I have read that females in heat can be hormonal and unpredictable, but today I had a first-hand experience with it.

My female came into heat two days ago (her second heat). Today, I had just opened the garage door and let my kids out on their bikes, when my female fixated on a neighbor girl (13 years old) and immediately started baring her teeth and snarling. Luckily, I always keep her on a long-line and I had already started the correction when I saw her body stiffen. It was shocking to see her aggression and level of fixation (with my limited experience, I dare say her intentions were to bite). With her oxygen completely blocked off and front legs off the ground, she remained fixated on this neighbor girl.

This is completely out of character for her, and I am so grateful I found this site and am able to use Ed’s advice. Had I not had her on a long-line, I do not think it would have ended well. She is normally very trusting of people and is actually much more people oriented than dog oriented.

My questions involved future precautionary measures now that I know her tendencies while in heat. For the remainder of this heat cycle, I was going to keep her crated and take her out on breaks with a long-line. She will absolutely not be allowed outside the fenced backyard for any reason. What should I expect regarding her and my young children? I was going to keep them away from her to be cautious, although she has been great with them. She is a very active dog, so I was going to purchase a treadmill from the classifieds and keep her exercised.

My hands are actually burned from the long-line. She only weighs 65 pounds, but her strength is unreal. Now it is time for me to find Ed’s Dominant and Aggressive Dog video and rewatch it, again and again and again...

My dominant aggressive 2 yr old bitch got worse with every hea <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />t. It seemed like she would kick it up a notch with every heat and get worse with her aggression, I know hormones developing have a lot to do with it. I spayed her after two heats and her vulva dropped.

Your female fixated on a child is bad news, Alls I remember is what ED said about a GSD can be a loaded Gun. I ALWAYS keep that in the back of my mind because I do not want any law suits or have to put my bitch down because of someone else's mistake.

But the reverse is true to, if I had a neighbor that didn't know there dog ( not saying you don't) and it killed or harmed my child, <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> ahhh lets just say it wouldn't be a good situation for any of the above.

That was going to be my next question – will this aggression escalate with each cycle? During her first heat, she became aggressive with a neighbor’s dog, which was the first time she had shown any aggression. To this day, she still hates that dog even though she had been around it before her first heat. I am concerned what kind of a memory she will retain with this neighbor girl. If she is this volatile while in heat, it would be a liability to not spay her.

This is my first GSD I have ever owned, so I am still learning and inexperienced. My female did get worse with every heat. You can post this message in the Dominant & Aggressive forum. There are many more people more educated on this board then me that can answer that better. I only speak about what has happened to me, and what I have had to deal with, in the past two years.

Hi Janae,

I'm not an expert, but I would say to get your dog spayed a few months after this heat cycle. My 6 yo gsd had started to get very aggressive during her past 4 heat cycles (she started to go into heat at 6 months and continued to go into heat every 6 months from then on). Before that she was fine with kids and cats, never really with other dogs. She had a select few dogs that she ever really liked, but I think they were more dominant than her so she never tried to out rank them or felt she had reason to.

She would become depressed during her heat cycles, she would baby her toys and whine a bit. She has never shown aggression towards anyone in the family, but I had a friends niece over and she growled at her for going near her crate, so I corrected the dog for that. I should have told the little girl about going near the dog's bed, but luckily nothing happened.

When my dog would try to attack my puppy she became very fixated, almost to the point where she seemed like she no longer could hear anything we said to her. This started to occur during this past heat cycle, before that she was fine with the puppy. She would breathe very heavily afterwards too for a long period of time, it sounded like she would only breathe through her nose.

My suggestion would be to make sure you have complete control over your dog at all times, even when she goes out of heat. Also, if you have not invested in a dominant dog or prong collar I would suggest doing so now. Keep the dog as active as possible with exercise and training and it's probably best to keep her seperated from the kids. hth

Kim

Thanks for the thorough reply, Kimberly. I definitely have a prong collar and am using it. I don’t really dare walk her while she is in heat, so I will get her a treadmill (unless someone has evidence a treadmill is bad for dogs). I do not want her to get frustrated from lack of exercise while she is in heat too. I agree with separating her from my kids. Their safety is not something I will compromise.

For those of you who have had dogs like this, were they fine once they went out of heat?

I'm afraid I don't know much about heat-related aggression, but I can tell you that the treadmill would be a GREAT idea to release the pent-up energy.

Just a thought... perhaps all the crating/long lining would make her MORE agitated? I'd be pretty snarky to if you kept me in a box periodically (even if it was a nice box, even if I liked the box). Have you considered that the dog fixated on the BIKE and not the girl? Bikes are frequently a whooooole 'nother ball game for dogs. See if you can borrow a bike and run it past your securely tethered dog. Then try riding it past.

I have to commend you for being MORE cautious as opposed to being under cautious. If people 'read the signs' like you did more often and erred on the side of caution, there would be far fewer dog bite incidents.

Thanks Katherine, I appreciate all your remarks and concerns.

I am very concerned that she will become more agitated with the crating, so right now I am exercising her more vigorously in the backyard. I believe I have a treadmill lined up and will get it tomorrow, so that should definitely help. I don’t believe lack of exercise was the cause of this incident, as I had walked her that morning and we were not crating that day.

My kids were actually on the bike, not the neighbor girl. She was simply walking on the sidewalk about 50 feet from us. My female has been around lots of bikes and has been to lots of soccer games – she knows chasing kids in not alright. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I am still concerned that her aggression was directed at a human (particularly a child). I am trying to figure out what could have been threatening in the situation…

I'm putting in a bit of thought, trying to come up with reasons as to why the behavior could've been triggered. I'm not trying to make excuses, of course -- what your dog did was wrong, period.

Was the girl close to any favorite possessions or locations to the dog? A ball? A feeding area? Your kids?

Have you tried bringing your dog around this girl again, preferably on neutral territory?

Some dogs are just plain snarky on a lead line/in their own yard. It's their domain and they think they're the boss. Hell, my English Springer Spaniel will warning bark (enough to constitute a correction for being overzealous/a block head) at strangers and dogs on the other side of the street -- she's nice as pie, loves kids/dogs/etc., but thinks she's the hot pizzazz when she's on her home turf.

How old is your dog? If she's on the younger side of things (up to maybe 2 and a half years?) it may just be a 'fluke' incident. I would definately continue to think the situation over and try to come up with a 'reason' why the dog did this, and gague the dog's temperment during heat cycles carefully. If she does something like this again, my advice is to spay her.