So we took Magic in again on Friday, day 12, and they did the progesterone test again.  This time she showed a level of 5.81.  The vet said it is time to breed.  She said breed 3 times between Friday and Tuesday.

We wanted to do a natural breeding so chose to attempt on Saturday morning. For some reason they could not achieve a tie.  We called the vet who said bring them in and they would do artificial insemination. We took them in and the doc, who was not supposed to be working, examined her and said she has a persistent hymen. She said she was able to stretch it a bit so they may be able to breed naturally tomorrow,  She then collected from Slugger.  She put Magic's hind end over my left leg siting on the bench and her feet on the floor so her hind end was higher than her front,  Then she inseminated.  Magic stayed in that position for 20 minutes then we were done.  In the mean time, they did a brucellosis test on Slugger.  Now at home, Magic is relaxing while Slugger is barking his head off.  He has not had enough.  We will take them back in for AI again Monday morning if it doesn't all work tomorrow morning. So far it has been an expensive and a bit nerve wracking journey.

And so begins our foray into the  world of breeding dogs and Dewey Dalmatians Kennel is born!

About 7 years ago we were in the process of getting a Dalmatian puppy.  The puppy we chose came from Washington state from Country Dalmatians.  When Slugger was selected for us, the breeder said he is a show puppy.  If you want you can show him.  So we did. We were much more successful  with him than we ever dreamed possible and grew to love showing dogs.  After 4 years we realized, Slugger's career as a show dog would end at some point but we did not want to quit showing dogs. We decided if we got a little girl, we could show her until she was old enough then breed the two, That is when Magic entered the picture.  She came from much closer to home-from Woodwynd Dalmatians in Florida.  Now Magic is old enough and it is time for puppies; our first litter.

Here is the timeline so far.
On Monday, Magic came into season.  We called the vet.  She said come on Friday.
On Friday we took Magic in and they took a culture to test for harmful bacteria, tested for Brucilosis and tested her progesterone level.  That evening we got a call saying that her progesterone levels were at .36 which was base-line.  We should bring her in on Monday.
On Monday we took her in and had her progesterone level tested again.  Her level was at 1.3. We were told to bring her in on Tuesday.
We ended up bringing her in on Wednesday and her level was at 1.8.  We were also told the culture showed no harmful bacteria.  They also did an LH test,  Not sure I understand what that is about but basically it tells if she is ready yet.  The call we got that evening said the LH test showed negative which means she is not ready yet. We are to bring her in for testing again tomorrow.

In the mean time, Slugger started showing interest on Monday at one week,  He has gotten progressively crazier since then.  Today, Thursday, is the first day we felt we needed to keep them separate.  Probably would not be a big deal since we want to breed them anyway but having one or both of them in the crate allows us to relax a bit more.