Breeding Management of the Stud Dog

Male Fertility and Management

COLLECTION AND EVALUATION OF SEMEN:
Your prized boy should be evaluated for his semen quality on a regular basis. If used infrequently for breeding, his semen quality should be evaluated in the month prior to an expected breeding. If he is used more frequently, he should be evaluated every 6 months, or any time a breeding does not take.

These evaluations are important to help prevent disappointment when a breeding does not result in a pregnancy. With the infrequent cycles of the females, a missed breeding results in heartache as well as financial disappointments. In addition, this will help to safeguard your precious boy’s reproductive and general health.

Our evaluations are complete. We start with evaluating the general reproductive health of your dog, followed by a collection and evaluation of semen quality. We can perform a complete semen analysis, followed by any testing that is warranted if abnormalities are present. We are also happy to provide certification of semen quality if desired.

Make an appointment with us to discuss the potential benefits to your breeding program by monitoring your male’s reproductive health.

FRESH CHILLED SEMEN:
An increasingly popular method of breeding, particularly with the evermore-restrictive shipping policies by airline, is fresh-chilled semen. Prior to offering this service, we strongly recommend that stud dog owners have their dog’s semen checked for its ability to withstand the chilling process. Every dog (and their semen) is an individual and deals with the process differently. In addition, as dogs age, their semen may become less able to be chilled effectively. The chill check is a simple process - we collect the dog in our office and then put the semen through the chilling process, evaluating its quality every 12 hours for 48 hours. This allows us to determine if chilling is appropriate for your dog and/or if he needs special treatment. Make an appointment with us if you would like to take advantage of this new method of breeding management.

FROZEN SEMEN:
We are a Synbiotics semen freezing center with multiple veterinarians on site that have been trained in the science of collecting, freezing and using frozen semen. We have successfully produced puppies from semen that has been frozen for 20 years. The purpose of freezing your dog's sperm is to ensure its availability for use in the future, despite the realities of life.

The ideal time to collect your dog's semen for freezing is when he is 2-4 years of age. Older dogs can be also be successfully frozen, depending on their overall health and incidence of prostatic disease.

When you call, we will send you a packet of information and forms necessary to register your dog’s frozen semen. Then we will help arrange an appointment time that is typically in the morning and will run approximately 30 minutes. The rest of the day is spent slowly adding cryoprotectants and lowering the temperature of the semen to that of liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees F).

You will be notified of how much semen was able to be stored in "straws", the quality of the sample and the number of breedings you could have "in the tank". After a short period in Framingham, the semen will be shipped to the central Synbiotics storage facility for permanent storage.

INFERTILITY MANAGEMENT:
If your stud dog has missed with any of his bitches, he should be evaluated immediately for possible fertility problems. The sooner we are able to determine a possible compromise to his fertility, the better able we are to help manage this problem. We are able to use advanced testing modalities to help maximize the potential for identification and resolution of your dog’s compromised fertility. If your dog is unable to return to full fertility due to age-related or other issues, we can maximize the conception rate in bitches through state of the art ovulation timing and insemination procedures. Please contact us if you have any concerns about your male’s fertility.

STUD DOG MANAGEMENT:
Managing the stud dog is an art and a science, particularly for popular studs or dogs with compromised fertility. We can help you with many of the difficulties that are involved in this process. We bring not only our reproductive expertise to you, but also our in-depth knowledge of the issues involved from personal experience. We are able to help you with:

The responsibility, care, ovulation timing and breeding of incoming bitches.
For stud dog owners without kennels, you know that having a bitch in your house can be a nightmare, with your boy interested only in that special girl. He may not eat, whines and can even become destructive while a girl in heat is in your house. We can keep and monitor bitches at our facilities, with you being assured of maximum safety and care for the bitch, while maintaining your (and your boy’s) sanity. We will do state of the art ovulation timing, so that you only need to bring your male in for semen collection when the breeding needs to actually take place. We can even help with collecting and returning the girl from the airport.
For stud dog owners that are able to maintain females at their house, we can help to maximize breeding fertility with ovulation timing and breeding management.
It is important for stud dog owners to realize that the primary cause of missed breedings is incorrect timing of the breeding. Ideally, males should be used a minimal number of times for each breeding in order to maximize sperm quality. In addition, males should be ejaculated in the month prior to breeding if he has not been used in the previous 6 months to clear out the older sperm stored in the testicles, making way for younger, fresher sperm.

Breeding multiple bitches
When you have made arrangements to breed 2 or more bitches to your superstud, and they all come into heat at the same time, what do you do?!!!  Talk to us about doing accurate ovulation timing. With accurate ovulation timing, we can determine the optimum time for breeding for each bitch, minimizing the total number of breedings your dog has to do (thus, maintaining sperm quality), while maximizing the conception rates. We are also expert at different forms of insemination, helping to minimize the stress and strain on you, your male and his harem.

Fresh- chilled semen
We are experienced at collecting, packaging and shipping chilled semen.

Frozen semen
We are a certified Sybiotics freezing center. In addition, we have multiple veterinarians and technicians on site that are experienced in freezing and using frozen semen. Thus, you can be assured that we are available for you when you need us.