# Progesterone levels



## taxidriver20 (Apr 6, 2012)

Hi I am new to this forum. I bred my Shepherd back in march and she only ended up with one puppy. The Breeder who owned the stud dog had a Progesterone test done on the day of breeding it came back at level 8ng. I read somewhere that the level should be at 19 before breeding any info would be greatly appreciated! My bitch is 2 yrs old and this was her 1st breeding. She come from a long line of schz show dogs and has a great temperment!


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## BlackthornGSD (Feb 25, 2010)

Generally speaking, you breed 2 days after the progesterone reaches 5. So, if it was at 8, it was probably about right--maybe a little bit early. (After the level reaches 5, it usually soars upwards really quickly.) Usually, that wouldn't be too early because sperm can survive in the female for 2-4 days. Was there only one breeding?

Obviously, there were enough sperm present at the correct time for that one egg to be fertilized. The problem could be that she only released one egg. Or it could be that she released more eggs and they were fertilized, but they did not survive (perhaps there was a lethal gene or perhaps there was some sort of infection)--it's hard to know without more testing during the pregnancy.


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## Chris Wild (Dec 14, 2001)

This chart does a great job of explaining what the different numbers mean and how to plan breeding based on progesterone levels.

Hormone Levels: Determining Breeding Times and Whelping Dates in Dogs


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