Advice for dealing with female in heat and intact male in household
Hey guys, so I was wondering if anyone had advice for living with a female in heat and a intact male? We should be getting our new girl around July 11th and she will soon be having her first heat soon after (she will be 5 months July 16th). I do not have anyone I can entrust my dog to during the heat cycle and leaving him outside night and day is not an option. I am thinking about getting him fixed but I would like to find a vet to do a vasectomy instead of neutering because I don't want my dogs personality to change and I don't want to make his insecurity worse (he's a bit shy around people) plus it's supposedly healthier. I'm not sure if any vets in our area preform that surgery but I'm looking into Oregon as well.
Comments
My opinion is that neutering and spaying should be done when medical reasons warrant it not for the convenience of the owner. Vets may tell you it's healthy for a dog to have them neutered or spayed but recent studies prove otherwise.
"It's not just a Dog, it's a Bull Terrier!"
www.bulliesofnc.com
While it will not change our minds due to spaying, I have to say we really have a hard time, telling when Djamila is getting into heat.
We’ve already spent some time on research - only to find out that cycles can be tremendously different in bitches.
So far at her young age Djamila is anything but regular. At least that’s how it seems to me. She first came into heat at the age of about 9 months, which is not unusual for all I know.
I had some old information about dogs getting into heat about every six months and we were waiting for it to happen again six months later. But it didn’t.
The next cycle followed eight months after the first one.
Right now we are waiting for the next one and already thought she was ready for it a few weeks ago.
While we have noticed one or two drops of blood in the house and also thought her vulva looked swollen at some time, no other signs of heat have occurred in the meantime. Especially no more blood. Meanwhile we are not even really sure, if we were right about our observation with the swollen vulva.
We are now getting closer to the next eight months threshold. And I’m wondering, if she will be getting into heat then.
With Fancy we were not able to gather experience on this after she was three years old (and she was already 1 yr. old when we got her), because at 3 yrs. she had a terrible womb infection that almost cost her her life. Back then everything had to be removed to save her. So she was spayed from that time on for medical reasons.
Once we notice that Djamila is in heat, we put diapers on her until we no longer find signs of blood. This is easy and perfectly manageable. So far she has accepted the diaper.
The problem is to actually recognize the signs of the fertile state. Which seems to be even harder, because to my knowledge that’s a stage when the bitches usually don’t loose blood.
Once bleeding sets in, fertility is over. That’s how I know it.
At the moment it’s fairly difficult to do the right thing when you’re not yet familiar with the cycles of the bitch or she is not really regular. If we had male dogs in the house, I'd probably have nightmares.
I am entertaining her in our yard and pool and she is perfectly happy with it.
But I’d love to keep up with the socialization, keep her used to be around other dogs, even if she doesn’t want to play with them. But it’s actually a little hard to do that at the moment.
You have several bitches living together with males. How can you tell for every single one, when exactly it’s time to put on the diaper?
The mistake many people make is thinking that once their dog goes into heat and starts bleeding she is ready to start breeding or is in danger of becoming pregnant. However, what many don't realize is that a dog in heat goes through many stages during her estrus cycle. During the initial stages when the female is bleeding she would not be fertile or susceptible to be bred. This is normally the stage other (inexperienced) breeders call me looking for advice and asking why their female wants to fight the stud when they try and breed the two dogs.
Once the bleeding subsides you may note a light pinkish fluid vice normal dark blood coming from the vulva. At this stage the vulva will be enlarged and the female will start coming into ovulation which will be the time frame she will be wanting to breed. Unfortunately many people think that since their female stopped bleeding they are no longer in heat which is far from being true. This is probably why there are many "accidental" pregnancies.
Ovulation on most females only lasts for about five or six days. During this time the female will often be flagging (turning her butt to male dogs and putting her tail to the side) and also eagerly playing and jumping around male dogs in attempt to excite them. She may also mount a male dog in the event he is not showing dominance or trying to breed with her.
The difficulty in explaining when a female is most fertile is the fact that time frames vary for every female and each female can often act in different ways. I will admit it does take some experience in order to make a good assessment as to when a female is ovulating unless the owner / breeder is actually testing for ovulation in order to ensure accuracy is accomplished.
Many male dogs will bother and follow around a female throughout their entire estrus cycle if they are left together. The male might mount the female during the early stages but this doesn't mean they are ready to breed because this is all normal behavior for the male dog to show dominance and to send a message to her that he is wanting to breed to her. Females will often get bothered by a persistent stud during her initial estrus cycle and with some dogs this can lead into a fight. A female Bull Terrier will rarely stand still for a male that mounts her unless she is in fact ovulating.
There is actually so much detail I could go into when it comes to breeding but I don't wish to bore you or confuse you. The important factor is knowing that your female will come into estrus and bleed for approximately 7-10 days. After that period is when you really need to be careful with her. You might even notice that if you scratch her lower back she'll most likely start flagging out of habit. Many females will become restless and always looking for an excuse to go outside. Many owners that know there dog very well know when their females behavior is normal and when it's not. Pay attention to her character and each time she goes into heat you'll soon be able to tell when your female is truly ovulating.
However, just like everyone will say, "It's best to keep all males away from a female in heat for at least 3 weeks." Once the vulva goes back to normal size and her behavior is back to normal you will know that her estrus cycle is over.
"It's not just a Dog, it's a Bull Terrier!"
www.bulliesofnc.com