breeding problem

Question
I have a 3 year old border collie who is in heat right now. I raised a successful litter last year from her, and I am trying to breed her again now. I have selected a different male dog to use this year, who has also sired a litter of pups in the past. My female was on the eighth day of her heat cycle (same as the day I bred her last year) when we got the two together to mate for the first time, however the male didn't seem very interested in her. We figured we must have just miscalculated and she wasn't quite ready yet. Today we took her out to see him again, and she is very ready to breed today. She stood nice and still for him, and had her tail flagged almost the whole time. However, he would sniff her and lick, but not attempt to mount her or do anything else. We know that this dog knows what to do, as he has had no problems breeding with other dogs before and produced puppies. I am just confused why he doesn't seem to be attracted to my female. I have never heard of a male dog not wanting to mate with a female that's in heat!! It is usually the female who doesn't want to accept the male for whatever reason..I am so confused and so are the owners of this male dog. As I search for information, the clock is ticking, and there are probably only another 3 or 4 days in which she will accept a male, so if something doesn't happen soon, I guess I wont be getting a litter of pups for another 8 or 10 months! I hope you may have some suggestions, thank you.


Answer
Hi Laura

It does happen that some males just aren't that keen on some females, and vise versa.

What you need to do is get the male excited. Throw a ball, lots of petting and encouraging, drag out his favorite toy.  Work him up and then introduce the female.  

If that fails you can bring another male around (it can be another breed). A teaser has been known to bring the "alpha" out of a breeding male.

The only other option is to do a manual extraction and do A.I.

Good luck.