As more services are available to us, we learn better ways to accomplish breedings that would have previously required dogs to be transported great distances. Now we can simply run a series of blood tests and line up a collection and shipment of the sire’s semen. Or you can have frozen semen waiting at our vet’s office where they can do a surgical insemination. While it may be an added expense to have this done, it is often much less expensive and a huge time saver when compared to getting two dogs together that live a great distance apart. And obviously, if the dog is no longer alive, it allows one to use a dog from the past as well.

Naturally we all want to feel very certain about our testing and timing. But even when we go into a mating armed with a lot of knowledge, weekends and commitments can wreak havoc too many times as well. Doubts arise and we question which days are best to have the much anticipated mating. If you are like me, you spend the next month wondering and waiting until 26 days post ovulation arrives so you can check.

THE MAGIC NUMBER IS 2!!

I have heard it stated for many years that when planning a breeding, one must use the level of 5 ng/ml as the “magic number” to reach on preogesterone testing, signaling ovulation has occurred. On the IDEXX LABS reports, it states that over 4 means ovulation has occurred. But it always seems that the weekends get in the way for my testing. This leaves one speculating about the best day to have semen shipped, or schedule the surgical implant. If you are like me, every mating has me second guessing myself!

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of attending a meeting where a thereogenologist (repro specialist) from Ohio State University named Dt. Marco Da Sylva. He spoke to us about breeding dogs. He presented a tip I’d never heard before that has been very useful. It was the number 2. He told us simply that in canine reproduction, this is the number for just about everything.

Thus when your bitch comes in heat, you start progesterone testing. When they reach a 2, that is the signal that the LH surge is occurring. In 2 days, the bitch will ovulate. In 2 more days, the eggs will ripen and be receptive to fertilization. The eggs should be viable for about 2 more days, but may last 2 more days after that. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Remember that number!!!!

Well, I keep detailed notes on each breeding I have done. As with anything involving living things, the rules are more guidelines. Some dogs follow these “rules” and others’ biological make up is slightly different. With my own dogs, it seems breeding sooner rather than later has been advisable. Keep in mind, I am certainly not a repro specialist by any stretch of the imagination, but experience gives us a lot of knowledge. In looking at the progesterone levels in past litters, it did indeed follow that my dogs hit 5 ng/ml two days after reaching 2 when I was able to run bloodwork like that. Again, weekends and just second guessing when to run the tests made this research only possible for some litter notes. Believe me, knowing 2 is 2 days post ovulation is great to know!

On the surface, one may say, so what? If I know when they hit 5, isn’t that enough? How is this “2” so helpful? Let me explain. Suppose you run a progesterone on Thursday and the Friday results tell you she reached 2 on Thursday. Now you know she is probably going to be at 5 two days later, which is Saturday. For most of us, we don’t have access to a lab on Saturday even if our vet can pull the blood, so if you didn’t know to assume she was 5 that day, you would need to wait until Monday. If the vet pulls blood on Saturday and sends it out, it will sit unrefrigerated until Monday, if FedEx even runs on Saturday to your area (it doesn’t in mine) so you won’t have results until Tuesday if held, or Monday if sent on Saturday assuming the lab gets it early enough. If we didn’t know 2 was an important number, we would probably wait until Monday to run the next test. But remember, she probably hit 5 on Saturday. On Monday, different bitches will have hugely varying levels. Some will be under 10 still while others will be much higher. These numbers post ovulation have a very large range and aren’t all that significant in timing your breeding, but back to our scenario. Say your bitch is at 9.3 on the Monday draw. Or maybe she is 28.5! But you don’t get these results until Tuesday. So now you are on the 3^rd day post ovulation but without knowing about “2”, you would wonder when she ovulated. Anyway, those eggs have been ready to be fertilized since Monday. But did you get the result early enough on Tuesday to line up a shipment? Wednesday is the soonest you will get it unless you couldn’t ship until Wednesday, so you would then get the semen on Thursday, a full 5 days post ovulation and really pushing the envelope that the eggs are still viable. And what if the first shipment is delayed or not viable? What if the collecting vet your dog loves is not available? At this late a date, can you wait another day? Or are you already too late? The idea of two breedings, which I prefer with fresh chilled, isn’t even sensible this late.

But with the knowledge that she will ovulate on Saturday using our #2, you can request shipment Friday to arrive on Saturday and ask that another be sent on Monday for a Tuesday insemination. Then you will be breeding her the day of ovulation and three days later, which is a day after the eggs have ripened. Fresh chilled semen should live 48 to 72 hours once brought up to body temperature, so you should be covered.

I imagine some of you will say there is no reason to breed her the day of ovulation, assuming that is really the number 5. But from personal experience shared below, you will see why I prefer getting it in there early, even if the little guys have to hang out and wait for the egg to be receptive a day or two.

CALCULATING THE DUE DATE

The “rules” tell us that you can calculate the due date from the day of ovulation, and that magical number 5 is the day of ovulation. And our new rule tells us that 5 will arrive 2 days after reaching a progesterone level of 2, so you can use that result as well.

So due date is 63 days from ovulation. A much simpler way to count is 9 weeks. So if the day of ovulation is on Friday, you count 9 weeks forward and she should whelp on a Friday. A knowledgeable friend told me this will only vary by one day either way. And I have found this to be true… in every case but one.

A large litter I whelped 3 years ago produced 11 pups. This bitch was bred twice naturally. The first breeding was done the evening that her progesterone reached 5.4 ng/ml, which should have been the day she ovulated. The second breeding (reportedly when the eggs were now ripe) was done two days later. So 11 pups certainly indicates the timing was right on. But she did not follow the rules on whelping date at all!

My bitch reached 5.4 on Friday and was bred Friday evening and Sunday afternoon. Then I took her home. Thus her due date was Friday, 7/14/06. Tuesday, 7/11/06 was a hot day. Momma to be was large, hot, and panting a lot. In the summer, my dogs liked going into the cool basement to cool off. So I let her down there, of course. This is also where the pups are born. Mid morning, my son came to my house and we started working in the garden. I came in the house and went in the bathroom only to here the sound of a puppy crying coming through the heating/cooling register! She was whelping a full 3 days early! Remember, I had been told that they would only vary by a day either way from 63! And these were full term pups with normal weights and very healthy. So the moral of the story is that yes, 63 days from ovulation is the due date, but it certainly can vary by more than a day. I think the largest litters tend to be more prone to this as well. This same bitch whelped her other litters exactly 63 days from ovulation, including another large litter from the same sire. And admittedly, I was trying an in house ovulation kit prior to this to see how I liked it (I don’t!) so didn’t have the number 2 to go on. Might she have reached 5 a few days earlier and lingered just above 5 for a few days? Hard to know.

MORE NUMBERS TO PREDICT IMPENDING LABOR

One pretty accurate indicator pups are coming is a temperature drop BELOW 99. Several days prior to whelping, start temping your girl twice a day at the same time. Mornings are my favorite time. Normally, the temperature will be around 99 to 100 a few weeks before whelping. The temperature should drop a full degree within about 24 days of whelping. It is possible to miss the drop, though, so temp twice a day. Normally, most bitches will also be nervous and pant a lot in this 24 hours prior to whelping (first stage labor). Many times I thought pups were coming all night only to have the bitch whelp all night the NEXT night! I’ve learned this first stage labor can be prolonged, but don’t assume she won’t whelp soon, either. I usually have a night of restless sleep with a panting bitch right beside me!

Additionally, if her temperature goes back up ABOVE the normal 101.5 and you know she is pregnant, get her to the vet, especially if she is running a fever. That can be a sign you are in trouble.

NUMBER OF PUPPIES

Ideally we would all love to know how many pups we will have and what sex they will be! Unfortunately, we can’t know that although the Ohio State thereogenologist did tell us the better ultrasounds may soon help us to know this, just as in humans. However, counting pups before birth is often inaccurate. Large litters are so tightly bunched in there late in pregnancy that counting can be even more difficult. Time after time I hear reports of wrong counts. Additionally, research has shown a link between fetal x-rays and early cancers, so I personally don’t do this, but your own comfort level may be different. If I suspect a retained or singleton pup and the due date has come, then, and only then, will I do an x-ray to be certain.

During the reproduction presentation, someone asked the OSU vet why there are now more resorptions in bitches than in the past. We were told that they really don’t believe there are more resorptions but actually that we didn’t know about pups this early prior to ultrasound. Thus they feel that resorptions have always occurred and are normal, but we just didn’t know it and assumed the litter was either smaller or non-existent all along.

DON’T WAIT TOO LONG; PLAN AHEAD!

Admittedly, running progesterone can be expensive. But is it as expensive as waiting too long and doing a “hail Mary” breeding only to have it miss? Breeding by the numbers will only work if you have those numbers to guide you. Although it sounds pretty easy, it is impossible to think of all the ins and outs ahead of time, so here are a few tips to keep in mind as well.

1. Don’t wait too long to get your baseline test run. I’ve heard many people make claims along the lines that the bitch has only been in heat 2 days and was at a 13 on the 3^rd day. Well, most likely you missed the beginning. Yes, some heat cycles the bitches keep themselves cleaned up a lot or just don’t bleed much. And it is easy to miss the blood on a heavily feathered bitch sometimes, too. Unless you are really checking with a tissue daily, don’t assume you are safe to wait too long. In my last breeding, I noted her swollen vulva 5 days after she was shown and laying upside down in a hotel room on the bed with a very experienced stud dog. I never did see any blood and assumed she may just be early. But when I still saw nothing but swelling 4 days later (Tuesday), I ran progesterone and she was already at a 2! And yes, 2 days later, she was at 5. Ideally, I would have liked to breed her on Thursday and Saturday but the stud dog was unavailable on Wednesday, the vet was unavailable on Thursday, so we got the collection sent on Friday AIed her on Saturday. Technically, this should have been THE best day, but she was less swollen than before, so we will have to wait and see. I really didn’t see any reason to plan for a Tuesday breeding as this would have been 5 days post ovulation. Had I waited until I had her at 5 ng/ml, we could not have had semen available for4 more days!

2. Be sure to have a more local back up plan if you want to be sure you get a breeding. Things happen that are unexpected. We all hope the semen was a good collection and arrives safely, but lost shipments, poor collections, and dead semen can and do happen sometimes.

3. Have plans for weekends and know the FedEx delivery schedule for your area. In my area, FedEx does not deliver on Saturdays. Additionally, deliveries to my vet clinic run late in the afternoon. With a 4 pm delivery, that makes lining up the insemination difficult if the clinic closes at 5 and has the semen chilling longer. Yet I can drive about 45 minutes to the FedEx facility and pick it up early in the day, allowing me to get it in my bitch before noon. Even if it isn’t a Saturday delivery, I always pick it up at FedEx.

4. Be sure the collection and insemination equipment is available ahead of time. The stud dog owner or their clinic needs to have shipping boxes and extender. The inseminating vet needs to have the AI equipment. You may even want to have a few AI kits of your own on hand to be sure you have one. If you need to use Plan B with another stud dog and the deed won’t happen, you need to be able to get the semen in your bitch, so being able to do a side by side collection and insemination is best. Be prepared for everything!

5. If you are a stud dog owner and have extenders on hand, watch your expiration dates. They don’t last all that long.

6. Know that even when you think you have it all covered, there are probably going to be questions and you will most likely second guess yourself. This is normal, I think. Be patient. You will know something approximately 4 weeks later but be aware that you only have a small window for palpation. Ultrasound to find heartbeats is very useful after 26 days.

7. Don’t think ultrasound counts are always accurate. They aren’t.

8. Even if you think she isn’t pregnant, be sure to keep that due date in mind. Many of us have assumed a bitch was not pregnant that was!

9. Different stud dogs have different levels of “collectability”. Some get excited just seeing the person known to collect them. Others are not so easily fooled and are far better with a real bitch in heat there. Know the boy’s habits and plan accordingly. While shipping semen may be convenient, with some dogs, planning a trip for a natural breeding may be a much better option. A low quality collection is not as likely to give you a good sized litter from a dog who much prefers “the real thing”, as nature intended.

10. Don’t assume late term x-ray counts are always accurate.

Breeding is a constant learning experience. I hope you find the #2 as valuable and predictable as I have. It gives you a couple more days to plan shipments and takes much of the worry out of weekend interference. I’ve heard some bitches can stall out early in their progesterone rise from stress. I heard that reaching 5 was said to be when you ship a bitch that may do this as once they ovulate, they can’t go back. I wonder, though… once they have the LH surge at 2, can they stall after that? That is one question I have that I really don’t know the answer to. Some breeds are more prone to stalling than others, though, and fortunately, this doesn’t seem common in Goldens.

Best of luck to all of you for large healthy litters delivered quickly, easily, and during the daytime!