A young female will normally have her first season anywhere between the ages of 6 and 12 months and the season will last 2 to 3 weeks.
The first signs of her coming into season may include increased urine marking, a swelling of the vulva along with increased licking of this area. There may also be bleeding although sometimes all you may notice is the excessive licking.
This first stage can last anywhere between 7 and 13 days, although this is extremely variable. At this point, she may also become more attractive to male dogs and you might well find that you have a queue of canine Casanova’s hanging about your house and garden!
Following this first stage, any discharge will become clearer and this becomes the danger point as your female is now in prime condition for mating. Again, timescales here are very variable, but this second stage typically lasts around 4 – 7 days.
Some bitches can mate and become pregnant while still in the first stage of bleeding. Most bitches have a season every 6 – 8 months, although some may only have a season every 12 months.
Even if your female hasn’t been mated, a month or two after her season ends, she may become moody, have behavioural changes, start “nesting”, go off her food and even produce milk. This is known as a phantom pregnancy and is caused by hormonal changes. This should wear off after a couple of weeks.
Spaying a young female before her first birthday dramatically reduces the chances of her developing mammary tumours when she is older. Spaying also prevents phantom pregnancies and the risks of a life threatening condition called “pyometra” – which is a serious womb infection.
Spaying also stops the risk of unwanted puppies and prevents the nuisance of male dogs hanging about.
There is absolutely no “need” for a bitch to have a first litter of puppies before spaying – there are no medical or emotional benefits from this.
This is something that you should discuss with your vet. Some vets advocate spaying a bitch as soon as she is 6 months old to prevent her becoming pregnant. Other vets prefer to wait until after her first season to allow her time to reach full sexual maturity.
A bitch should not be spayed whilst she is in season as there is a higher risk of haemorrhage.
Neither should she be spayed whilst in the throws of a phantom pregnancy as the symptoms may stay with her.
Therefore, most vets would advise that she either be spayed before her first season, or three months after a season.
Any animal which has been neutered may have slight changes to it’s metabolic rate, so it is important to monitor your pets weight and reduce the daily food allowance appropriately if you think your dog is gaining excessive weight. Weight control is important to your pet’s health.