Heat

Oh here we go. I realize most people don’t have any experience with a dog in heat. Try and keep it that way. Unless you intend to show, do performance, health check the parents, guarantee health on the puppy, offer new owners support for it’s lifetime, take it back if necessary and do all the responsible breeder things that backyard breeders do not do … ALTER YOUR DOG. But I digress …

Halo is in heat. What this means is that for the next month my life will be a rotation of whining Boy and sulking Momma. They cannot be together at all. She just came into heat on June 4th officially but she’s been building up to it for at least a 6 weeks. Until now Boy has only been drooling over her pee, sniffing her bottom lots and being irritating in a dumb guy kind of way. I can live with that. We turned a corner this morning to almost constantly hassling Halo to sniff her bottom – he’s not trying anything else and he’s not getting the chance. Today they are in separate rooms and will stay that way til I’m sure Halo is finished.

Halo has progressively become more sulky, more moody, scratching her tummy, and peeing every 20 feet at the park. She gets Constant Menstrual Syndrome til about a week after she’s done – it’s a real treat. I have no idea why anyone would keep a bitch intact unless they absolutely had to. It’s just the very worst thing about owning a brood bitch in my opinion.

The list of reasons why I can’t stand this dog in heat are as follows: her temperament changes completely – she’s moody, sulky, clingy, dramatic, obstinent, unrepentant, defiant, and sneaky. Normally, yes, she is all of these things anyway but in moderation. If she’s been bred this temperament remains til about 3 weeks after she’s weaned the puppies. That’s 6 months. You can just imagine …

She smells. Seriously, I just cannot have her sit near me. My sense of smell is extremely acute and it is not a gift. To start she smells kind of like a morgue – you know, where they drain the body of fluids and yes – I do know what that actually smells like. I can live with that – not pleasant but not nauseating. When she starts to ovulate though watch out. She smells like a rotting corpse – I’d say about 5 or 6 days dead – just ripening. It’s so bad I just cannot have her near me at all. I’m sorry my comparison of a bitch in heat is to death but that is what it smells like to me.

The blood. Blood should stay in the body. It’s totally unacceptable to see it anywhere else. And it’s not just blood – oh no – there’s not just the red splotches on the floor, the spots on the dog beds, the never ending battle to keep it well away from my couch and rugs. It’s also a mixture of other fluid which makes the blood more or less viscous depending on what stage she is at in the cycle. And it’s not a little blood/fluid, sometimes it’s a ridulous amount that makes me think perhaps a damn of some sort burst. She has panties and liners that she wears and despises and while I’m sorry to have to put them on her because she gets more moody … I’m so not sorry at all.

To Halo’s credit she is as predictable as the tides. Almost exactly 6 months from the date of the whelping she is bang in heat again. At least that is a comfort so I know when to expect it. This heat we’ll skip as the last litter was a bit of a challenge for us both – 12 is a lot of puppies to raise and I wanted to give her a break. Next heat we’ll see her last litter and then she’ll be spayed. Can't wait.

As we progress into the cycle you will see me quickly lose patience with both of them. Raimi will drop weight (which sucks big time because he’s got 5 days of shows coming up) because he’ll be madly in love with is mother. Halo will drop weight because she always does when she comes into heat- must be something to do with her hormones and metabolism. Raimi will pine and whine non-stop. Halo will sulk. Hooray my life.