# Artificial Insemenation /AI what is the process?



## Geoff Empey (Jan 8, 2008)

I have had natural breedings done but am looking at the option of doing AI for my next breeding as the distance to the stud is to great to travel. 

So you collect the male and plant the semen at the normal times when the female is ready? 

What does it typically cost to do it this way? Do you need special paperwork for the kennel club to register the litter after?


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

have you contacted the stud owner and asked if they are willing/have done this before? If they have then they should be up on how it's done. It's not something you put in a ziplock baggie and ship overnight with a cold pak. Normally, it's flash frozen and shipped in liquid nitrogen (or it is for the regular livestock semen). If you have the semen and need to hold it then you will need to consider how long you can keep the cryo container waiting for the heat cycle because a regular freezer doesn't get cold enough. On the female end it's a simple process to thaw out and give. There are vids out there describing the process.

Also you need to ask about pregnancy guarantees in case the AI didn't take and needs to be repeated. As far as the kennel club I would contact them and see what they require for documentation.


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## Ang Cangiano (Mar 2, 2007)

Chilled is different than frozen. There are three ways of doing the insemination, trans-vaginal - mainly recommended for side by side only, can be used for chilled. Trans cervical can be used for any type of semen, and surgical can be used for any type of semen. Normally you'll have to pull blood on the female to test her progesterone levels until she ovulates, then inseminate 24-36hrs later. Paperwork is a different form, for AKC anyway, not sure about other registries. 

Your biggest factor is going to be getting a good vet that knows what they're doing.

Ang


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## Gus Pineda (Jul 2, 2013)

I saw this done some months back, due to dogs being really dog-aggressive, however both dogs where available so it is surely different procedure. They basically did a "job" on the stud and then injected the semen into the dam. Surprisingly both dogs where extremely cooperative when there wasn't another dog involved.


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## Kadi Thingvall (Jan 22, 2007)

First you need to figure out which type of AI you are going to do. There is the "turky baster", which is just inserting it and letting it swim where it needs to be, more formally known as vaginal deposition. Then there is trans-cervical insemination (TCI) which is done using an endoscope and catheter so the semen is deposited right into the uterus. Finally there is surgical, where they open the female up and deposit it directly into the uterus through an incision.

As far as the semen goes there is a side by side (fresh) AI where they collect the male and insert it into the female, there is also fresh-extended (chilled) where the male is collected and it's shipped to you for insemination, but isn't actually frozen. And then there is frozen semen. With the chilled semen it's only good for a few days, so the male has to be collected and shipped for each insemination if you plan to do multiples. With the frozen it can be shipped all at once, then each vial/unit thawed and inseminated as needed.

Fresh and chilled semen works for vaginal insemination, you need to do a TCI or surgical if you are using frozen semen. 

For an AI, any type, I would recommend doing progesterone testing to pinpoint the best day(s) for breeding. If you were doing a side-by-side AI I wouldn't bother with progesterone but just do the AI's when the dogs told me they were ready. But with the cost of collection/shipping, I'd do the progesterone. It will be cheaper for the tests than multiple shipments so in the long run it will save you a few bucks.

I would also talk to the facility you are using for the AI and see what they recommend. It's been my experience that some will recommend one method and another will recommend a different method based on their own success rates. It doesn't help to know my local AI place has a 90+% success rate with surgical AI's if your local place only has 70% but gets 85% with TCI.

Cost will also vary from location to location, not just the vet services but the shipping costs. The last AI I had done was surgical, the facility I use has a high success rate and recommended it for frozen semen. Between progesterone testing and AI costs (I owned the semen and it was stored at the facility) was 1000-1200.00, I would have to dig out the receipts for exact costs. If I'd had to pay a stud fee and ship semen it would have ran about 2200-3000. The wide range being in part if the semen was already collected/frozen and I was just paying a stud fee and shipping once, or if i was paying for each collection/shipping for chilled semen. This isn't taking into account the time off work driving to/from the facility for progesterone testing every other day leading up to the AI. On the up side in 2012 I was able to get 2 different litters from frozen semen that was over 10 years old, 1 had 4 pups and 1 had 8 

In my opinion, if the male you want to use is alive and a flight to the area isn't prohibitive, you are better off doing a natural breeding. The cost of the AI could be very similar to what collection, shipping, and implant costs will be.


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## Stefan Schaub (Sep 12, 2010)

Vet for collecting $380-550
Shipping $350-550 in US,worldwide up to $2000
AI depends if you go with surgical or normal way.

plus stud fee

Also not all males have good enough quality to freeze. also some males have trouble at all to get collected. on the end if the male is in the US flight over there take a hotel for 3 nights and make a few live studs, but before you leave you should make a progesterone test that you know the right time frame.


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## Geoff Empey (Jan 8, 2008)

Thanks everyone for all your replies that makes things a lot easier to understand the process.


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## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

More flowers and candy....


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## Terrasita Cuffie (Jun 8, 2008)

Geoff, look at the ICG website. I didn't spend near what Stefan had experienced. You need a good repo saavy vet on both ends and about sixty days out they really need to collect the male and look at spwrm quality, extender compatibility, etc. It also sets him up to regenerate so the freshest is available for when you need it.


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## Stefan Schaub (Sep 12, 2010)

Terrasita Cuffie said:


> Geoff, look at the ICG website. I didn't spend near what Stefan had experienced. You need a good repo saavy vet on both ends and about sixty days out they really need to collect the male and look at spwrm quality, extender compatibility, etc. It also sets him up to regenerate so the freshest is available for when you need it.


I do not think you get the collection with freezing cheaper than round 350$.
also shipping is not really to get cheaper,you must pay the rent for the container and the transport two ways.we have ship to Norway,China,east europe,belgium,netherlands and it was never under1500$.


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## Ang Cangiano (Mar 2, 2007)

Stefan, that would be frozen though, right? Shipping frozen costs more than shipping chilled, which is normally just sent overnight FedEx in a Styrofoam container.

Ang


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## Stefan Schaub (Sep 12, 2010)

Ang Cangiano said:


> Stefan, that would be frozen though, right? Shipping frozen costs more than shipping chilled, which is normally just sent overnight FedEx in a Styrofoam container.
> 
> Ang


right!shipping chilled was last time 120$ over night from mn to ca. the bad thing with chilled is that you must be able to get into the vet for the collecting, female owner call you and say i need it tomorrow.sometimes not easy to get it done.


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## Ben Thompson (May 2, 2009)

With AI with dogs do they divide the semen like with cattle? So they can fertilize more then one female?


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## Kadi Thingvall (Jan 22, 2007)

Ben Thompson said:


> With AI with dogs do they divide the semen like with cattle? So they can fertilize more then one female?


If you take your dog in to be collected for storage they will take the collection and test a small sample to see how it handles the freezing/thawing process. Then they will store the amount needed to have a certain number of viable sperm in each unit/vial. I've taken in older males that had great motility with the fresh collection, but the sperm after freezing/thawing only had about 60%, which meant they had to put more into each vial. Other, younger, males had better results and they were able to put less semen into each vial and still get the required number of sperm. In the first case we got 4 vials from one collection, I've had up to 10 vials (or 12??) from a single collection. When you have semen shipped to you for breeding, the person doing the implants will be able to tell you how many vials/units (different places seem to have different terms for it) are needed.

If I was taking a dog in to be collected to ship to someone for a fresh chilled breeding I would just have the entire collection sent to them, basically the same as if we had done a natural breeding. Could they divide it up and try to breed multiple females? Yes, I guess they could, but they wouldn't be able to register the extra litter. And that gets into the trust factor, do you trust the person you are doing business with? And if not, why are you doing business with them? And hey, maybe you will get lucky and they will screw themselves, by splitting it in half and trying to breed 2 females maybe neither will get pregnant.


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## Ben Thompson (May 2, 2009)

Kadi Thingvall said:


> If you take your dog in to be collected for storage they will take the collection and test a small sample to see how it handles the freezing/thawing process. Then they will store the amount needed to have a certain number of viable sperm in each unit/vial. I've taken in older males that had great motility with the fresh collection, but the sperm after freezing/thawing only had about 60%, which meant they had to put more into each vial. Other, younger, males had better results and they were able to put less semen into each vial and still get the required number of sperm. In the first case we got 4 vials from one collection, I've had up to 10 vials (or 12??) from a single collection. When you have semen shipped to you for breeding, the person doing the implants will be able to tell you how many vials/units (different places seem to have different terms for it) are needed.
> 
> If I was taking a dog in to be collected to ship to someone for a fresh chilled breeding I would just have the entire collection sent to them, basically the same as if we had done a natural breeding. Could they divide it up and try to breed multiple females? Yes, I guess they could, but they wouldn't be able to register the extra litter. And that gets into the trust factor, do you trust the person you are doing business with? And if not, why are you doing business with them? And hey, maybe you will get lucky and they will screw themselves, by splitting it in half and trying to breed 2 females maybe neither will get pregnant.


The problem with AI I can see is the strongest sperm might not fertilize as it would in a natural breeding or like you mentioned a certain percentage dies due to stogage issues. A bitch might get the best stud service but not necessarily their best sperm if that makes any sense. It could lead to genetically weaker pffspring...theoretically. .


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