Over the past 10 years New Zealand has imported more than 10,000 units of dog semen into the country.
Most of it was from greyhounds, but popular pet and working breeds like labradors, German shepherds, bulldogs and golden retrievers are all part of the mix too.
It's a niche market, but for some people it's their bread and butter.
Vet Becky Murphy specialises in reproduction services and has some insight into why people would choose to import the material.
"The fundamental reason that we use quite a lot of frozen dogs semen in New Zealand is because we're such an isolated population.
"So, if you look over in America or over in Europe, where you can move samples quite freely in between different countries. We just can't do that here, we don't have the dog population available to sort of improve and enhance and preserve our very unique breeds."
There are plenty of organisations in New Zealand lining up for imported semen.
Among them, Blind and Low Vision NZ Guide Dogs, who say importing semen gives them the best chance of having a working guide dog at the end of the process.
Health and breeding programme manager Lydia Charteris says they're looking for a lot in a donor dog.
"They have to pass very rigorous health screening, orthopedically from a cardiac point of view, a genetic point of view, skin, so they have a really comprehensive health picture.
"Temperamentally they have to have passed at a very high level. So we have testing that we do right the way through the dog's life, and they have to maintain a very high score."
It's a similar story for the New Zealand Police, who have their own list of things they're after.
NZ Police Dogs national coordinator Inspector Todd Southall says if they didn't import from overseas it would restrict the organisation's breeding programme.
“The traits that we look for is have really strong nerves, when I talk about nerves, they can switch on switch off. It doesn't mean they're aggressive, it just means that they're very confident in themselves, they have good nerves, they have good hunt drives.
“All the training we do in the police dog section, all our dogs, it's around their natural instincts and that hunt drive is a really strong behaviour that we look for.”
Inspector Southall said there are other requirements around health of the dogs.
The amount of semen imported into New Zealand peaked in 2019, with 1372 units imported, but in the years since it has been lower.
Dogs New Zealand Canine health and welfare officer Rhea Hurley says freight issues could have been part of the cause of that.
"If you pay a lot of money and get frozen semen imported over and the freight company loses it or it gets delayed and it gets lost or can’t get used, it’s a big expense, so I think that’s been one of the primary drivers."
Murphy said importing costs shot up after the start of the pandemic due to the soaring price of freight.
She said New Zealand's strict biosecurity requirements also add pressure.
Health checks are required on the day of collection, as well as follow-up blood tests and rabies certification after the fact.
"I just wonder whether or not the situation that the world found itself in, it was really difficult getting those follow-up appointments with the vets from overseas," she said.
"Because if they did the collection but then three weeks later they couldn't do the blood tests then that semen is no longer eligible."
It takes a while, even if it is easier to do than bringing over a whole dog.
"If people import from Australia we say give it three months, if they're importing from anywhere else in the world we say give it a year, because it takes such a long time and it's so costly."
Murphy said importing semen to New Zealand from Australia, where around 40 percent of our semen has come from in the past 10 years, could cost somewhere between $6000 and $10,000 depending on stud cost.
