The process is usually something like this. You form a contract with provisions that are acceptable to both. The female and male should be within the standards and have his bite checked and knees checked. The female and her background should be larger or at least the same as the male and his background.
Males are capable of producing litters as early as 7 months, but I think a minimum of a year is better, probably closer to a year and a half.
The mating usually takes place at the male's location because the female is less territorial in surroundings unfamiliar to her. The owner may keep the female for a week beginning around the 10th day after the heat begins or the owner of the female may bring her over several times. Then attempts are made at breeding. You can usually tell a female is going to be receptive by running a firm hand down her back and she will raise her tail (called flagging). Once a mating takes place, then usually you skip one day and then breed again, and some skip another day and breed once more (but this increases the chance of having a premature puppy since they are conceived at different times). Some breeders (if the stud is young) breed once every day for 4 days. I, personally only breed twice with one day of rest in between and have 4 puppies, but some females ovulation patterns may be more difficult.
Breedings should always be supervised because if the female isn't ready she may attack the male. If mating does take place a lot of the time the female panics slightly about being attached and may drag the male around and either could become injured. Never breed more than once a day because the male's sperm must be given time to rejuvenate.
Dogs can transmit something called brucellosis, a venereal disease for dogs. If a female has it then the male will become infected and will pass it on to other's so it is a good idea both parties are tested before mating. It causes the female to abort the puppies or reabsorb them and to my knowledge is not curable once they have it.
As far as how long it takes, sometimes it is within minutes and sometimes days. The females seem to know the proper timing and when the timing is right she will allow mating. A dog cannot get pregnant unless ovulation is occuring. That is why one day she will growl at the male, but the next day she will be ready to mate. I think some males seem to know also. My male has been around two females during their first heat. Don't know if it is normal, but he was not interested in them in the least bit. Of course, we didn't take any chances and kept them separated, but it wasn't the same as keeping an older female from him that we just didn't want to breed this heat. |