Hi, First time posting on here so apologies if it's in the wrong place! I am thinking about breeding my 2.5 year old fox red lab. I have never bred before so I'm trying to build up my knowledge by researching on the web and reading forums like these! I wanted to know about peoples experience breeding via AI? I think if I was to breed my girl, this is the route I would prefer to go down. My reasons for this is that she's had three seasons now and has never shown any interest in male dogs, so I very much doubt she would easily want to mate and I would not want to hold her down or force her to be mated. She's also quite cautious and doesn't really like change, so I don't think she would respond well to be taken to a new location (to the stud dog) she's not familiar with to be mated- I think she would find the whole process quite traumatic. For these reasons, I think AI would be a better option, but I wanted a more experienced opinion on this? Also, is AI painful for the bitch? I would absolutely not carry out the procedure myself and would seek advice from my vet on this. She hasn't had health checks done yet as I'm not 100% sure yet if I'm definitely going to breed her. If I do decide to breed, then I will get her booked in for the relevant health checks first. Thanks very much! Emily
Hi Emily, Welcome to the forum This is a really interesting question! And for a large breed like a Lab, I think you'd definitely need veterinary help with the mechanics of achieving it successfully. Like you say, she should have several health tests before you attempt to breeder from her - we've got an article about the key ones here - and you could discuss it with your vet when you initiate that process. Good luck, and let us know what you decide to do!
