not eager breeders

Question
hi, thanks for your willingness to help. our males are not eager breeders--and we often miss breeding opportunities. we have 8 females and 3 males. should we keep males and females seperated until breeding (over familiar?) we love our poodles and enjoy placing them in loving homes--but we often fail to succeed in breeding  the males seem disinterested. this seems to go against their basic instinct and leads us to question what we may be doing wrong. thanks johnny

Answer
Hello Johnny,
When breeding your female, you need to make sure that you are hitting the right time of her heat cycle.  When your female goes into heat, you will first see blood.  Mark this day down on your calendar.  About 9-11 days after you first see blood is when your female goes into "Standing Heat".  This is when she will be most receptive to the male.  She will stay in "Standng Heat" for around 10 days, so you might want to attempt more than one breeding to ensure that you hit the correct day.  If you do get a breeding, I would wait until the day after to put them back together.  We usually breed our females every other day until the males are no longer interested just to make sure we get a good breeding.

I would keep them separate for a few days before she is to be bred.  This will build the anticipation in the males and make them more eager to breed.  Try different things such as being in the room with them to help if needed (sometimes you need to position the male or "guide" him to where he needs to be), but some males don't like help and won't breed if there are "observers" around.  Try letting the female outside to potty and bring her back inside, then let the male out so he can sprinkle on her tinkle, then bring him back inside and see if they will breed.   Other males are "nature Lovers" and want to be out in the big outdoors to do their thing.  Try letting them breed outside (hopefully in a pen or fence) to see if this helps get them in the mood.  
If nothing else seems to "turn them on",you may need to visit your Vet for some further assistance.  He can give you some attractant, or can help with Artificially inseminating the female so that you can have a sucessful breeding.  

I hope this helps you some.  If you have other questions about this, or other Poodle questions in general, please feel free to ask.

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim