Hi all,

I took my bitch to stud on day 11 and 13 of her cycle. She had been flagging and flirting with one of my castrated males ince day 6 or so. Although she stood for the stud and he was keen she protested when he mounted and hit the mark. She is a maiden and a bit highly strung so I never thought too much of it. On second day she was happy to see him but still protesting the mount, he was less keen  but got a good 15 min tie both times. Now she's letting my castrated male mount her and he's at more frisky with her, this is day 14. Was I too early with her ties?

Were you too early?   I don't necessarily think so.   If she's a maiden bitch, it was probably always going to be the case that she'd complain.   But on the other hand, if she wasn't ready, I doubt she'd have let him mount and penetrate at all.   And he'd probably not have either.   If he's an experienced stud dog,  he'd not bother if she wasn't right on (usually).   Sperm lasts for some time once there in any case, so even if you were a day or two early, she'd still probably conceive.

I had one of mine who vocalised during the mating, and again during the whelping - she was just one of those

>Was I too early with her ties?

Without progesterone testing, it's total guesswork I'm afraid. You might have been bang on, you might have been early.

We do know that for many females behaviour doesn't have much to do with receptivity so I wouldn't draw any conclusions from that.

I find that it is usually a good sign if the bitch seems to come out of season 2-3 days after breeding. But some bitches just continue to bleed whatever...