Tired of having a pregnant dog!?
#CAATCommunityCorner
Are you tired of your dog having litter after litter?
Unspayed dogs go into heat 2 x year (starting from anywhere from 6-18 months of age.
The first step is to know WHAT TO WATCH FOR:
The earliest signs of heat are a swollen vulva (although not always obvious) and bloody discharge (usually noticed by owners). She may also lick her vulva more and urinate more frequently.
ESTRUS is the stage of heat when a dog can become pregnant. It lasts, on average, 1 1/2 – 2 weeks. The discharge changes to being thinner, more watery and pinkish in colour. This is her most fertile stage. However, sperm can stay in her reproductive tract for up to a week so it is still possible for her to get pregnant at any point from the first signs.
Males can detect a female in heat from a great distance and are very driven to be around her.
Reducing the Risk of your Female dog being bred…
If you live where free roaming dogs aren’t allowed, it is easier but a lot of our partner communities do have free roaming dogs so it is a bit trickier.
If you know what to watch for (the signs listed above) then you will have a better idea of when she is most fertile. For that 2 weeks or so, every 6 months, she needs to be isolated from male dogs. We know, this is not always an easy thing. Keeping her tied up isn’t going to help if there are males running loose.
Keeping her in a fenced yard area is certainly better than letting her run loose IF you have one. However, she still needs supervision. Free roaming male dogs will climb fences, dig underneath barriers, etc. to get to her, they know she is in heat and will be very determined. However, if you are inside and she is in a fenced yard, you may hear the attempts to get into the yard and it can buy you some time to get her inside.
Ideally, keeping her indoors, except for bathroom breaks is the only thing that will work. To let her out to go to the bathroom, check for males dogs in the area first! Then take her out on a lead/rope, completely supervised and immediately get her back in if any males are in the area. It is the only way to be 100% sure she won’t get bred..
This can be difficult, we know. Luckily, female dogs only come into heat twice a year so if you can prevent it from happening during that short window of time twice a year you will prevent her pregnancy.
Obviously, the best way to prevent pregnancies is to spay her but until that is possible, we hope this helps you to reduce the risk of your female dogs becoming pregnant.
