Intact males + females

Southpaw

Southpaw

orange iguanas.
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Well this is apparently a thing I'm going to have to learn to deal with relatively soon.

So what do other folks do, what is your system for dealing with everyone when your female is in heat??
 
Crate and rotate. Luckily everyone is neutered now (except for the puppies) and we no longer have an intact female. However, our intact male (Ickky) was very polite and would never mount if we were telling him not to. But no one was EVER unsupervised if not crated. And Ickky's got a special crate that locks/has bars so he can't get out.
 
My last guy was not the most chattery and didn't react that much. I probably would have just fixed him if he went off his food and sat and chattered like I hear of some dogs doing. He was always out for the most part and our female would get crated when someone else could to be with her paying 100% attention. How our old house was set up it was divided in half with a fish tank in one spot and a tall sliding door in another spot and it was perfect.
 
Crate and rotate. In the beginning and very end of heats, I would allow some HIGHLY SUPERVISED interaction. But I know my one intact bitch's cycle well and towards the middle of her cycle when she is receptive, they are kept exclusively apart, on separate floors of the house through multiple doors. On the days she is super flagging, I take her to work with me and crate her in the car.
 
Cool. I'm definitely expecting some crate/rotate stuff, just wasn't sure if people like... kept them totally separate through the whole thing or what.

I'd be totally fine spaying her at like 18 months or something, I'm hoping things work out that she only has 1 hest cycle in that time frame. :p
 
When I know her heat is here or close I have her pee in the front, boys pee in the back. Helps because of how strong the scent can be in the urine.

I also separate the house. Boys get downstairs and can come upstairs but she never goes downstairs. I like them to have a place (especially where they sleep at night) away from the smell of her. It's still there but not as strong.

I allow supervised togetherness at the start and at the end but when I'm not watching or she's in standing there is a gate, a door (and sometimes two crates) in between them at all times.
 
While reading your reply I couldn't help but stare at the pictures of Didgie and Fergus and imagine what their babies would look like. Ummm.....they would have a lot of tongue.

Maybe you'll get lucky and have a gay dog like Gimmick. He runs away when he sees a girl in heat. :rolleyes:
 
This might be interesting in a 700sq ft townhouse where it's really nothing but the main living area and my bedroom lol.
 
I've actually not had issues in my small house. They are separated overnight only by a baby gate and the crates they sleep in, during the day by a couple of baby gates and their crates. Never unsupervised AT ALL during any parts of the cycle, but supervised at the very beginning and the very end.

That being said, I was totally glad when Bubbles was spayed because it is annoying to have baby gates everywhere in my tiny house LOL.
 
Yep, crate and rotate. I never liked them to be out together even at early or super late stages because Payton was a MAJOR pain in the ass about it. So rude and he clearly irritated Georgie and upset Pepper. Part of our problem was how long Pepper would be "in." Months. Not a month, months. Bleed a few days then not then bleed a few days then not then some more... I still think she had some kind of reproductive problem. Even when separated, Payton would pace and howl and drive everybody insane because he was obviously high stress and it just put everybody on edge. Auggie also started getting UTIs whenever she was in, I can't even explain that except for his UTIs were mostly started by behavioural stuff. Maybe because of the duration? Georgie's heat cycles were never a trigger for him.
It was awful and although I believe Pepper to have been unique and most girls not so bad, I never intend to have girls again. If I do it will absolutely be with the intent to spay asap after the 24mo mark. Ughhhh.
 
My experience is very limited. I have an intact male (who has been bred) and an intact female puppy who has gone through one heat. Honestly it wasn't that bad. Watson was nuts for 4 days out of the almost 4 weeks that she was spotting. During that time we used baby gates to separate them, and she was crated in our bedroom with the door closed instead of the living room when we weren't home. He whined and he paced but that was it. They were only separated by a gate while we were home, but he's a weeny who is terrified of gates so that worked for him. Hazel would hang out with my husband in one room and Watson would stay with me in another.

Otherwise he was very chill and they were allowed together under supervision the rest of the time and he didn't try anything. It was pretty much normal life for most of her heat. The pants helped because he couldn't follow her around sniffing and licking which was the only annoying thing he ever did.

I think it depends a lot on the dog. I've been told Watson was fine because he's experienced enough to know when she's in standing heat vs when she's not fertile. Dunno how true that is. Knowing his personality I expected him to be an obnoxious PITA the whole time but I'm glad he wasn't. He did know a week or two in advance of her spotting so I had warning, which was nice (though I didn't believe him because she was so young).

This was about two weeks in:
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Yup, crate and rotate. Make sure the boy cannot get to the girl in the crate. I have a friend with a litter coming because the boy got out of his crate and bred the girl who was in her crate.

I have 2 coming in right now. The PWD is in, and the little terrier is trying to come in. I should have had the terrier spayed by now but I have not. Her heat cycles are odd. I will never breed her.
 
Sounds good. Hopefully Sawyer is not super annoying lol. And hopefully I still have months before I have to deal with it!

We did have a client who would have his female boarded with us when she was in heat but I just can't see myself wanting to do something like that unless my dogs make it UNBEARABLE.
 
this is why I will never have intact females. Our house is very small (500 SQFT if its lucky) I already have to seperate Lincoln and Josefina because she has arthritis and he is super rough on her and hurts her :(, I couldnt imagine having to do a three way separation ... yikes! No thanks. I would let them go through one heat and that's it, my boys are always neutered after their growth plates are confirmed closed. I am never going to show conformation, or breed, so to me there is no need to keep them intact.

FYI Sawyer is an ACD, so he will probably be an ass LOL.
 
For days 1-10 she is allowed out with the boys with her diaper on, crated when we are not there. On days 10-14 she is kept exclusively separated from them, on different floors of the house behind multiple doors when we are gone and EVERYONE is crated when we are not home. After day 14, and after whining and pacing in the boys stops, she will be allowed around them with her diaper on again HIGHLY supervised for one week, and then back to normal.
 
Keechak said:
For days 1-10 she is allowed out with the boys with her diaper on, crated when we are not there. On days 10-14 she is kept exclusively separated from them, on different floors of the house behind multiple doors when we are gone and EVERYONE is crated when we are not home. After day 14, and after whining and pacing in the boys stops, she will be allowed around them with her diaper on again HIGHLY supervised for one week, and then back to normal.
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Hazel tricked me and didn't go into standing heat until day 15. I kept thinking "wow, this is so easy! she must be almost done and everything has been so calm!" lol
 
Dogdragoness said:
this is why I will never have intact females. Our house is very small (500 SQFT if its lucky) I already have to seperate Lincoln and Josefina because she has arthritis and he is super rough on her and hurts her :(, I couldnt imagine having to do a three way separation ... yikes! No thanks. I would let them go through one heat and that's it, my boys are always neutered after their growth plates are confirmed closed. I am never going to show conformation, or breed, so to me there is no need to keep them intact.

FYI Sawyer is an ACD, so he will probably be an ass LOL.
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He's usually good at NOT being an ass!

I am keeping him intact unless given a medical reason to do otherwise, but ideally she won't be spayed until at least 18 months. But yeah she for sure will be spayed.
 
Southpaw said:
He's usually good at NOT being an ass!

I am keeping him intact unless given a medical reason to do otherwise, but ideally she won't be spayed until at least 18 months. But yeah she for sure will be spayed.
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I commend you for waiting until 18 months to spay, I know that is ideally what you should do, I just dont think I could do it, LOL. I could go through one heat maybe, but that would be it for me. It's just to much trouble.
 
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