Hello everyone.  I am so happy that I have found this forum but sure wish I would have come across it a month ago before attempting a first breeding with my lovely maiden 4 year old bitch.  I could go through the details of the rather long story of her breeding but I think it would suffice to say that we got two ties and felt lucky to have gotten the second tie as her progesterone test showed her as being on the verge of coming out.  Unfortunately we were only able to give the stud dog 24 hours between the 1st and 2nd tie and to add to that he was collected for frozen semen 24 hours prior to her first breeding so we still are not sure where we stand on this breeding.   She is now almost two weeks from her first breeding and of course I am very anxious to find out if there are pups there.  I have already made a appointment with a good reproductive vet for day 29 and am reading everything I can.  One thing I know for sure from this whole experience is that breeding a dog is far from a easy endeavor and I am sure I will spending a lot of time on this forum learning. 

Cheers,
Jackie

Jackie - order The Book of the Bitch.  You can get it on Amazon.. I tell everyone to read this, then read it again.  Then read it again.  Before even considering breeding. 

I do hope you have a mentor to be with you for the whelping.  I personally would never, ever breed from a maiden bitch as late as 4 years old.

Yes I actually I already ordered it from Amazon and it shipped two day ago....should be here soon :).

At the first sign of trouble she will be going into the vet.  My bitch is a trial dog that finished her FC at three years old.  I did not want to stop trialing her to breed her which is why I waited until she was 4 to breed.  As stated she is a lovely bitch with a FC and a OFA rating of excellent on her hips.  If for some reason she does not take with this breeding I will not try again.  I honestly would rather be out there trialing with her than sitting here wondering if her nipples are turning pink...haha.

> I personally would never, ever breed from a maiden bitch as late as 4 years old.

but this would be OK in the larger breeds, though in my breed we advise not to breed from a maiden that has reached 5.

In practice most of our first litters are from bitches of 2 1/2 to 3 1/2. Medium size breed of around 20kg.

I'd have no probs at all breeding from a bitch of 4yo and regularly wait till then.  I'd even be happy to go up to 5yo (because let's face it - nothing changes in the months just before and just after turning 5yo....)..

OP, I just wanted to say - don't 'go to your vet at the first sign of anything' - because most vets know nothing about repro and breeding.  Unless you have a very experienced repro vet, then your best bet is very experienced breeders and mentors for immediate advice, with vet as the next turning point.

I feel confident that I am fine with the age and health of my bitch IF she does take (4 years 3 months), however if she does not take we are done because she only comes inheat every 10 months so she would be over 5 before I could try again and I am not willing to do that.
Finishing a field championship on a three year old bitch is no small task and she is in my opinion (and many others) worthy to be breed which is the only reason I went forward with this breeding. 

I have quite a few resources of experienced breeders that can be reached via phone but the vet I will be using is a top repro vet in the san Francisco area so I feel confident about that part, unfortunately that vet is 1.5 hours from me so I do have some anxiety with that part.

I hate to get ahead of myself in worrying since the reality is she may not even be pregs.