The New Complete Portuguese Water Dog by Kathryn Braund

Author:Kathryn Braund
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley Publishing

Status-Pro detects he rise of progesterone, which allows the estimation of the fertile period. This is important in natural breeding and fresh artificial inseminations. Courtesy ICG International Canine Genetics, Inc., Malvern, Pennsylvania

The stud dog’s one breeding experience was with a dominant bitch who growled and snapped. Because of her attitude, the impressionable, untried male dared not approach, and an AI became his one mating experience (it produced one puppy). Since I wanted this to be a successful pregnancy with (a) a bitch who doesn’t give many outward signs when she is ready to be bred and, (b) a male who doesn’t yet know what the breeding experience is about, I ensured that the mating would produce puppies by following through with AIs plus proven artificial tests presently available (progesterone assays and the LH test). The data received from these tests gives extremely valuable information for most breeding situations—although no test is 100% accurate. There are many failed breedings in the PWD, so progesterone assays are of great value.

Progesterone Assay

The progesterone assay reacts with the blood-serum sample of lml, with which a drop of pretreatment solution is mixed. The test cup, after a fifteen-minute waiting period during which several drops of different solutions have been added, indicates high or low levels of progesterone through color development. There are three color spots on the test cup: (a) a control spot in which color is always present; (b) a high spot in which color intensity fades as progesterone concentration rises (on the high spot, color is not detectable above 7.5 ng/ml); and (c) a low spot that has color visible at the bitch’s baseline progesterone levels. This low spot is the key spot in determining the LH surge, because the color intensity fades as progesterone rises; further, color is not detectable above 2.0 ng/ml.

The first progesterone test should be run sometime during the first five days of proestrus to determine the bitch’s “baseline progesterone level, which varies in individual dogs but usually ranges between 0 and 1 ng/ml.” At this level the test cup is blue in each of the three spots. Remember, the outward signs of estrus are controlled by changes in the hormone estrogen, which are only approximations of ovulations, and can vary by more than a week, depending on the bitch! The progesterone assay allows fairly true identification of the occurrence of ovulation.

Progesterone assays need to be run every few days; they are often used in conjunction with vaginal smears. When a bitch’s smear shows 50 percent cornification, LH tests are conducted every day to find the day of the LH peak. Then, to confirm that ovaluation has occurred after the peak, an additional progesterone assay should be run two to four days later.

LH Test

LH stands for the luteinizing hormone secreted by the pituitary gland, which stimulates ovulation in females. This test is highly accurate. Remarkably, it zeros in on the mystery of why some bitches are difficult to breed. Used in conjunction with progesterone testing, blood is drawn daily from the bitch until the LH surges, a rise the LH test identifies.

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