger. But as a newbie I couldn't correct them ;-)

Not all was lost as her half sister was a week behind her in season, mated her fine.

So we have switched the plans around, as she was supposed to be mated at the end of the year, and it was maybe for the best, as the dog is the imported son of the dog I had already used on the unmated bitch, so this will give more diversity.

It means the bitch not mated gets to primp at the Summer shows and have decided to mate her to a dog I really had wanted for her daughter (but he might well be unavailable by then at over 8 years by then).