I’m stressing over timing a breeding
7 years old Papillon bitch, bred by me.
Has a really nice pedigree, finished her champion and grand champion titles, health tested all clear.
PRA-Pap1, NAD, vWD1, FVII and DM, all clear which is difficult to find.
She had her first litter in 2023, we went by classical method back then (she told me when she is ready), mated on days 7-11 without progesterone testing, resulted in 1 normal sized female -lives happily- and 1 tiny male puppy who didn’t make it. Counting 63 days back from date of whelping says the ovulation occured on day 9 or 10.
Now it’s time for a new mating before retiring her, I have been planning it for a looong time. Her last cycle was clashing with Christmas and New Years so we had to postpone.
May 14 - I noticed her vulva is swollen (day 1, or maybe 2 in case I noticed it a day late)
May 19 - Noticed she started flagging, late night.
May 20 - She started flirting with the girls at home, we did progesterone testing, result: 11.33ng/ml
I was thinking we’ll get a baseline with this initial test, expecting to see a number around 3-5. But now seeing this result and she starting being flirty, I tend to think that she’s ovulated maybe 1-2 days ago, eggs are now mature and she should be bred today. Could the number making me have bias (fixed on the idea that 5 indicates ovulation)? Could it be she’s just ovulated? Am I overthinking this?
I have spent a lot of time and gave a lot of thought while selecting this one stud. He lives in another country, I can’t fly. His owner is probably busy, can’t fly in either.
Courrier can fly late night on 21th (00:55am 22nd actually), arrive at stud’s city on 22nd (needs to take train after landing in, so probably they’ll arrive in the evening). I’m not sure if the eggs will still be okay at that time.
Courrier hasn’t responded to my texts yet probably because he is busy flying, I couldn’t confirm the flight yet. That’s another stressor for me. It’s 2am May 21th here right now and I can’t sleep.
Another friend can fly my girl there on 22nd-late night. If we choose to send her with the friend, she can’t meet the stud until 23rd.
Will it be too late?
The only thing I can think of is having another sample sent to the lab tomorrow to see how much her level has risen.
I hope the guy will text back so I can get some relief.
I really don’t want to postpone again, that’ll mean 1 year of wasted time (she’ll be older and I don’t want to do irresponsible breeding with an aging dog).
Inseminations with shipped chilled or frozen semen are not an option due to ridiculous customs regulations of my country.
*Edited to add: Courrier guy responded, flight is booked but we can’t confirm adding the dog yet since he can’t call the airline due to him being on another flight. Airline doesn’t offer online pet confirmations and doesn’t accept someone other than the passenger add the dog on the call 😒