I am thinking of getting my 14 month old old large breed's semen frozen for future use, as he is a family pet and really needs castrating to prevent any accidents with bitches as well as hopefully stop him humping things, but one day in the future I might really like to have just one litter from him.

I wondered if anyone might have a recommendation of a good place to have this done? Both the collection and the freezing. I want to go somewhere that has a good reputation and has preferably been around a while as the semen may end up being stored for some time, I don't want them going out of business or disappearing before we have a chance to use it! I am in the southwest near Bristol, but could travel within reason.

I also wondered if we are likely to have much joy with collection without a teaser bitch, as we don't have any unspayed bitches to hand! I've heard something about being able to use certain pheromones to get the dog in the mood if there is no in-season bitch present...?

Many thanks

This isn't the way that the [url=www.thekennelclub.org.uk/breeding/breeding-from-your-dog/artificial-insemination-ai/]
KC[/url] envisages of using AI for breeding of dogs.

Castration for your convenience so you don't have to bother separating you dog from your bitche's when the later are in season for starters won't stop him mating the bitches only prevent him eventually from producing puppies. You will not know when he becomes infertile without regular sperm counts(there are no hard & fast time limits for infertility to start it isn't immediately after castration) & don't expect him to stop humping because he has been castrated.

AI

Link to KC rules

Well, that's a needlessly obnoxious response :) I don't even have any unspayed bitches in the home, so 'not bothering' to separate has nothing to do with it. Whether an owner decides to neuter their adult pet dog is really a personal decision based on many factors, so I'm not sure why a breeder of all people would find it so offensive.

Even if I wasn't considering having him neutered, I'd still be interested in preserving his semen - after all, you never know when you might lose them! One of my previous dogs, the best I'd ever had with many qualities I would have loved to pass on, had a fatal accident when he was 3 years old, and when that happens you certainly wish you had thought ahead.

I've had good experanced with Keith at fit and fertile, their up Manchester way, I'll be using them when I get some done of my boy and have driven a dog to Karen at millhouse in Bridgend for collection and shipping, the owner found them good. Both can collect, access and store it for you.

As for the teaser bitch being needed or not this will depend on the dog. My friends dog didn't need it although he has been collected before and is use to being handled. The lady did get some cotton wool out of the freezer for him to smell that I think had been whipped on a bitch but he wasn't intrested in it. They were suprised how easy he was to collect so I'd guess most they see arnt like this dog. They may know of a bitch you could borrow for a teaser if you ask them when you call.

Also keep in mind neutering may not effect him humping things.

Thanks, that's really useful info. I know that neutering might not affect the 'horny' behaviour but we have been advised that there's a good chance it might in his case - we haven't decided 100% to get it done, might try one of those contraceptive implants first to see how he goes.

If you are going to breed from this dog then you should really see this behaviour through adolescence and into adulthood without neutering for the sake of the families of future puppies. Humping is very often over-arousal over sexual behaviour. Needs time and training rather than the removal of hormones.

That said, I had bad experiences with fit and fertile and would recommend UK Clone (Surrey) above them or Angelika the repro vet in Cambridge.

I don't think tommee'S reply was obnoxious at all, constructive is what I would describe it as, your reply on the other hand was pretty rude to somebody trying to help. Just out of curiosity because I know nothing about breeding, how easy will it likely to be to find a bitch to impregnate with this frozen semen or would you have to use a bitch which you own?

Well, yes, there are two things to respond to in the original post:  The need for info on AI (which I will leave to others with more experience of AI) and the idea of castration.

Castrating a dog to prevent humping doesn't work, research shows that neutered dogs hump just as much as entire dogs.  Accidents shouldn't be a reason either if you don't own entire bitches... There are many health side effects to neutering, with it increasing the risk of various cancers and joint disorders, affecting the immune system and the dog's behaviour and I really wouldn't be doing it lightly just because you want to fix a bit of humping.  By all means, collect him and store his semen because you want to anyway - but please do leave him entire.  There is a lot of information online now about why that is best.  At 14 months he is very young still to be considering neutering.