When and where should I get my dog scanned for pregnancy?

Getting your dog scanned for pregnancy with ultrasound is very reliable and accurate, provided it is performed:

At the right time

By a trained, experienced professional

With the right equipment

Each of these points is discussed in turn below.

The right time: When should I get my dog scanned?

The earliest you should book an appointment with a mobile pregnancy scanner is when your dog would be at 30 days gestation. If you have been performing progesterone testing, you may feel very confident about how many days pregnant your animal should be. If you are going by number of days post-mating and your bitch has had multiple matings, remember to always use the latest (most recent) date. Conception does not necessarily occur on the day of mating or artificial insemination, which is why it is really important not to go by the first mating – you could end up overestimating her current gestation by up to a week!

Having your bitch scanned too early is problematic because:

A reputable professional should only confirm pregnancy to you by assessing the viability of the unborn puppies. This is done not by looking for gestation sacs but by confirming movement and, most importantly, heartbeats. Scanning before 30 days makes visualising the foetal heart almost impossible on most portable ultrasound machines.

Very early pregnancies are easily resorbed, so knowing that your bitch is pregnant at 20 days would not necessarily mean she still would be at 30 days.

Subsequently, you will waste your money, because you will likely require a re-scan.

Be wary of anybody offering you a scanning service prior to 30 days. It is highly likely that they have not been properly trained, are unscrupulous and simply want to win your business in the short term at any cost, or both. Even highly experienced scanners who are confident identifying early pregnancies (26 days+) in their own bitches are very unlikely to offer this as a service to others, due to the points highlighted above. The very high risk of a false positive or false negative is not worth them risking their reputation over.