Dog heat cycle

When we bought our 8 week old Rottweiler (Macy) we initially intended on getting her spayed at the age of twelve months as I was lead to believe that they normally don’t come into heat until after 12 months. This is something I really should have checked with my veterinarian when she got her first vaccinations.

But after only 6 months Macy came into heat (or season as otherwise known). We were very surprised and shocked at the same time as we had a 2 year old male English Bulldog who humped everyone who came into the house! This was not good news as we had to try and separate them for 3 whole weeks, which was a pain in the head to say the least as the bulldog was constantly trying to get up on her. Not good!

Symptoms of dog heat cycle

Your female dog usually comes into heat every six months. It normally starts by your dog paying a lot of attention and constantly licking her vulva, you will notice some swelling around the vaginal area. You will then start to notice dark red drops of blood from the vagina (we noticed on our kitchen floor tiles) This does calm down after a few days and does not produce as much blood as at the beginning.

At this point (about 7 days into the dog heat cycle) the blood changes its colour to more of a salmon colour as the heat process continues. The vulva (area around the vagina) starts to swell alot more and softens up as her progesterone level begins to rise and her body gets ready to release the eggs from her ovaries.

Some people put doggy nappy like things on there dog during the dog heat cycle but personally I wouldn’t as it would just cause the dog to get agitated and stressed in my opinion.

The total time the dog heat cycle lasts on average is 21 days but this could vary depending on your dog. The actual breeding time is only two – three days in the whole cycle but can be difficult to judge exactly which days these are.

If you intend of breeding your dog please do it responsibly! Some females although in heat will not want to ‘breed’ and will get quite aggressive with the male dog so always be careful when attempting to breed your dog. You can bring your dog to the veterinarians around the 10th day of her cycle where the veterinarian will do a test to see if she is ovulating, I also believe there are home tests you can buy on-line to judge this too but I have not tested them so I can’t really advise on this.

Things to remember during her dog heat cycle

Do not bring her for walks during this period.
Keep her confined to your back garden and make sure she cant get out.
Keep all male dogs away from her.

Spaying your dog

If you don’t want her to ever have puppies bring her to the vets to get spayed. It is a very common and simple procedure where the veterinarian will remove her uterus and ovaries with little or no complication. A lot of veterinarians will actually recommend that you get you dog spayed at the age of 8 months as these procedures can also prevent a lot of cancers female dogs get as they get older.