When to Breed a Hunting Dog

It's best if the female dog does not copulate during her first heat (the ideal is if she has had one before). A female dog is usually in heat during three weeks. During the first stage, the ovaries segregate certain hormones that stimulate the walls of the uterus in order to receive the fecundated ovules. During the second stage (the next seven to ten days), the female attracts male dogs and she ovulates causing her to want to copulate as well. In general it is believed that on the nineteenth day of the dogs heat stage, is the most fertile day of the cycle; however this varies from dog to dog depending on the breed. The female dog will make it pretty evident when she is ready to copulate by showing a great interest in male dogs and by lifting her tail showing her vulva and occasionally a liquid segregates from it. The best option is to put the female dog on the male dog's territory. This is done because often times a male dog will not want to copulate in the territory of another dog. Once the dogs start copulating it seems almost as if the male dog is "stuck" to the female dog. This happens because the dog's penis becomes enlarged when it is inside of the female dog's vagina and this causes them to get stuck together. When this happens the male dog tends to turn around while still stuck to the female dog, but the dogs will be looking in opposite directions. Sometimes they stay in this awkward and uncomfortable position for half an hour. It is not known why dogs become "stuck" together while copulating; the fact is that it is not necessary for the dogs to be stuck together for such a long time for the female dog to get pregnant since many female dogs have gotten impregnated while just a brief session of copulating with the male dog. Towards the end of the female's heat cycle the female begins rejecting the male dogs. If everything has gone as planned, the female dog should be pregnant.