Owning an Intact Male and Female

The whining we can work on. Trent is a very vocal dog and we have worked with him on appropriate behavior and being comfortable in settings where he tends to be overexcited. He has been around bitches in heat before. Not many, granted, but I don't *think* that it will be too much stress for him.

But if it doesn't work, I will, like I said, be willing to spay the bitch and take showing off the list.

Honestly, I never had a single problem. I had three intact dogs in my small home once. Two boys and a female. The boys never got along too well and had to be superviseda round each other but I never had an issue with them being around the girl. Even when she was in heat. Mind you they were 50 pound dogs and she was a 5 pound dog so that may have played a part in it. The boys didn't even seem to notice. They certainly didn't have any behavior changes.

I used to have a female Lhasa Apso with two male GSDs. Now, them breeding would have been pretty much physically impossible, but it was still crate and rotate when she was in heat. It was crate and rotate all the time because she didn't get along with one of the GSDs, but when she was in heat she couldn't be with either of them.

She didn't make much mess when she was in heat, but she was also small. She lived to be almost 17 and intact, never had puppies, and never had pyo.

It's really up to control and how DETERMINED he is. If he's just a whiny butt, then you can deal. If he destroys crates, doors, etc. to get to her, then you've got decisions to make. As long as you're prepared, then it can be done. My family has been raising Collies since the 60s and we've only had a handful of dogs that were ever spayed or neutered, and we never had problems except for some inappropriate marking (on the girls crates) or insane whining/howling.

Throwing in something about the girls being "messy"....

I've had four intact bitches in my house over the years, and none of them have been "messy" - but they've all been Dobermans, so perhaps that's part of it. I'm just saying... not all bitches are messy.

When Ronin was intact, he never really cared much about the girls. His appetite disappeared and he panted a bit more, but other than that... he was fine. But I've also heard the horror stories of males destroying crates, doors and walls in order to get to a bitch. It's a gamble...

THat is exactly how I had my oops litter. THere are such things as silent heat. WE never knew until it was too late. Not one sign, not one bit of different behavior out of the male or the female.

Boy, can I relate to that one!

Thank you very much for sharing your experiences.

If it comes down to this, I will be spaying the bitch without a doubt. It is NOT worth making my dog so stressed and uncomfortable that he will destroy crates and walls. A dog's happiness, comfort, and health is my priority.

Thank you for your input on silent heats. This will probably be the biggest worry for me. However, regardless of whether or not I will be showing this bitch, she will not be fixed until at least maturity, around 2-3 years of age.

Does anyone know if silent heats are random? In the sense that a bitch can be going into heat periodically, showing all the signs, etc., and then randomly go into a silent heat without showing any signs. My ignorance must show through - I have heard of silent heats, but beyond that, do not know much more.

I will be, as mentioned, making an effort to get in contact with owners of littermates as well as the breeder to ask about when their dogs go into heat so I may have a better idea of the timing. Obviously, this is not something to depend on, but it may be good to know regardless.

I will also be 100% open to doing an emergency spay if something does happen, of course.

Sometimes having one of each sex will bring the females into season more often. A lady at the show this weekend said her bitch has been going in every 3 months.

I had only females for a while, they are spayed now and I have one intact male. My girls were pretty easy. I had one that bled a little and one that bled a lot. The bleeder wore a diaper when she was in season. One of my girls was useless for training when she was in season. She had no brain and didn't feel like listening. That was 2 months out of the year that I just didn't do any training with her at all. My other one wasn't as bad.

Some friends with aussies built a new kennel area with the main purpose/idea keeping their male away from their female while in season. Well they put her out in the kennel during her season and let them out seperately. They kept the male in the house, but he could smell her and he whined constantly. It got to the point they put him out in the kennel with her to get some sleep. 6 foot kennels with tops, they have a snap bolt keeping the doors shut, there were three kennels so they put him at one end and her at the other. The dogs pushed the kennels away from the wall and got to each other that way. No puppies came from it, but those heavy guage kennels are now *bolted* to the walls.

Depending on the dog, when his housemate is in season he may become more aggressive with other males, he may hump objects, he might be useless for training. I have noticed that the lnoger they are around in season bitches the worse they usually get. In passing at shows/training it's usually no big deal.