| Once again, this is an area where every breeder has an opinion as to which is the correct method to mate a bitch. If it works and the results are puppies, then it can't be wrong. This is the method I have employed very successfully over the past few years and have found it to be the most reliable one. Let nature take her course! I use to hold the bitches for the dogs, hold the bitches throughout the tie, and be present with every mating. Now, I do not. I leave the selected sire and bitch together in a secluded place, away from other dogs and I will watch to see if the bitch is receptive and if the dog is keen. I will only intervene if either one of them cries out and struggles, but generally, I have found this is not the case. Dogs know when it is the best time to mate and they know this without blood tests, or high tech devices or tests to tell when the bitch is actually ovulating. Nature, has given them the ability to know when the time is right to produce the biggest litter possible. I have not had any damage to either the stud nor the bitch with this method. After all, dogs have been breeding for many hundreds of years without human interference. The bitches are left with the desired stud throughout their entire season, except during the night when they are slept separated. I do not have upset stud dogs with this method who will bark for the bitch or pine away. The bitches are fully relaxed and also not upset, and I have not had any harm come to either of them during a mating, nor a stud dog exhaust himself trying to mate a bitch. They do know! Having said the above, there is some cases where a bitch for reasons unknown, will not mate with a stud dog. In the cases I have had, there has been no physical reason as to why they won't. In those cases, I watch and wait to see when the bitch is receptive, which is easy to tell. Her vulva will be softer, bleeding is usually stopped or a pale straw like colour (if there is bleeding at all) and she will stand for the stud twisting her tail to one side of her body. If the dog is keen also, then it is a sure sign a mating should take place. In these cases, I will and have done Artifcial Insemmination successfully and those bitches have gone on to free whelp. I find those same bitches, always seem to need the same procedure every time to ensure puppies. For a full description on how to do an AI correctly, it is all detailed in my book and elsewhere on this site. Written By Anne Roditis (c) copyright 2007 |
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