Question

[Tayoh]

Since I do not know where this may belong... I have been offered a solid black female german shepherd. She has great bloodlines, and is super smart. Her owners are cousins with my best friend, and due to some personal reasons, they are finding her a new home.

They bought her with intentions to breed. They had done years worth of research and bought the best lineage they could find and afford. It think they paid over $3000 for her.

I'll start by saying this: I do not have any intentions of breeding this dog at the current time.

The only way I would even CONSIDER breeding is if 1. She matures into a dog that displays near perfect conformation, size, coat, etc. 2. I find a top-notch male that is as close to perfect as humanly possible. 3. If both parent dogs pass all tests such as hip/elbow, etc. Plus many more "qualifications."

Again, I do not plan on breeding. I do not however, wish to have her fixed at the current time.

She is currently 9 months old.

The advice I'm looking for is how does everyone in the forum who owns an un-altered female handle her during her heat? Does not fixing a female have any effect on her behavior other than during her heat? Have you had problems with neighborhood male dogs and if so, what did you do about it?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[KZoppa]

My current girl is intact. Two others i had were intact. We've never had any problems with males trying to gain access but we're also really strict on where they go. My current girl Shasta had her first heat cycle this summer. She was a royal pain in the butt! She had to be confined to her crate the better part of the time because she couldnt be trusted at all to behave and not pester. She completely forgot she was house broken the whole 3 weeks. She annoyed our male to the point he was more grouchy than usual so our male had to be confined for his safety and hers. Our male is fixed BTW. Shasta was just a total pain. She totally lost her brain. No manners even with enforcement. Whined constantly at our male. We had to rotate their bathrooms breaks because she annoyed our male so much. She was NEVER outside unsupervised and her walks were cut down to nothing for safety. She also didnt clean up after herself and she refused to keep the doggie pants on. She'll go through one more heat cycle before we have her spayed. After this, i have no intention of having another female at all. MIGHT consider a female who has already been spayed but I would rather have males for a good long while.

[selzer]

Keep her inside and away from any male, even recently neutered males (they CAN still reproduce for about a month).

When you do take her out to potty stay right with her. I have never had a problem with neighboring dogs. But if you leave her in a yard, even a fenced yard, she will be very creative and determined in getting herself bred even if the boys do not manage to get into your yard, she might manage to get out to them. So stay vigilant, and do not let her out on her own. Easy.

No, I really see no negative behaviors with keeping a bitch intact.

If you must walk your puppy when she is in heat. Put her in the car and drive her somewhere, then get out and walk her, and then drive her home. There is no need to create a path to your door for all of the neighborhood to follow. That helps a lot.

Scroll down the the breeding section, should I breed my dog. In there is a flow chart. You may work your way around the flow chart and you will see what things you should accomplish with your bitch to determine her breed-worthiness. Your bitch may be breed-worthy, but not on her own merit, not only by conformation. You need to work with her, train her, and put her through some programs to prove that you and she are capable of training a dog to the point of achieving a goal. She is nine months old, get her out there and put a title on her. It will help you to learn a lot about training -- necessary to answer questions from buyers, and it will help you learn your pup's temperament inside and out.

Good luck with your puppy. I hope she fulfills all of your expectations. Remember that breeding dogs, whelping/raising puppies is just a tiny part of any of our dogs' lives. Our dogs should be first and foremost companions. Whether they are ever bred does not change that. If you never breed your dog, she can still be a wonderful companion. There is a lot to breeding and if you are not in it for the whole nine yards, then it is much better to just say no.

[BlackGSD]

The only thing I do different when my female is in heat is I don't take her for walks or to swim in "public". Luckily I don't live in town and have no neighbors so I don't have to worry about strange males showing up. This means that she is still able to be outside and exercise just like when she isn't in heat. (She is never outside attended even when not it heat.)

[selzer]

Oh and I have had a dozen or so intact females, and never could understand why people say they smell or wrinkle their nose about the blood and mess, etc. It was a mystery. And then I had Joy. And Joy went into heat. Ick!!!

So that depends on the bitch. Joy was awful, smell, mess, yuck. But not all bitches are.

[BlackGSD]

Wanted to add that if you are not in a rural area with open spaces where you can see for quite a ways, I wouldn't walk her. Even if you drive her somewhere, you will have no control over any loose males that might be in the area. And trying to stop a strange male from attempting to breed her is a good way to get dog bit.

[Hunther's Dad]

Sometimes I feel like a prison guard when both my females go into heat (one right after the other,usually).

"Hunther - kennel up!"

"Britta -outside!"

"Hunther - it's medication time!" (Said like Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.) (50 mg acepromazine 2X daily...and when she's ovulating, it STILL doesn't work 100%)

Other than that, what Selzer said. Watch her like a hawk, don't let her out of your sight for even a minute.

[selzer]

Originally Posted by BlackGSD

Wanted to add that if you are not in a rural area with open spaces where you can see for quite a ways, I wouldn't walk her. Even if you drive her somewhere, you will have no control over any loose males that might be in the area. And trying to stop a strange male from attempting to breed her is a good way to get dog bit.

I have never, not with any one of my many intact bitches, met up with ANY males that would bite me to get at my bitch when I am right there with them. Might they try? Well, maybe and you don't even let them get to the point of sniffing her.

I have also been in the process of breeding dogs with trained stud dogs, that is dogs that knew what was about to happen and were eager to get on with it. NEVER was I unable to manage the situation, never felt like I could not keep them apart if I wanted to. And NEVER felt in any danger of being bitten.

[KZoppa]

Originally Posted by selzer

Oh and I have had a dozen or so intact females, and never could understand why people say they smell or wrinkle their nose about the blood and mess, etc. It was a mystery. And then I had Joy. And Joy went into heat. Ick!!!

So that depends on the bitch. Joy was awful, smell, mess, yuck. But not all bitches are.

oh i totally forgot the smell. Shelby was HORRIBLE. I mean if i could have left her outside unsupervised without fear of ending up with a litter in the future, she would have been outside to "air out" through her entire heat cycle. Mia was not bad. She cleaned up after herself and didnt smell. She even stayed off the furniture when she was in heat. Shasta is.... well she's not horrible smelling but she's not pleasant either. I usually stock up on febreeze air freshener anyway but it gets used a lot when there is a bitch in heat in the house. Our male has the worst gas i've ever known a dog to have that wasnt a bracheosophalic dog so the febreeze is necessary just for him to be around sometimes but a bitch in heat.... wild card with smell there.

[Tayoh]

I do plan on training her in obedience. I initially wanted a male GSD, but I love this pup. Are females easier/harder to train? And will her unaltered-ness affect her learning like an unaltered male? I would love to train her in agility, and show her (if possible), but I have no idea how to get into things like that. As a trainer, though, I prefer my dogs be trained in obedience even if they're just pets. It keeps them stimulated. I live in a very rural area, but I have seen several intact "mutt" males, and a intact miniature schnauzer stud.

For anyone who's trained their dogs in agility, schutzhund, or show their dogs, is there any great introduction and help with this on the web? I wouln't know where to start with schutzhund or showing. Agility wouldn't be too hard to start up, provided I could get the equiptment.

If I brought her home and realize that being unaltered is a risk to she and I, I will have her spayed. I don't want to add to the population of 'mutt' pups, or 'just another german sheperd.'

My mother's boyfriend is planning on buying a german line GSD in the future, and I'll also be training him. If I could get them both titled, tested, their temperaments right, etc, I would consider breeding, but again, I don't want to be an irresponsible breeder. If I do it at all, I want to do it right.

Hopefully I'll know by the end of the day what her registered name is so that I can take a look at her pedigree and all. I'll share the information as I recieve it.

Thanks!