Need Labrador breeding help, she will not tie!
 

I have a 3 year old Labrador Retriever. I took her to a kennel last weekend for breeding. We tried on day 10 and 11 with no success. I left her over there for the last week. Still no success. Last Friday was day 10 of her cycle. I really want pups from this breeding as we have an awesome bloodline going if it would take. Can anyone help or offer suggestions? My Annie is Very dominant. She even tried to breed the sire! Thanks to anyone who may help or at least give me information on what they did in a similar circumstance.

Get The Duck!
OhioDuckHunter

RE: Need Labrador breeding help, she will not tie!
 

So last Friday (the 21st) was day 10? If so, you have, in all probability, missed on this cycle.

Have you done much breeding before? Is this her first breeding? Is the male an experienced male? Was she flagging the male? How old are the two dogs? The female will not be ready on the first day of her cycle; my wife is the real expert (she is out of town for a while), but I believe it's more like day 6 or 7 on average, at least for our breed. If you tried to put the two together on day 1, the girl will definately not be receptive. We do progesterone testing on our girls to determine peak fertility. You can also watch for a color change in the girl's discharge, but testing is much more reliable. Most of our girls are average, one is ready really early in her cycle, like day 5 or so; tough to really generalize when they are ready to breed.

When we breed, we usually have someone holding at the head of the girl while the other assists the male. Sometimes a small dab of vaseline on the girl helps, especially if it's her first breeding. I suggest you buy a breed-specific book that has a good chapter or two on breeding and welping. As you're finding out, it's not always as easy as just throwing two dogs together and hoping fpor the best.

Our breed (Cavaliers) can be very difficult to breed at times. We did have a couple instances where the 2 just couldn't tie. The boy tried and tried, but it just wouldn't happen. In that case we use artificial insemination. That's not something I could talk you through, but the vet can do it at their office. Best thing is if you can bring both male and female to vet so you are using fresh sperm.

Hope I have helped some. When my wife and I first decided to get into showing and breeding, we were lucky to find someone in our breed who mentored us and helped us learn what we needed; we also bought a whole stack of breed-specific books that helped a lot. Good luck with your next breeding.

Bruce

RE: Need Labrador breeding help, she will not tie!
 

Bruce,

Thank you for the information. I am a first time breeder and this is the first breeding for my bitch. I think the male has only bred 4 or 5 times. The sire is about 6 years old and the dam is just over 3 years. We were going to go the progesterone test route, however it was very expensive as the local Vet only did it in house. Her color had changed the day before we tried the breeding. The attempts were continued for 5 days. We kept in very close contact to the breeder that I received my bitch from during the attempts. He stated that with his Labs, they are most receptive between the 12 to the 14th day. I guess it may depend on the breed.
We assisted the breeding as you stated, but if she was not ready, as you know, she will not accept.
I am breeding field dogs, not show. I am sure this does not matter though.
Thank you very much for your insight, and I will use the information in the future. It is very nice to have information from other breeders as I start out.

OhioDuckHunter

RE: Need Labrador breeding help, she will not tie!
 

Sure sounds like you were doing everything right. Is your girl around other males that she is not allowed to breed with when she first goes into season? We usually keep our boys and girls separated when someone is in seaon, even if we intend to breed them. Once they tie (or don't tie), they are separated again. As they say, "absence makes the heart grow fonder". We also try only once a day; if the boy "loses it" too much without tieing, he won't be much good til the next day.

Do you have the oportunity to use another boy on her next cycle?

You may also want to talk to a vet about artificial insemination. Given your girl's history, you could set up an appointment and if they tie, then cancel the appointment. My wife and I have talked at great length to the vet that is considered to be one of the leading experts in this area on reproduction, and he says there little, if any, difference in pregnancy success or litter size using AI, especially if you're using fresh sperm. I don't recall AI being unusually expensive, but I have a slightly different perspective because puppies in our breed are so expensive.

As I said, buy a breed-specific book or two with good chapters on breeding and welping; your vet may have a recommendation on a book. They may have some other pointers I haven't thought about. Good luck in your next season.

Bruce

RE: Need Labrador breeding help, she will not tie!
 

I would suggest you artificial inseminate her. Your vet should be able to do it right there in the clinic with no problems. Another thing the vet can do is vaginal cytology to determine when will be the best time to breed her. He/she will swab the lining of the vagina and then rub the swab on a glass slide and stain it. A quick look under the microscope will tell them how close she is, or if she is ready. If the male is cooperative, he should be easy to collect.

RE: Need Labrador breeding help, she will not tie!
 

Thank you all for your help.

RE: Need Labrador breeding help, she will not tie!
 

OhioDH,

My dad is gone now, but I still believe what him and the Old Timers (guess I'm one now) use to do around here. They said to bring the male dog to your home, it's something your dog is familiar with and she don't feel that she has been abandoned by you and the family. I swear it worked for us over the years. May sound like an ole wives tale, but it worked.

dog1