comming in heat

michelled · August 29, 2005, 01:38:09 PM

my little girl has came in heat for the first time this weekend. I was wondering how long it lasts?

Krista · August 29, 2005, 01:59:47 PM

I think about 3 weeks.....

Be sure to keep her away from males and don't trust a crate or a chain link fence. Many a dog has been bred through a barrier such as a crate door or a chain link fence.

I had a friend a few years back who had her female in heat in a crate with her male dog loose in the house. She came into the house to find that the male was tied to the female (they often get stuck together for a bit after mating which is called "tied") through the wire mesh openings in the crate door. That litter of pups certainly was not planned for.

Are you planning to spay her in the near future? It really is best for their health to spay them early in life.

Jen · August 29, 2005, 04:34:08 PM

Ditto everything that Krista said.... except the average female heat lasts about 28days or 4wks some females are fertile very late in their cycle so it is possible for them to become pregnant at anytime. Make sure you keep her locked away and only take her out on a leash to potty for the next month. Unless you are showing her i would make plans to spay her as soon as she is out of season! :thumb:

Good Luck
Jen

michelled · August 30, 2005, 10:47:47 AM

Thanks for the advice the male I have is only 10 weeks old but I will take further percausions later in life. I don't plan on getting her fixed, the breeder I got her from wanted to breed her and I told them they could. I will watch out about the crate next time.

April · August 31, 2005, 10:39:22 AM

SO you're not going to show or anything but you're going to let her breed? I was under the impression that they shouldn't be bred without some "qualifications"...

Shumard4 · August 31, 2005, 10:54:21 AM

To long

I have a foster dog Aggie that came from a shelter that was suppose to be fixed. She was in almost a month. I have to wait almost two weeks to get her fixed. I know people lie to us all the time about why they want to give up their dogs but you would think a shelter would be honest about things. I have her scheduled next week praying for no complications so that she can go with us to IL for the doxie fest.

Shumard4 · August 31, 2005, 10:55:32 AM

I also have so papers from the SNAP program maybe we could post them somewhere on the site to help educate people?

Krista · August 31, 2005, 11:19:00 AM

April you are correct when speaking about reputable breeders. Reputable breeders do not breed a dog just because they can, or because they are cute. They take the time to "prove" a dog that will be bred first. This may mean showing them in the confirmation ring, or some other arena, like earth dog trials, field trials, obedience competitions...etc.

They also perform health testing on the dog to make sure they are healthy, which includes different tests for different breeds, but some things are eye test, hip/elbow certifications, spinal x-rays, certain blood tests....etc. Many of these tests cannot even be perfomed reliably until the dog is 2 years old or more.

Breeding responsibly is a lot of work and it takes time to plan a breeding that will produce the best puppies possible. All reputable breeders should aim for puppies that are as close to the breed standard as possible, and as healthy as possible.

michelled · September 02, 2005, 10:32:08 AM

Like I said I don't know anyting about breeding, that is the people I got her from and is in the contract I signed. I do know that she won't be breed until at least 3 years old and has to have lots of tests done that they are paying for. All I know is that I get to keep one of the pups for myself which I will love to death. My brother has a dog that has decendents from our great grandparents dog. He was a mutt but has lived on through sons and daughters which we have keep in the family. I had at one time thought about showing her but she is hyper and I relized how much it costs, so we nixed that ideal.