Hi some here may remember that my girl Bella had a phantom preg last season and she "wasnt" due for her next heat for a couple of weeks but because my young girl has just come in season, bella thought she would too.

Now we mated her once on day 12 (last mating) and she was flagging and mounting my young girl the day before we took her to the stud, and on the day she stood for him and he just did his thing. They were even loving each other while still tied.

Now my delema is that she came on yesterday and she will be on day 12 on the 5th of jan and we are going away on the 6th but now I am staying home a couple of extra days and sending the family down without me but I must be down by the 9th.

So I will have 4-5 days to mate her and I am asking your advice on the progestorone tests and how correct they can be and how much they roughly cost as the breeders i know have not had to do these tests yet.

I paid about £60 for a progesterone test. The trouble is, if you do one, and it says not ready, you have to do another, and possible another, until it says mate now!
I now use an ovutel, a little microscope thingy that you examine the bitches saliva with. Works ok for me, tells you whether or not your bitc is ovulating, but you have to be patient with it and wait until you can see the correct pattern very strongly displayed.
See, my girls ovulate relatively late, 15/16 days, when I mated my white bitch at 12 days she missed, next time I mated her at 16 days and she had 8 pups.

where can you buy one of those things you were talking about?

Well I got onto my vet and they can do the test but it is an overnight result. She is having her first test done at day 7 so we will see what that one says. They charge around $80.

thanks julie i will give that a go too as i am willing to try anything at this stage. I am currently looking through directories to find vets who do the test with same day results but i cant do much now as most vets are closed sundays.

murmarstaffords wrote: where can you buy one of those things you were talking about?

http://www.peoples-web-design.co.uk/matetel/matetel_works.html

murmarstaffords wrote: Well I got onto my vet and they can do the test but it is an overnight result. She is having her first test done at day 7 so we will see what that one says. They charge around $80.

This is the problem, unless you have unlimited funds!

I looked on your site but I couldnt find anything about that stuff. Nice site too