Opinions of experience, How many times to breed a female?

[gwyoung]

Jim, I am not going to try to tell you on what day or when your female is ready to breed, I am sure you know this. The question as I understand it is, how many times in "our" experience have we or do we breed the female for each litter of puppies produced and what is "our" reasoning. Speaking just for me .when I feel the time is right I place her with the male and if she stands and flags, I let them breed. ( I feel pretty confident on having puppies at this point) Two days later I place them together again and if a mating occurs I do not put them together again. Twice, is my answer! To mate them on successive days is not a logical thing to do, and to breed them needlessly is inviting trouble, even though the percentage of hounds that have problems from breeding is probably very low, you are still inviting a problem.

[BCBeagles]

Thanks to all.

I spoke with my vet and he says successive days are not an issue as long as the female is receptive, that is his take on it. He says all the sperm are not viable therefore you are just introducing more viable sperm. I don't know all the answers for sure, that is why I asked.

I like others opinions from the experiences they have had.

thanks again.

[STONE COLD]

IF YOUR VET TOLD YOU TO BREED HER 4 TIMES IN 5 DAYS, I HOPE WE DON'T USE THE SAME VET.

[BCBeagles]

HAHAHA! Thanks Stonecold for your infinite knowledge!!! Just kidding...maybe!

[gwyoung]

Jim, I agree with your vet. successive day breeding would not be an issue , but in my opinion would not be the logical thing to do. For instance if a Female was bred today and there was any concern about the timing and I was only going to breed once more ( as is my custom) I would not gamble on 24 hours later as the female is going to be in for several days, so it makes more logical sense to skip a day and "up" my chances of catching her. If the male's sperm is thought to be problem either due to injury or over-use of him as a Stud, than it is also more wise to wait the additional time for the injury to lessen or for him to build up! Just my opinion, and the method I use and of course all are free to use their own opinions and methods.

[BCBeagles]

Thanks and I agree with that. I have had terrible luck with my last few litters and I feel timing was not ideal on a couple of them, not sure, but speculating.