Hi
My bitch came into heat on 31st December. A week later her bleeding calmed and she was moving her tail up and to the side when I petted her. She met her "boyfriend" on the 7th and literally almost straight away stood and they had a good tie for about 20 minutes. We then let them meet again today (9th) again even quicker than last time they tied for 15-20 minutes. We plan to meet again on Wednesday  (11th) if again she stands how many more times should we get them together?
How soon will I know of its been successful?
Thank u

That would probably be plenty as most bitches will stand at mist for about 5 days

It can be useful to have the bitch or dog refuse a final mating as you then know you have probably timed it right and not been too early.

That said conception rate is high in the canine at over 80%, due to the longevity of sperm and the unusually long fertilisable time of the matyre ova (over two days).

Canine pregnancy can be detected by palpation by an experieced vet at 25-28 days and by Ultrasound after around 30 days.

Any earlier signs are just as likely to be noticed in any bitch after a season, especially as you will be looking for them, or even be a phanton.

In most mediun to large breeds yo probabky won't see much of classic abdominal enlargementnuntil 6 and orobably 7 weejs in a fit maiden.

Thank you brainless. Will do Wednesdays meeting as planned then try again Friday. I'm very lucky the male is owned by a friend (who happens to be experienced in breeding in a larger breed of dog) she seems happy to meet as many times as needed. I plan on getting her scanned 30 days after last mating but would love to know sooner if it's worked.

So would we all,  waiting to find out is so hard.

Lol. Hopefully not done it too early. Only time will tell tho.

Two good matings is quite enough - if you do more, you'll never work out what is her due date!!    I often found an experienced stud dog wasn't really interested in repeating the experience after one mating, never mind two in any case.

ps    I'd not be overly concerned about 'too early' as the sperm, once there, lives for a while in any case.   Again I have never subscribed to a need to let them at it, for as long as the bitch will allow and the male is interested.   Because of the ability to know what the due date is, again.   And as I've said many times before on here, scanning will only tell you the situation AT THE TIME OF THE SCAN.   It's not a guarantee she'll carry to term.   Provided she was in standing heat and he's not an unproven male, she has a 99.9% chance of being pregnant.   It's not hit and miss like a human 'mating'.   And you'll see the puppies moving around by week 7 in any case.   Prepare for a litter, and be patient.

Unfortunately missed timing of mating is most common cause of missing.

Males and breeds can vary as to libido,  ditto bitches.

Some will happily mate anything willing,  and some bitches,  especially will stand early,  as early as the lh surge,  so potentially 4 days before ova are able to be fertilised.  Not a problem with a fit peak fertile young male that has been regularly used,  and the breed has large litters.

In breeds such as my own where mating opportunites can be several years apart and often dogs used for first or second time when middle aged, several matings are more likely to produce results.

Studies have found several matings improve litter size.

Also the first ejaculate after prolonged rest will have a larger proportion of poor quality aged sperm.

It was the male dogs first time aswell. I can understand what you mean by not being able to tell due date if have several meetings and the scan can only tell me what's happened in at that particular point. she will be day 33 max or day  29 at the scan so hopefully we will get some good news.

Studies have found several matings improve litter size.

That surprised me, a lot. In my own experience the number of matings has never had anything to do with litter size. Had 13 pups from a single mating for instance (same bitch also had 13 from two matings in her second litter), and once had a bitch that was mated around 8 times -3 pups. Which is fairly normal for the breed but they can have up to 7 and this bitch was unusually large so could easily have had a bigger litter. Had one bitch who had 10 after one mating but 8 and 6 in the next two litters which each had two matings. Her daughter had 10 from two matings and 9 from one.

Again in nature the pair would mate for the entire receptive period.

Must dig out the articles.

Just wanted to pick up on the issue of due date.

Whether there is one mating or several the pups will be due at the same time as the ova are fertilised over about 48 hours,  and implant and commence fetal development at the same stage.

So in fact a single mating can throw more doubt,  as without progesterone testing could easily have taken place long before fertilization or only just caught ripe eggs.

By having a no thank you meeting after last mating at least tells you when the bitch has gone over and you can count back to likely ovulation date from which due dates are actually most accurate plus or minus a day.

> Whether there is one mating or several the pups will be due at the same time as the ova are fertilised

One of the very important things I learned from you.  Spot on.

Just another question. Since first mating my pippa has become super clingy. She's always slept in the kitchen in her bed with the door shut (we also have cats and they liked running around in the night so had to shut them all in kitchen) since the night of the first mating she's started crying to get to me. Is this because she's coming to the end of her heat?

Various unsettled behaviour is common in season.

Just done the latest mating. Have decided this will be the last as she didn't seem as keen today. They still managed a tie of about 10-15 minutes (first tie was 20 minutes second just shy of 20 minutes) she's now laying down having a clean up. So now the wait begins. Wish us luck. Thanks for all advice and information.

Here http://stud.epsilon.slu.se/3350/1/bobic_b_111017.pdf is one Scandinavian study using the Drever as a model, lots of interesting reading, including the reproduction of Wolves.

"No effect was found of the number of days between the first  and  the  last  mating  on  the  litter  size  or  on  the  number  of  registered  pups.  Mating only once, however, resulted in a 0.52 pups smaller mean litter size at birth
and  0.68  fewer  registered  pups  compared   with  all  the  other  mating  schedules."

This article refers to laboratory management of breeding colonies of dogs: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK236596/

"The bitch should be mated on 2 or 3 days over a 3- to 5-day period"

I'd imagine in such an (abhorrent to us) environment peak efficiency/productivity is a priority.

I think it's so sweet to refer to matings as 'meetings'! But it sounds a little ... amateur? As if you're not taking it seriously?

I am taking  it seriously just feel matings sounds too clinical and they like to play so meetingsorry sounds more fun

I just thought it sounded a bit twee, but maybe that's just me.

Ok so she mated on day 8 10 and 12 she was happy to stand tail flagged and had a good tie on all 3 occasions. Yesterday I noticed a bit more blood than before and again today. Have I got the timing completly wrong or is the blood a sign it failed? Would she stabd if she wasn't ready? I didn't think so but now I'm doubting myself.

A season will continue as normal whether mated or not. 

Mien bleed right through sometimes for full 4 weeks as mine tend to be ready much later anywhere from day 15 - 22.

She not flagging her tail when I stroke her anymore. So hopefully it's just the end of her heat cycle. Just seemed weird that she was bleeding again after it had virtually stopped

pretty normal in my experience

Thank u again for advice.I keep looking at her and thinking he nipples are already starting to change and become a bit puffy then tell myself it will be too early for her to be showing signs and to wait. I'm so impatient. Lol.

As your bitch came into season on 31st December...she still has around a week to go & will bleed even after mating...this is normal.

Yes, far to early for any signs...you wouldn't be thinking this had you not known you have mated her...

Yea I k ow no signs will be showing but can't all but hope. What's quite good is I've just had her running round playing with her best friend who is a neutered male dog and he tried to hump her and she told him off so quite obviously past that stage now. (She stood trying to tease him a few days ago)