BREEDING REQUIREMENTS FOR A FEMALE:

1. Pedigree Compatibility 

To ensure that we are not breeding  two closely related animals and to make sure that we are not breeding different lines of GSD, a Pedigree of the female must be presented.  We recommend adding a female to Pedigreedatabase website and doing "Mating Outcome" check first. We will not agree to breed our studs if progeny will have inline breeding  closer than 3-3. 

2. Genetic Health Screening 

A female must  have successfully passed Genetic Health Screening as recommended for the breed.  A proof of all results  must be presented.

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3. Temperament, Health & Age of the Female

A female must be in a healthy condition, stable temperament and of recommended breeding age - between two and six years old. We pledge to never use aggressive animals in breeding and will not  allow mating with any female that requires muzzle or fixation. 

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4. Canine Brucellosis Screening

A negative results of Canine Brucellosis screening (done within TEN DAYS of mating) is required for all females before breeding. Some screenings are false positive due to cross reactivity and must have more extensive testing. THIS TAKES TIME. NO female will be bred without a negative Brucella. We advice owners to perform Brucelosis test with their vet at their earliest convenience once female is in heat.  Typically, a vet that sends bloodwork to be tested in a lab, will get you results in 2-3 business days. Local owners: we highly recommend going to Stillwater Animal Hospital, as they perform testing in house and will have results within 20 minutes. 

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OPTIONAL:

Progesterone Timing 

We are providing this information below in an effort to make sure that your female gets pregnant. The key to a successful mating that will result in a pregnancy is breeding at the right time estimated via serum progesterone testing. Progesterone testing is highly recommended for all bitches bred. It ensures that the bitch is having a normal heat cycle and has ovulated. A progesterone series tells us precisely when to inseminate her. We strongly recommend that you do the majority of the tests at your veterinarian, to ensure that you are shipping or driving in with a fertile bitch. However, we can arrange Progesterone testing  from Doctor Rice, Stillwater Animal Hospital and it takes about 1 hr 30 minutes to get the results after the sample of blood has been drawn. Progesterone timing in areas where results take days to return are not feasible. Results must be known within 24 hours, if not sooner.

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The Idexx Veterinary Reference Labs give excellent service using The Idexx Direct Courier Service via FedEx no matter where you are located. Results are faxed and can be accessed online. Have your vet call 1-800-551-0998 Ext 8327 for info. 

Progesterone Timing Chart

For a live cover, start testing about day 5 to 7 of season. 

Once you know your female's progesterone level - use the table below to estimate optimal time for live mating. Ovulation means female started to release eggs that are ready for fertilization. Most breeders want to wait for a good number of eggs in female's body before allowing stud to mate her. Live mating sperm can live in a female's body for some time, so the earliest breeding can be done is once a female is ovulated, as she will continue to release eggs after ovulation. A female will not allow stud to mount her if she has not ovulated. Once ovulation occurs, a "fishy" smell will be present and a discharge will change from bright red to pale pink.

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 In our breeding experience, we see most females in our kennel ovulate on day 7-8 of her cycle and we breed on day 11 and 13. While this is not an accurate statement and can not be applied to every female, this is the most common we see happening in our kennel. We have heard from one friend breeder that they had a female ovulate on day 26 of her cycle - they were only able to find that out after they did progesterone testing every other day of her heat. We have also bred one of our females on day 10 of her cycle - just once - we used an outside stud and due to traveling distance and our busy schedules this was our only chance to do this mating. Our female ovulated just a day before (day 9) and had progesterone rise up to 8. We ended up with six beautiful puppies - 2 females and 4 males!  On the other hand, we also had one of our females bred late in her cycle (day 16) also due to traveling to the stud and his availability. This resulted in a singleton female litter.  (There is a belief that earlier mating produces more males, while breeding late in a cycle produces females. We keep good record of all our matings and hopefully one day twenty years from today we will be able to find out of this is true)