Shelley Drive Animal Clinic offers many options for canine breeding.  Our knowledgeable doctors and staff can help you when it comes to sorting out all the details.

We are able to assist you in the timing of breedings by using vaginal smears and in-house progesterone testing that offers a real number value within minutes.   Vaginal smears and progesterone testing provides valuable information about when the dam ovulates and comes out of her heat cycle both of which give excellent information about predicted due dates and scheduling surgery for Cesarians.

Several options are available for insemination as well.  We offer side-by-side fresh semen collection with artificial insemination.  Side by side is done when the sire and dam are both easily available.  It is the most successful artificial insemination option since the semen is freshest and we are able to breed the dam multiple times, usually every other day.  With this technique, a long pipette in inserted into the vaginal vault and the semen is injected through the pipette.  This is the closest to a natural breeding. 

We are also able to use shipped chilled semen in this same manner but generally there are only 1-2 breeding dates.  Timing is much more precise with this type of planned breeding, since semen is not viable for as long and the window of time that the dam is able to conceive is short. 

The last method of artificial insemination that we offer at Shelley Drive Animal Clinic is surgical insemination.  Surgical insemination can be done with any type of semen, fresh, chilled, or frozen.  Timing is absolutely critical for this type of breeding to be effective.  Usually multiple vaginal smears and progesterone tests are required to get the timing exact.  Surgical breeding is as the name implies – surgical.  General anesthesia is required, then a small incision will be made in the dam's abdominal wall, her uterus will be pulled up, and the semen is injected directly into the uterine horns.   Your pet will have an incision that will need to be monitored and it is recommended that she be kept quiet for 10-14 days.  At that time, sutures can be removed.

We typically refer clients wishing to breed with frozen semen to a freezing center for insemination.

We offer ultrasounds at 4 weeks after insemination to confirm pregnancy.  Most dogs have a gestational period of 9 weeks from their ovulation date.  

We are skilled in Cesarian surgery, or C-sections.  We recommend monitoring dogs daily via ultrasound the week of their expected whelping date in order to get a baseline monitoring heart rates, organ development, temperatures, nesting behavior, and more.  This information, in addition to vaginal smears and progesterone testing during the breeding process, is crucial for planning the best date for a C-section.  Radiographs can be taken late in pregnancy to determine the litter counts and to see if the puppies are an appropriate size for natural delivery without complications.