Hi!
Before I venture mating my female again (the one that missed) I have to ask about progesterone blood tests.
I did do this test because the dog I mated with is in Finland (I am in Sweden). It takes a more than 24 hour journey to get there. First 8 h drive and then 17 hour boat,
The optimal levels of progesterone had me very confused.
My vet. said the level must be between 10 and 15 for the best time to mate.
The experienced breeder I went to in Finland said between 5-10 is best.
My dog had 5.2 on the Wednesday and we mated her the Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Good matings with 35 min. "hanging" each time.
So...perhaps the vet was right it was to early???
Are the progesterone results / scale? the same from country to country?
I hope someone can shed light on this!/thanks Carina

I don't actually know of the readings, but we've had three bitches come to us 'ready' by the blood PG tests, and they refused to stand until about two to three days later, which suggests to me that their vets might have been going by the lower reading.

Rather disturbing for the owners of the bitches, who have been getting more than a little concerned that the dog, who is experienced, wasn't as interested on the early days. Poor old dog always gets the blame, when in these instances it was the blood test at fault!

Jo and the Casblaidd Flatcoats

The progesterone tests are very good but you have to start them early, when your bitch first comes into heat, and it's a trend. What you are looking for is a peak. The peak is when your bitch has begun to ovulate, therefore the optimum day to breed would be after the peak, our experience has been to breed the day after the peak reading and then once more on the third day after the peak and then make sure the progesterone level has began to fall as well. This has resulted in litter sizes of 9-11 for us of very consistant sized puppies as well.

hi!!!...progesterone tests can be done at anytime to determine what point your at.[serum progesterone,not in house]..the day it goes over.5nanograms is day of ovulation ...for a.i you generally wait two days post ovulation because the egg must divde a couple time before the are ready to be fertilized,,,it really depends on how long the sperm will live for natural breeding you breed the day of ovulation because the sperm lives longer than fresh chilled or frozen...they have a chart that estimates it..i.e.2.5 is four days away etc.....of course nature varies...type in dr hutchinson /dog reproduction on your search engine you should find a seminar by dr hutch...he's the leading repro guy over here...........p.s.progesterone is not species specific so anylab can do them i sent some to a horse lab in kentucky one time but most of the go to a human lab