We've been feverishly running down fresh chilled semen.  With one stud in Utah, we'd always planned to go that route.  The airfare can be grueling, and quite expensive.  Multiple lay-overs are multiple places to have a mishap. 

Well, Iris' heat cycle has been a little weird.  Just slow and moving in fits and starts.  The cost of driving to Quebec, and sitting one night in a motel gets us into hundreds of dollars.  If I had to spend a week because we left too early, it gets really expensive, and difficult on the home-front.  So we elected to go the artificial route with her as well.

So I thought you might like to know what's involved.  I'll try to be professional, but don't count on it.

You might think it starts with the dog (male), but really it starts with the female.  You need to be able to predict when she will be in "standing" heat.  A lot of veterinarians use progesterone testing for this.  It's expensive, and takes a day to complete.  We use vaginal cytology instead.  Basically you swab the vagina and look at a smear under a microscope.  It takes about five minutes and uses almost nothing in product costs.  You look for cornified cells, and when they reach 70% you call your boy to have him collected the next day.  Your semen will be here in two days (if FedEx doesn't lose the package).

The cytology (or progesterone test) has to be done over a series of days.  That magic 70% number happens twice, going into heat and coming out.  It's like looking at a still picture of the tide.  You can tell how high it is on a pier, but you can't tell if the tide is rising or falling with just one picture.  Since we use cytology to tell us when to jump in the truck to breed naturally with a local stud, so far, this isn't unusual.

The part that is unusual, is you have to get the stud "collected" by his veterinarian.  So your stud owner needs to have the right kind of veterinarian.  One who knows how to do it.  It isn't getting the semen out that's the issue.  It has to be handled properly in order for it to arrive to you with plenty of live cells.  The semen is mixed with a preservative and shipped in a special box.  The cost of collection can vary widely.  There is about $100 in supplies.  Then the veterinarian has to figure out how much it's worth to her to masturbate a dog.  The bitch owner pays the veterinarian directly -- or at least that's how we're doing it in both cases. 

I recommend you have the semen shipped using their "hold at FedEx location" service.  You can basically pick it up at the airport, instead of waiting for the truck.  I saw a package arrive at Amanda's office once.  I don't think Priority Delivery (10:30 AM) is available because of the rural location.  It was a very hot day and the package arrived late afternoon.  The ice pack was melted and the box was warm inside.  The semen was mostly dead.  Anyway, a 45 minute car ride, and it could have been picked up at 8:00 AM, never in a delivery truck.

The semen is then placed in the uterus.  It can either be placed via a catheter inserted through the vagina, or surgically.  The surgical insemination is more effective as you get the "payload" delivered exactly where you want it.  The surgery is fairly simple (but not without risks).  A small incision is made in the abdominal wall and the uterus is fished out, much like during a spay.  The semen is injected into the uterine horns with a large gauge needle.  Then everything is stitched back up.  It should take Dr. Amanda about 10 minutes.

The cost of collection and placement can be comparable to airfare, and is a little riskier than natural breeding.  It isn't for everyone.  I suggest that you have a back-up local stud, or be prepared to skip the heat cycle if something goes wrong.  The wonderful thing about AI is you can now have stud service from pretty much anywhere.  Better studs produce better puppies, so why limit your search area to 90 minutes from your house?

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