Usually when a female is ready the bleeding will be nearly stopped or a very light pink. If they are bleeding red then most likely they are not ready. There are always exceptions. Often a female will act ready when she is not. By this I mean she might flag and tease the male but when he tries to mount her she will sit or jump away.
Ideally, the most accurate way to tell when a female is ready is to take her to the vets and have progesterone testing (a blood test) done on her. Many of the show breeders do this because they don't want to risk just guessing when a female might be ready. It also can give you a more accurate date of when the pups might be born. When you breed a female over a 3 to 5 day period you are basically just trying to 'catch' her at the right time. Some females conceive early and some can conceive very late in their heat cycle. |