Dr. Dennis Arn and International Canine Semen Bank have joined together to start the first canine semen bank in Nevada. Dr. Arn has been practicing veterinary medicine in Las Vegas, Nevada for more than 25 years. Through his experience in working with top breeders of English Bulldogs, Doberman Pinchers, Rottweilers and other fine breeds, he has developed a strong foundation of reproduction excellence.

Long term storage

• This is the biggest benefit to breeders. From carbon decay studies, it appears that dog semen may be stored in liquid nitrogen for virtually thousands of years without loss of viability after thawing.

The ability to breed to a stud when he is not available.

• If your stud is heavily booked for breeding, or out on the show or trial circuit, breeding conflicts may arise. Frozen semen will ensure his breeding potential for future generations, even in the event of a catastrophic disease, unexpected sterility, or death. Frozen semen allows you an alternate breeding option, making your stud accessible at all times.

Preserving a certain gene pool can be of great benefit when you are dealing with an outstanding dog.

• In addition, preserving the gene pool of a dog with hereditary problems can be of great value to researchers as well. For example, a known carrier of Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA) could have his semen collected and frozen for future use in DNA studies or for test breedings. 
  
  
• You may be able to increase the marketability of your dog in areas of the country where he will never travel by shipping frozen semen there instead. 
  
  
• The ability to breed several bitches on the same day in different places.

Frozen semen breedings eliminate the need to transport bitches to the stud dog, thus diminishing transportation risks to the bitch, boarding costs, and stress on the bitch which could alter her ability to conceive. 

• Frozen semen breedings ensure that your stud will not contract an infection from the bitch.
  

Brucella canis, herpes virus, mycoplasma, and other bacterial infections could be devastating to a breeding operation. 

• The ability to perform long distance or international breeding is another added benefit of frozen semen.

Prolonged shipping times, custom clearances, and quarantine requirements often make it impossible to use chilled semen or to ship the animals. Frozen semen remains frozen and viable for several weeks when packed and shipped properly. Frozen semen will make these breedings a reality. Whenever considering an international breeding, plan ahead! Each country has its own regulations regarding the importation and registration of litters born through artificial insemination of imported semen. These breedings need to be planned several months ahead of time to ensure adequate time to meet each country’s importation/exportation requirements.

There are currently two techniques in freezing canine semen: the straw system and the pellet system. In the late 1960’s, frozen canine semen practices were developed from techniques used in freezing cattle semen. These methods used bovine glass ampules and bovine straws. These techniques proved unsuccessful in the canine. Not until 1969 did successful insemination occur using a different system than the straw system. This technique consisted of freezing semen into pellets. The pelleted freezing system, unlike the straw system, allowed changes in temperature to occur extremely rapidly, thus enhancing sperm viability.

With the improvement of freezing techniques and new extending media, rapid freezing and thawing procedures were developed with conception rates as high as 92%.  In a study conducted from 1971-1979 it was determined that the pellet system provided significantly greater protection for the sperm cells during freezing. Significantly more sperm cells were recovered with greater motility after thawing. Recovery rates were 20% to 60% higher when compared to those of the bovine 0.5-ml and 0.25-ml straws, bovine glass ampule, and the bovine "Magic Wand," a larger version of the bovine straw.

Current users of frozen semen using straws have reported conception rates up to 73% with vaginal inseminations, and conception rates up toward 85% when surgical inseminations are performed. Unfortunately, many of these conceptions include litters with small numbers. Many of the facilities using pelleted semen are reporting 80-90% conception rates with vaginal inseminations. These litters are averaging normal or slightly above normal reported average litter sizes. 

In conclusion, when you use frozen canine semen that has been prepared with a pellet system, the semen will be of better quality after it is thawed. Canine semen samples preserved in pellets have higher percentages of live, progressively motile sperm cells. These sperm cells are healthier and are more capable of crossing through the cervix, moving into the uterus and into the oviducts where fertilization occurs. Therefore, inseminations can be performed vaginally instead of surgically and yet conception rates and litter size remain high. No anesthesia, no surgery and no recovery time are needed.

The best time to freeze your dog’s semen is when he is in top form and health. Usually between two and six years of age is ideal for most dogs. Many times a stud’s reproductive, show, or performance value is not determined for a long period of time. By the time his value as a stud has been determined he may be older, ill, or starting to fail reproductively. Any dog, regardless of age, can be evaluated for freezing. Dogs up to 15 years of age may be capable of producing viable sperm cells. Even, these dogs can have their semen successfully frozen. If the sperm evaluation parameters are poor, you should realize that only a small number of viable sperm would be able to be stored. This small number of sperm may not be sufficient to create a pregnancy. Several collections and freezes may be required to obtain an adequate number of viable sperm in order to breed even one bitch. 

In addition to age, there are many other factors that can affect a dog’s ability to produce semen and its quality. In a normal dog there may be differences in the quality and quantity of the semen from one ejaculate to another even though everything else remains unchanged.

• Age - young, mature dogs will usually have higher sperm counts and better quality semen than older or immature dogs.
  
  
• Health -  an ill or stressed dog will suffer reproductively with decreased sperm counts and decreased sperm quality. It may take a minimum of six months for the ejaculate to return to acceptable levels after the dog has recovered.
  
  
• Drugs and chemicals -  many drugs and chemicals have effects on spermatogenesis.
  
  
• Environment -  environmental stresses such as heat, shipping, overcrowding, competition, and being dominated by another dog or person may cause decreases in sperm counts.
  
  
• Breed differences -  the larger breeds tend to produce more sperm per ejaculate compared to the smaller breed dogs. The smaller breed dogs may need to be collected several times to obtain adequate sperm numbers to breed one bitch.
  The dog’s libido (sex drive) is the last key to collecting a good semen sample.
  
  When a dog’s libido is high, we obtain high quality semen with maximized sperm concentration and motility. By simulating a natural breeding as closely as possible we obtain the most sperm to work with. Using an estrus bitch or a bitch induced into estrus also helps to provide the maximum potential for sperm collection. We have collected ejaculates that have provided as many as twelve inseminating doses and as little as one half inseminating dose. On the average three to six inseminating doses are obtained from any one collection.

When you present your dog to have his semen collected for freezing you will need to provide some information and documentation. Each facility has different ways of doing this, so you will need to check with your particular facility.  At our semen bank facility, we request that you bring your original A.K.C. registration for your dog. We will make a photocopy of it for our record and another will be sent with our notification to A.K.C. of your authorization for us to collect, freeze, and store your dog’s semen. 

We highly recommend written verification of a negative Brucella canis test no more than thirty days prior to collection and freezing. We also recommend a negative mycoplasma test of the ejaculate as well. A complete preventative screen would also include a negative canine herpes test and a clean semen bacterial culture as well.
 
Remember that having his semen frozen will not infect your dog, however the prepared semen product will be inseminated into the bitch. This could potentially infect the bitch if the male were to have an infectious disease. One safeguard here is that there is an antibiotic in our frozen semen extender that is effective against the most common bacterial agents that we deal with in the reproductive tract as well as mycoplasma

The semen is collected from the dog by manual stimulation. Experienced and confident dogs are our best candidates for quality collections. Some dogs may be difficult to collect semen from, and repeated attempts may be required.
Once the semen is collected it is completely evaluated. This evaluation includes a total sperm count, progressive motility evaluation, sperm morphology (what the individual sperm cells look like), pH, and an abnormal cell count (prostatic cells, white blood cells, red cells). 

If the sperm is found to be adequate for freezing, the semen is combined with a specially prepared buffered freezing extender. This extender feeds and protects the sperm while it is frozen and thawed. After the freezing procedure has been completed, a single pellet is thawed for sperm evaluation. The post thaw progressive motility is evaluated and should result in a figure greater than 70%. Most of our frozen collections have 75-90% progressive motile sperm after thawing. These figures far exceed the post thaw motility (40-60%) of sperm thawed from straws. We then test for acrosomal integrity of the sperm heads after they have been thawed. This will further help to calculate the actual number of sperm that have good progressive motility and are actually capable of being effective at creating a pregnancy. The acrosome is a cap on the head of the sperm and it is filled with enzymes that break down the protective outer encasement around the egg. Some of the sperm may have sustained damage to their acrosomes. If the sperm are moving but do not have the ability to break down this boundary around the egg they will not be able to create a pregnancy.  The frozen pellets are packaged into insemination doses based on the total sperm count, sperm morphology, post thaw motility, and acrosomal integrity. The cryogenic storage tubes are individually identified and set up for permanent storage. 

The frozen semen is maintained in liquid nitrogen tanks at a temperature of -320 degrees F. This temperature will allow the sperm to remain viable indefinitely. The storage tanks do not require electricity, so power failures do not pose a threat to the preservation of the sperm. The American Breeders Service (A.B.S.) services the tanks on a monthly basis even though the tanks could remain unserviced for up to a full year.  The entire freezing process takes 2.5-3 hours. You and your dog are only present for about 20-30 minutes. The initial visit takes a little longer in order to complete the necessary paper work.