Hi everyone,
I have a questions regarding female dogs and heat. Is it very messy? I have never had a female dog before. I had intended to have the dog spayed until I read Ed's article regarding dogs needing their hormones for protecion work (?).
I don't have my dog yet. The dog will be a family pet and companion and I may try the Schutzhund sport with the dog.
Thank you.

Carolyn

I am just finishing up with my first time ever female in heat. From what I understand, if you have an unaltered male in the house, forget it (I have all girls so that was ok).

It goes on for about 21 days and though the bleeding wasn't massive, there was dripping occuring. I bought a really great black denim panty thing that velcro's on to the dog. Very easy to put on and comfortable for the dog. I just used regular women's sanitary pads (with wings) to put in as liners and changed them as needed. My girl dog didn't seem to mind it, and when I had her in the crate, I just left it OFF so didn't have to worry about her chewing it off if bored.


http://www.jbpet.com/Shopping/product.as...ealthAntiMating

The above site has the panty.

Don't forget to take it off when you send your dog out to pee!!!!! Cause they will.

You have to keep diapers on the dog for 3 weeks more or less. You can not leave them unattended in a fenced yard, and I do not suggest even leaving the dog unleashed and supervised in a fenced yard since if a male digs under you might not be able to get there quick enough to stop him. You could have her spayed a few weeks later to prevent having pups, but she could still get a STD.

A lot depends on the dog. The whole area of interest will swell up like a peach and there will be some bleeding but mostly there will be lots of licking. It is important not to fix a female before her first heat. The immune system will not come into full strength until the hormones have cycled atleast once. Dogs that have been neutered before they have finished growing are also at greater risks for hip dysplasia and all sorts of other problems including bone cancer.
However, unbred heats can also be damaging. There is an increased risk of a certain dangerous infection of the uterus. Unbred heats also lead to sterility.

My general advice is to breed her after she has had her first heat. Some people with breeds at high risk of Hip Dysplasia will wait until after the 2nd heat, but its really not known if that makes the risks of HD better or worse. At that point, if you are not going to breed her then fix her or have her cycles chemically suppressed with Cheque Drops. The Cheque drops will stop her cycles and the bleeding issues. If you are planning on working her the Cheque drops may increase her aggression so you have to be aware of that possibility too.

references on the HD claim? If I remember correctly, osteosarcoma is only increased in neutered males, so spaying a female should decrease her risk.

Also, it is VERY IMPORTANT to note that a dog DOES NOT need to be bred. And it sure doesn't need to be bred before 2 years of age, when they dog can get OFA certification. Breeding a dog before it is mature (minimum of 2 years) can cause MANY, MANY problems for both the mother and the pups. There are still people that are stupid enough to believe old wives tales about dogs needing to have a litter of pups before being spayed.

In my professional opinion... yep, it is messy.

I have never done the doggy diapers, but my girl is pretty much on crate rest while in heat because of it.

Cheque drops are not something I would do just to take away the annoyance of a cycle. There are side effects to everything we put in our bodies. To put a young female on cheque drops just out of convenience seems a bit off to me.

And Lauren is right about NO time unwatched. Last time my girl was in heat I came home from class to find 3 males visiting our house. It was a good week for the shelter. There was a fourth that visited but he was too skittish for me to catch, no one in the neighborhood knew who owned the dog. The scent was traveling quite a ways. There is a saying in dogs... The uglier the dog, the better the fence jumper.

Keep her under direct supervision or behind solid doors and walls.

I recommend cheque drops because they are less damaging than an unbred heat. You will find lots of opinions on what age a dog should be bred. I tend to side with Dr. Ian Billinghurst on the matter.


On the neuter/HD references, this one explains things in plain language http://www.showdogsupersite.com/kenlclub/breedvet/castrationindogs.html

just to make it very simple, a neutered dog's bones grow for a longer period of time (but not any faster than a whole dog). It is this extra growth which increases many of the Skeletal disease risks (including bone cancer) and also may throw the mechanics of the anatomy out of wack...

That is nothing more than someone justifying what they want to do. There is NO journal reference for the claim of increased HD. And the article is about MALES, not FEMALES. Two different issues, and using that article to justify not spaying a female is at best total BS.

If you want to be taken seriously you will have to do better than that.

First thing to learn is that often medical studies are done on one sex and extrapolated to both sexs. The 2nd is to try understand the mechanisims at work. When you do these things you will see exactly what I summarised, namely that the bones contiune to grow for a longer period of time and that results in the additional problems. If you use your reasoning ability you might also consider that is why we keep pups skinny by controlling their diet.

As far as "being taken seriously", I could care less about that; intelligent people will look up the data and information themselves once they have been given a starting point. I suggest trying that approach before you post.

Intelligent people will not ASSume that both sexes are the same. It has been shown that they are different (big surprise).

If osteosarcoma is caused by the lack of testosterone, then a spayed female would be at a lower risk, since their testosterone levels are at a much greater ratio to other hormones than in intact females. I do NOT feel that it is safe to extrapolate this study, and it could even be dangerous and harmful. You can not ASSume that the one mechanism you want to blame is at work. It could be one of many reasons.

There is no information to look up, since you obviously are not using anything peer reviewed as a reference (or at least aren't using it properly). You obviously want to live in your own world and support what you want to do anyway.

I am not against waiting to spay, just the smearing of potentially dangerous misinformation all over an otherwise respectable forum.